AFTER MARIJUANA, THE COLD

Is marijuana bad for you? Presuming you agree it probably isn't good
for you, how bad is it? Is it likely to cause more lasting damage
than too much beer, or whiskey? Is it a smaller social problem than
alcohol, to which three or four per cent of our population is
addicted? Is there such a thing as a marijuana addict? If there is,
is he a greater or less danger than the drinking driver?

Those really don't look like such tough questions, do they? They may
not be tough, but the truth of the matter is that there are no
definitive answers to them. That's because we really have no
marijuana experts. That's why the penalty for possession of marijuana
is more severe than the penalty for possession of LSD, which all the
non-experts agree is a far more dangerous narcotic.

Doctors have not yet discovered a cure for the common cold, if there
is such a thing as a common cold. It's too common to waste a lot of
research time and money. It doesn't last long enough to be a major
health problem to masses of people at the same time. It's far more
rewarding to do research on cancer, or sex.

Marijuana is the common cold of narcotics. It's relatively cheap --
or was until the government started cracking down on its import. Its
apparent effects were short-lived. No one ever died from an overdose.
Crime is seldom committed to get funds for its purchase.

It's become a real social problem, though, if only in its
contribution to the current so-called generation gap. It's possibly
enough of a health problem to demand some study. The government funds
most medical research in the country, and some of it appears on its
face to be of doubtful value. Perhaps some of those millions of
dollars ought to be funneled into research on marijuana. We need
marijuana experts. After we settle the marijuana question we can go
after the common cold.