HALF-BAKED EXCUSES KEEP MARIJUANA UNLIT

Rehabilitation clinics often have a small rack of brochures in the
waiting room for anyone curious about the impairment known as addiction.

Desperate for something to look at other than stale doughnuts and the
blank screen on my phone, I grabbed one such pamphlet during a snack
break at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and gave it a gander.

The booklet stated that alcoholism, illustrated as a shadow hovering
above a lone kneeling man, was a harrowing disease which rendered the
inflicted completely hopeless. Having already sat through stories of
tremendous loss and irrevocable mistakes because of a bottle, I had a
difficult time trying to fathom how an alcoholic, who makes a
conscious choice for the shot glass instead of a shot at life, could
be considered a victim or disabled.

What of the families and friends inevitably enveloped in the struggle?
Labeling them as merely onlookers and not victims, as if they couldn't
possibly understand, seemed presumptuous at the least.

But the realization that angered me even more was that despite these
claims and the dangers alcohol commonly brings to its "victims," the
hard drink is legal while other drugs with less harmful consequences,
such as marijuana, are characterized as strictly illicit.

A study recently released by the British medical journal Lancet
analyzed alcohol alongside illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine,
crystal meth and ecstasy only to find what that pamphlet and AA
meetings across the world had already confirmed -- alcohol is the most
dangerous substance in the land.

Researchers based their rankings upon several different factors,
including how damaging the substance was to the individual taking it
and its subsequent effect on society.

While the other hardcore drugs proved significantly harmful on the
solitary level, alcohol's effect on society at large and the people
closest to the user, was astronomical. And yet it is marijuana, which
ranked a great deal lower in the Lancet study, that the United States,
has chosen to keep on the naughty list, specifically when California's
voters rejected Proposition 19 Tuesday.

Proposition 19 would have made it legal for anyone the age of 21 or
older to carry one ounce of marijuana for personal use. Not only would
the substance be taxable, providing revenue for the state of
California, but the legal focus would be honed upon getting the more
threatening drugs off the street.

Arguments justifying the continuing illegality of weed range from an
increase in memory problems and other cognitive processes as well as
raising susceptibility to addiction. These same health risks can be
attributed to alcohol the last time I checked, and booze's added
component of aggression gives the escapist cocktail an even harder
kick.

"Have you ever heard of a fight in a bar caused by smoking marijuana?
Or killing someone because of marijuana?" Lester Grinspoon, a
psychiatrist and retired professor at Harvard Medical School, asked in
an article for CNN.

"You probably never will, because, number one, alcohol enhances
aggressiveness. Marijuana does the opposite," he continued. "People
don't want to punch anybody. They want to be friendly and left alone.
It doesn't cause the violence. It's a safer recreational drug because
of that."

It's clear Mary Jane can't hold a candle to Johnny Walker Black and
his gang of colorful outlaws, but she's the one you can't be seen with
out in the open. The reasoning behind this restriction doesn't follow
its own logic and only makes it painfully obvious that a strange
double standard hangs in the air over the case against marijuana.

If this country thinks drugs are dangerous, then they should ban them
all and stay completely true to their ideals. Since we have learned
this will never work, we might as well side with the lesser of the
evils in the drug world and invite Mary to the party. Although she's a
little slow and smells a bit rank, she's friendly and won't make you
into the victim if you don't feel like playing.

We can continue to let he who hath not tried escapism cast the stoners
away, but don't pretend it is in the best interest of Americans
socially and fiscally. If we already prefer things to go down with a
burn, why shouldn't we expect it to come back up in smoke?

Madelyn Kearns is a third-year mass communication student.