The New York Times backs legalisation of marijuana
The New York Times has added its editorial clout behind moves to legalise marijuana in the United States after comparing the present ban on its use to the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s.
Citing ‘overwhelming’ medical evidence that moderate use of the drug is less detrimental to health than alcohol and tobacco the paper’s editorial board is calling for restrictions to be lifted for anyone over the age of 21 – in order to mitigate the burden on society and law and order.
The NYT continues to back a ban for those under the age of 21 however, mindful of concern at the potential impact on the adolescent brain.
In its editorial the newspaper said: “It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol.
“The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana.
“Creating systems for regulating manufacture, sale and marketing will be complex. But those problems are solvable, and would have long been dealt with had we as a nation not clung to the decision to make marijuana production and use a federal crime.”
Whilst a number of individual states have enacted local laws to legalise the drug the federal government has thus far resisted any change.