Pubdate: Wed, 05 Feb 2014
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2014 Dan Linn
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Dan Linn

PROHIBITING CANNABIS FOOLHARDY

President Obama recently said that cannabis is no more dangerous than
alcohol and that it is up to Congress to reschedule the plant from a
"Schedule 1" substance.

If cannabis is as safe as alcohol, which isn't listed on the
scheduling of controlled substances, then it follows that cannabis
doesn't belong on that list either.

Cannabis has therapeutic effects, but its dangers are relatively
minimal compared to many pharmaceutical and over-the-counter drugs,
and it would be best regulated like other herbal supplements. By only
allowing medical cannabis or by moving cannabis to Schedule 2, 3, 4 or
5, there is a misleading notion that it's dangerous and needs
gatekeepers. Those gatekeepers will be obliged to meet consumer
demand, but this is a plant that has never been documented to kill
anyone from an overdose despite widespread usage.

It does impact one's mood, heart rate and blood pressure but so do
coffee and alcohol, but we let people consume those without a doctor's
note.

Currently two states have ended cannabis prohibition, and now the
federal government is uncomfortably trying to maintain a policy that
is ultimately doomed.

For over 75 years our government has tried to eradicate this "weed"
and lock up those who grow, sell or use it. We are once again learning
the lesson of the noble experiment, although this time we will have
spent vastly larger sums of money, fueled tragically more amounts of
violence due to an illegal market, and undermined one of the most
useful plants known.

Dan Linn, Springfield 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D