Source:  The StarLedger, 1 Star Ledger Plaza, Newark, NJ 071021200
Contact: Reader Forum letters: 200 words max
Speaking Up columns: 500 words max

Breaking the law

  Your April 28 article "Needle activist insists law hinders AIDS battle" 
indicates that this unrepentant felon, arrested for illegally distributing 
needles to drug addicts, may be continuing this activity even though she 
faces a court hearing.

  Some people consider themselves above the law. Drugs are illegal because 
they result in crimes that harm society. It stands to reason that making drug 
paraphernalia hard to get curbs addiction.

  If, like Diane McCague, we decide to flout laws we oppose and commit 
crimes, a safe and sound society could not exist because anarchy would 
prevail. Your article should spur an investigation of McCague's activities 
and additional criminal charges if warranted. Her attitude can be compared 
to the attitudes of the Free Men in Montana and the Texan who claims that 
the United States illegally absorbed his state.
              
  Robert Kellow, Waretown

  
  Mark Greer's recent rebuttal to my letter on giving needles to drug addicts 
requires a clear response.

  The issue I was addressing was simply this: Drugs are either illegal or 
legal. People like Greer seem to want them to be both; they feel that even 
though drug use is illegal, it is all right to provide drug paraphernalia 
to users. This is wrong. If the government wants to fight a war on drugs, 
fine. But it cannot do so by sanctioning the enemy or by using my money to do 
things that would land me in jail.

  The bottom line is that the American taxpayer has a right to his own wages, 
and that comes before any selfinduced threat to the drug addict population.

  Brian A. Matula, Berkeley Heights