For decades, champions of the drug war have trumpeted the dire
risks of marijuana. But millions of Americans have used and even
enjoyed it -- nearly 100 million, in fact. Most of them have gone
on to lead responsible, well-adjusted lives.
If anything related to pot would have kept them from being
elected to office, it would be the laws against it. An arrest or a
conviction could derail a political career before it even got
started. Yet these presidents went on putting people in jail for something they got away with.
But the same things are true of alcohol, a drug that inflicts
far more damage to users and the rest of us than marijuana could
ever do. We accept those risks as the price of personal freedom --
while focusing law enforcement on combating abuse, not use. A
similar respect for individual prerogative ought to govern in the
realm of cannabis.
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