An Open Letter to Kellogg’s Regarding Phelps

Alexander S. Peak

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15 January 2009

Dear Kellogg’s,

Recently, you dropped Michael Phelps.  I write to you today to regretfully inform you that I will have to cease buying your products at this time.

I do not aim to pretend that marijuana has no undesirable effects; however, it can be truthfully said that it harms brain function no more than does alcohol use.  With heavy marijuana use, the user will experience some short-term memory loss, which it is believed returns when the user ceases usage.  Alcohol use, likewise, causes learning impairment; however, it seems unlikely to me that your company would drop a sponsorship of someone simple because she enjoys a beer from time to time.

Although I’ll defend until the day I die your right to drop Phelps, I nevertheless will continue to consider the choice to do so less than appropriate.  In doing this, you are either inadvertently or intentionally perpetuating the myth that marijuana users should be shunned (if not worse) and that marijuana use itself is somehow on a different level than alcohol use.

In the same way it is within your natural rights to drop Phelps, it is within my natural rights to boycott your products for what I view to be an unwise decision on your part.  And it is precisely this that I now determine I must do.

Respectfully yours,

Alexander S. Peak, Libertarian