Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jan 2014
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2014 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Note: from The Associated Press

OBAMA: POT NOT MORE DANGEROUS THAN ALCOHOL

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama said he doesn't think
marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, "in terms of its impact on
the individual consumer."

'A BAD IDEA'

"As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as
a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I
smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I
don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol," the president said in
an interview with The New Yorker. Smoking marijuana is "not something
I encourage, and I've told my daughters I think it's a bad idea, a
waste of time, not very healthy," Obama added.

LAWS GO FORWARD

Obama's administration has given states permission to experiment with
marijuana regulation, and laws passed in Colorado and Washington
legalizing marijuana recently went into effect. The president said it
was important for the legalization to go forward in those states to
avoid a situation in which only a few are locked up for long stretches
of time when people writing drug laws "have probably done the same
thing." The president said he is troubled at the disproportionate
number of arrests and imprisonments of minorities for marijuana use.

'A CHALLENGE'

But Obama urged a cautious approach to changing marijuana laws, saying
that people who think legalizing pot will solve social problems are
"probably overstating the case. ... And the experiment that's going to
be taking place in Colorado and Washington is going to be, I think, a
challenge."  
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