Austin Lopez's sensible argument in his op-ed "Open your mind to hallucinogen research" (June 8) speaks volumes to the contradictions and inconsistencies in America's body of law, and nowhere is such absurdity more apparent than in our drug laws, in that while we criminalize relatively harmless drugs like marijuana, alcohol, with its often tragic collateral damage, is perfectly legal. Pharmaceutical companies advertise directly to consumers, through all forms of media, drugs that are far more harmful than LSD and other hallucinogens, most notably the psychiatric "medications."

People are beating their wives and children from drunken rage and bashing each others brains out on the highways from drunken driving, and countless others are dying from tobacco — probably the most dangerous carcinogen known to man, and others are committing suicide from the effects of psychotropic drugs while we debate the merits of legalizing the medical use of marijuana and hallucinogens.

I'm not the only one who sees the absurdity in this, so let's stop talking about it and do the right thing for the people, and not for those who continue to benefit financially from the status quo.

Charles Hilton, Baltimore