Pubdate: Sat, 21 Jun 2014 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2014 Associated Press Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1 Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 Page: A4 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) PONTIFF WARNS AGAINST LEGALIZING POT VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis condemned the legalization of recreational marijuana as a flawed and failed experiment as he lent his voice Friday to a debate that is raging from the United States to Uruguay. Francis told delegates attending a Rome drug enforcement conference that even limited steps to legalize recreational drugs "are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects." "Let me state this in the clearest terms possible," he said. "The problem of drug use is not solved with drugs! "Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise." As the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis has had years of experience ministering to addicts in the drugladen slums of the Argentine capital, and he frequently has railed against drug abuse and the drug traffickers who fuel the market. In his comments Friday, Francis insisted that drug use cannot be solved by liberalizing laws but by addressing the problems underlying addiction: social inequality and lack of opportunities for the young. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom