University of Virginia Library

Drug Laws An Example

Current drug laws serve as a
case in point, according to Mr.
Fletcher, where legislators have
not taken into account the
consequences.

"I think that the
consequences of our present
drug laws are misery, injustice
and injury to human beings."

Mr. Fletcher favors the
legalization of
non-psychedelics, and federal
care for addicts.

Sex to Mr. Fletcher is
justified in and out of
marriage, as long as it is loving,
"or motivated by concern for
others." He believes the
legalistic attitudes about
"virginity" are also too
restrictive.

"What we need to do is to
distinguish between chastity
and virginity. I know a lot of
extremely chaste people who
are certainly not virginal and I
know a lot of virgins, both

male and female, who are not
chaste," Mr. Fletcher
postulated with a twinkle in his
eye. "I can't imagine anything,
morally speaking, worse than a
technical virgin."

At the University Mr.
Fletcher has been involved in
panel discussions which review
modern ethical questions from
a legal, medical and ethical
standpoint. In a recent
discussion the panel examined
when a patient should be
declared medically dead.

"We are prepared as we
should be to discuss all of the
problems of consciousness that
arise in modern society posed
by technology, the new
medicine and so on," he
explained.

There has been some
speculation that Mr. Fletcher's
"new morality" has enveloped
the country in a wave of
permissiveness.

"My hunch is that
intellectually the country is