Chicago Tribune favors reform

Okay, so it's not exactly an endorsement but Media Awareness Project archives an excellent article in the Chicago Tribune on how the war on some drugs has shifted from pursuing so called dangerous drugs, in favor of declaring an all-out offensive on the plant marijuana. As the Trib notes, it's an ill-advised policy and executed at the detriment of programs designed to address more harmful drugs - including alcohol and tobacco.

It's an old argument to long time reformers and the article quotes the usual players who offer the customary common sense commentary.

"We have methamphetamine out there, we have heroin, we have OxyContin, we have booze, we have cigarettes. To make statements that marijuana in the hands of teenagers is this dangerous threat, it's ludicrous."

..."There's a question about whether there's a causality," said the Drug Policy Alliance's Nadelmann. "What's interesting about marijuana, you can't even find a presidential candidate now who will say he has never used it. We all know people who have smoked marijuana for periods of time, and they're all doing fine."

And if you're a parent, think about this before you swallow the ONDCP's pap.

"My big worry is that if you tell a 14-year-old that if you smoke pot, you're going to become psychotic, and then he tries it and nothing happens, you lose credibility," said Earleywine, author of "Understanding Marijuana." "So when you tell him that using meth will make your brain smaller, which it absolutely will, he'll think, 'You lied to me about the marijuana, so I think I'm going to smoke this meth.'"

And that's the truth. Marijuana is not the gateway to hard drug use. Prohibitionist proganda is.