Backing off on medical marijuana
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Kudos to President Obama for following through on his campaign promise to stop harassing medical marijuana patients and their caregivers who abide by their states' marijuana laws ["U.S. eases stance on medical marijuana," front page, Oct. 20]. The Bush and Clinton administrations' war on sick patients was the most outrageous aspect of our nation's costly and ineffective marijuana policies.
While allowing sick patients to have access to their medicine is a no-brainer -- supported by more than 70 percent of Americans -- it is also time for us to have a serious debate on the merits of marijuana prohibition in general.
Every year, more than 750,000 people are arrested in the United States for marijuana possession. We are wasting billions of dollars and locking up thousands of otherwise law-abiding, nonviolent people. If, instead, we treated marijuana like alcohol and taxed and regulated it, cash-strapped states could make billions.
Tony Newman, New York
The writer is director of media relations with the Drug Policy Alliance.
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It's common knowledge that some laws are enforced more rigorously than others, but for the Justice Department to make a public announcement that it is going to "back away from" enforcing federal marijuana laws is not smart.
Is the Justice Department now going to be sort of a super-legislative body that says which laws Congress really meant to be enforced and which ones were passed by mistake or are out of date?
This is a slippery slope. The job of Justice is to enforce the laws that Congress passes, not to announce to the public which ones it plans to work on and which ones it will not. If Congress finds certain laws no longer needed, it can repeal them.
James R. Thompson, Nokesville
