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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom