The editorial Board of the New York Times on Sunday published their full-throated support for the federal government to repeal the ban on marijuana — here’s why.Â
That’s the trailer for a film named “one of the worst movies ever made” — 1936’s “Reefer Madness.”Â
Worst — but startling effective, even decades later.
Here’s one of the theater posters:
Comparing marijuana to alcohol, the New York Times has decided to urge the federal government to “Repeal Prohibition, Again.”
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.
Acknowledging 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,” the Times doesn’t go one-hundred percent to national pot legalization, instead, stating that “decisions on whether to allow recreational or medicinal production and use” should be “where it belongs — at the state level.”
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.
And they offer this stunning fact:
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.
Jailing Americans for using or possessing marijuana makes even less sense than jailing Americans for using or possessing Vodka.Â
The only “reefer madness” is American drug policy itself.
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