Pubdate: Sun, 27 Jul 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298

REPEAL PROHIBITION, AGAIN

It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end 
Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise 
law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and 
flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the 
current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to 
prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol.

The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana.

We reached that conclusion after a great deal of discussion among the 
members of The Times's Editorial Board, inspired by a rapidly growing 
movement among the states to reform marijuana laws.

There are no perfect answers to people's legitimate concerns about 
marijuana use. But neither are there such answers about tobacco or 
alcohol, and we believe that on every level - health effects, the 
impact on society and law-and-order issues - the balance falls 
squarely on the side of national legalization. That will put 
decisions on whether to allow recreational or medicinal production 
and use where it belongs - at the state level.

We considered whether it would be best for Washington to hold back 
while the states continued experimenting with legalizing medicinal 
uses of marijuana, reducing penalties, or even simply legalizing all 
use. Nearly three-quarters of the states have done one of these.

But that would leave their citizens vulnerable to the whims of 
whoever happens to be in the White House and chooses to enforce or 
not enforce the federal law. The social costs of the marijuana laws 
are vast. There were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 
2012, according to F.B.I. figures, compared with 256,000 for cocaine, 
heroin and their derivatives. Even worse, the result is racist, 
falling disproportionately on young black men, ruining their lives 
and creating new generations of career criminals.

There is honest debate among scientists about the health effects of 
marijuana, but we believe that the evidence is overwhelming that 
addiction and dependence are relatively minor problems, especially 
compared with alcohol and tobacco. Moderate use of marijuana does not 
appear to pose a risk for otherwise healthy adults. Claims that 
marijuana is a gateway to more dangerous drugs are as fanciful as the 
"Reefer Madness" images of murder, rape and suicide.

There are legitimate concerns about marijuana on the development of 
adolescent brains. For that reason, we advocate the prohibition of 
sales to people under 21. Creating systems for regulating 
manufacture, sale and marketing will be complex. But those problems 
are solvable, and would have long been dealt with had we as a nation 
not clung to the decision to make marijuana production and use a federal crime.

In coming days, we will publish articles by members of the Editorial 
Board and supplementary material that will examine these questions. 
We invite readers to offer their ideas, and we will report back on 
their responses, pro and con.

We recognize that this Congress is as unlikely to take action on 
marijuana as it has been on other big issues. But it is long past 
time to repeal this version of Prohibition.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom