In support of this, marijuana has been proved many times over to have fewer harmful effects than several legal substances. The US government, while staunchly against drugs in all forms, has given permission to seven people to grow and use marijuana. In California, more permits have been granted. Canada’s Special Committee on Illegal D

rugs has recommended that marijuana be legalized there (CBC Online News Staff). Says chairman of the committee Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, “Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated as a social and public health issue, rather than a criminal one.” At the Center of Addictions and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia, the addictive effects of marijuana have been extensively researched (www.casacolumbia.org). Dr. Jack Henningfield, a scientist there, worked with Dr. Neil Benowits from the University of California on studying this topic. Ranked from most to least addictive, heroin was first, followed by cocaine, and then nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine, which are all legal. Only after these three legal substances is marijuana listed. Also, marijuana ranked last in producing tolerance and withdrawal effects against the same 5 controlled substances. According to Denis Pietro, M.D., “…the amount of smoked marijuana required to reach lethality is on the order of one to two thousand cigarettes.” Over 1,000 people in the U.S.A. die every year from our most common non-prescription drug: aspirin. Since the times of Ancient Egypt and China, marijuana has been used as a medicine. Not one case has been reported of a strictly marijuana overdose to the point of death. Admittedly, coupled with other dangerous drugs, marijuana can in fact be dangerous. Yet DEA Judge Francis L. Young says, after hearing two years of evidence, “Marijuana is the safest therapeutically active drug known to man…safer than many foods we commonly consume.” (DEA Judge Francis Young, pg. 2)

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