Letter to the Editor

Mark Gonzales, Newark Resident

Laura Chapman’s article “The Cost of Legalizing Marijuana” fails to ask the questions “why?” and “Why does it matter?” What is the aim of this change? It seems Ms. Chapman is inferring that money, revenue, or wealth is the final aim, but wealth can never be a final aim. Wealth is a means, and not an ends in itself.

This is not 1983 and the adage that “greed is good” has been empirically shown to be false. That leaves Ms. Chapman with the aim of pleasure for pleasure’s sake. Is hedonism worth our time and energy to pursue?

There is nothing wrong with wealth or pleasure, but these simply cannot be a final aim of a good life. Otherwise, we would have Rodan’s thinker replaced by a sculpture of the stoner, or Shakespeare replaced by the Marquis de Sade. Pleasure without love is grotesque and by definition is disoriented and dysfunctional. And in referring to freedom, we must realize that true freedom has just as much to do with wisdom as it does with choice.

My contention is that Laura Chapman’s article lacks the wisdom to see this issue in its true light because she is ready to pull the trigger on something when she knows not where she aims. Great harm can be done by the impetuous.