Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jan 2014
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR)
Copyright: 2014 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
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OBAMA: 'POT' RISK SIMILAR TO ALCOHOL

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

"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 magazine.

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 said.

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.

But Obama urged a cautious approach to changing marijuana laws, 
saying that people who think legalizing the drug will solve social 
problems are "probably overstating the case."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom