US ME: Column: What the Pot Legalization Campaign Really

Lewiston Sun Journal, 28 Sep 2010 – Here’s a fact that even drug policy reform advocates can acknowledge: California’s 2010 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana does, indeed, pose a real threat, as conservative culture warriors insist. But not to public health, as those conservatives claim. According to most physicians, pot is less toxic — and has more medicinal applications — than a legal and more pervasive drug such as alcohol. Whereas alcohol causes hundreds of annual overdose deaths, contributes to untold numbers of illnesses and is a major factor in violent crime, the use of marijuana has never resulted in a fatal overdose and has not been systemically linked to major illness or violent behavior.