MARIJUANA NOT SO BAD

Let us do a little thought experiment. We shall assume that the prohibition
of marijuana is a wise initiative. (I do not believe this to be the case,
but that is beside the point for now.) If this is so, and we really believe
that the government is merely trying to protect us from inherently harmful
substances, it seems unbelievable that alcohol is still legal.

Never mind, for the moment, that the effort to eradicate alcohol - known
officially as Prohibition - proved to be a dismal failure. Any rational
mind (i.e., a mind as yet unperverted by decades of official drug
propaganda) could identify alcohol as a much more insidious drug than
marijuana.

From this, one should infer that if alcohol is legal, then there is no
reason that marijuana should not be legal.

For one, alcohol causes many more deaths.

Although an exact count of alcohol-related deaths is very hard to obtain,
it is the general consensus that the raw numbers are large.

One study estimates the annual total at about 115,000
(http://www.geocities.com/freerusty/deaths.html). For comparative purposes
consider that aspirin and similar painkillers lead to approximately 7,000
or so deaths per year. Then remember that there is not one published
account of someone overdosing on marijuana. This alone should lead to a
reversal (or at least reappraisal) of current prohibitionist legislation.

In addition, alcohol is a much more addictive substance than marijuana.
There is no scientific evidence that I have come across indicating that
marijuana is physically addictive (i.e., there is no physical withdrawal
from marijuana). Alcohol, however, is one of the most physically addictive
substances on earth.

Withdrawal from alcohol is not just discomforting - it is deadly.

I once read that if you put twenty heroin addicts and twenty alcoholics in
a room and came back in a week, you would find twenty very angry heroin
addicts and nineteen dead alcoholics. Ouch.

It is also much more probable that one would overdose from alcohol. Alcohol
poisoning (and the many consequent deaths) is almost routine in emergency
rooms throughout the country.

On the other hand, there has never been a documented case of overdose from
marijuana, and research on lab rats has estimated that a lethal dose would
require about 40,000 times the amount of THC it takes to get high (Lester
Grispoon's book "Marijuana Reconsidered," page 227).

Furthermore, alcohol is much more likely to be associated with other crimes
than is marijuana.

Not only does alcohol lead to many more traffic fatalities, but it is also
correlated with other sorts of crime as well. Consider that 37 percent of
state inmates and 20 percent of federal inmates reported being under the
influence of alcohol at the time of their offense, according to Join
Together Online. This same report also showed that alcohol plays a larger
role in assault, murder and sexual assault than illicit drugs (of all
sorts). Marijuana is more likely to make someone stare at cartoons or eat
lots of Hostess Ding Dongs than it is to lead one to a life of crime.

The same cannot be said for alcohol.

The argument that alcohol is different from an illegal drug like marijuana
is the equivalent of saying that the legal drug is better than the
alternative because the government approves of its use. Based on the
government's current practices, this is less than reassuring. If this
nation's drug policy made any sense whatsoever, then certainly alcohol
would be illegal as long as marijuana is. But as all informed observers
know, there is really little logic (moral or scientific) behind the
so-called war on drugs.

And then there is the whole other question of tobacco - which kills more
people each year than alcohol, all other drugs and homicide combined. The
powers-that-be should either be consistently idiotic (i.e., ban alcohol and
tobacco as well as weed) or be consistent with the central premise behind
this country's foundation - allow individuals to make their own decisions
regarding marijuana just as they do with alcohol or tobacco.