It’s a remarkable weekend when one finds the Grey Lady arguing for state’s rights, and worrying huffily about arbitrary Presidential powers. But when it comes to smoking dope, the mind of the New York Times has fully boggled. Against careful science, sound public policy, and even liberal politics that defends the vulnerable, the venerable editors have decided that what America needs now is marijuana, and more of it.
Without a change in federal law, they write, citizens would be “vulnerable to the whims of whoever happens to be in the White House, and chooses to enforce or not to enforce the federal law.” No, they are not talking about the current occupant, who rules like the Red Queen. They are worried that some future president might enforce the law against the trafficking in toxins. Entranced by the specter of Al Capone, the Times embraces the wrong-headed idea that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol. There are two problems with this belief: it’s terribly dated. And it is contradicted by any serious consideration of the facts.
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