EDITOR: In 1994 a federally sponsored study was made of the “Addictive Properties of Popular Drugs.”
Evaluating all pertinent aspects of a number of drugs, legal and illegal, it concluded that marijuana wasn’t much more dangerous than drinking coffee.
We have often described on this site how academics come up with ideas, political activists convey them, and, if and when a consensus is achieved, politicians scurry to the head of the parade to take the lead
Now we must equate the editors of the New York Times with politicians.
Nevertheless, we are grateful that after twenty-five years of our efforts via Common Sense for Drug Policy and that of a number of others, the Times has finally found the guts to say what they must have known for decades.
Please note the below:
Repeal Prohibition, Again
NEW YORK TIMES Editorial: …The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana.
We reached that conclusion after a great deal of discussion among the members of The Times’s Editorial Board, inspired by a rapidly growing movement among the states to reform marijuana laws.
There are no perfect answers to people’s legitimate concerns about marijuana use. But neither are there such answers about tobacco or alcohol, and we believe 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. That will put decisions on whether to allow recreational or medicinal production and use where it belongs — at the state level… (more)
Yes. They have years of mistaken editorials. Thankfully there is now a parade to run to the head of.