ty ill-advised decision to our present day. When it comes to any rational discussion of marijuana, a purely objective study is impossible to have properly funded and the ones done by previous groups have had their results ignored or somewhat patronized. Witness the findings of the study done in 1972 under President Nixon which found that "there is little proven danger of physical or psychological harm from the experimental or intermittent use" of marijuana. On the question of law enforcement, the panel recommended a "decriminalization" of possession of marijuana for personal use on both the state and the federal levels. Specifically, it recommended that: "Federal and state laws be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use.” "The distribution in private of small amounts of marijuana for no remuneration or for insignificant amounts should no longer be an offense.” “State laws should make the public use of marijuana a criminal offense punishable by a $100 fine.” Under federal law, marijuana smoked in public would merely be subject to seizure."Report of The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse , 1972 [The "Nixon Marijuana Commission"]One rather puzzling fact is the number of dedicated advocates of legal (and in many cases, state-funded) abortions using the logic: “my body, my choice”, who go into near hysteria when the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana is mentioned. Surely the same argument could be used for one as logically as the other. Another measure of the degree of our ignorance concerning this substance is exemplified by the fact that under our current drug laws marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance (along with heroin and LSD) while cocaine is placed in Schedule II in the confusing hodgepodge we refer to as our National Drug Policy.Since 1991 the rate of violent crime in the United States has fallen by about 20 percent, whi...
