Drug Abuse
Source: Capital Times
Madison, Wisconsin
Pubdate: 15 November 2008
Author: Gary Storck

TIME TO GET REAL WITH MARIJUANA LAWS

Dear Editor:

One of the hallmarks of the Bush administration has been creating and
maintaining its own alternate reality on seemingly most, if not all, issues.

Continuing to maintain the legal fiction that cannabis is an evil
Schedule 1 drug with a high potential for abuse and no medical use was
one facet of this policy.

With his landslide victory, President-elect Barack Obama has both the
political capital and the opportunity to start with a blank slate. Two
statewide marijuana ballot initiatives even outpolled Obama. Michigan
voters legalized medical marijuana by a 63 percent margin, and marijuana
decriminalization passed in Massachusetts by a 68 percent margin.
Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, sponsor of federal legislation
that would decriminalize possession of marijuana nationwide (Rep. Tammy
Baldwin is a co-sponsor), depicted the current situation as "a case of
people being ahead of the politicians."

Real change means acknowledging reality, not selectively, but across the
board. It would be intellectually dishonest and unfitting for a new
administration to reject science and reality-based positions on any
issue. To continue to do so with cannabis ignores a major opportunity to
finally correct a colossal mistake that just claimed its 20 millionth
American arrested last month.

Gary Storck
co-founder, Madison chapter of the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
Madison