KILLER WEED

A recent report from the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, the
prohibitionist propaganda mill headed by former Secretary of Health,
Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano, is titled "Non-Medical Marijuana:
Rite of Passage or Russian Roulette?"

The use of the awkward adjective non-medical is supposed to reassure
you that Califano is not the sort of extremist who would deny cannabis
to cancer or AIDS patients. But he is the sort of extremist who would
compare pot smoking to a game in which players face a one-in-six
chance of sudden death.

In a statement released along with the report, Califano declared that
"teens who smoke marijuana are playing a dangerous game of Russian
roulette." This grim sport is not limited to kids, according to
Califano, who continued, "Parents who mistake the absence of proof for
the proof of absence are playing Russian roulette with their
children's lives."

So you can avoid this error, here is a clue for telling the two apart:
The absence of proof is the problem with the CASA report, while the
proof of absence is the wild rhetoric that indicates a lack of
scientific seriousness.