|
respond to Ben Domenech's "Legalize
With Caution" not because I think that he has too low an
opinion of marijuana, but rather because — like many reluctant anti-prohibitionists
— he underestimates the harm done by marijuana prohibition.
Frankly, I was surprised that he defends the "gateway theory."
I still think that it was best described by Bill Buckley almost
30 years ago when he defended my call for conservatives to support
the legalization of marijuana in the December 6, 1972 issue of NR
when he called it "Post Pot Ergo Propter Pot."
"After That Therefore Because of That" is actually a
textbook logical fallacy. It is perhaps the worst of the prohibitionist
arguments, but it continues to confuse even people as bright as
Mr. Domenech.
When Rich
Lowry pointed out that most marijuana users do not use cocaine,
Domenech argues, "The more appropriate (number) to offer would
be the percentage of cocaine users who originally started out smoking
pot."
First, I cannot imagine anyone ever using hard drugs without having
first tried marijuana, but that is not always the case. Even if
there were such an absolute correlation, that would still not prove
causation. The
Institute of Medicine Report points out that because "underage
smoking and alcohol use typically precede marijuana use, marijuana
is not the most common, and is rarely the first, "gateway"
to illicit drug use. There is no conclusive evidence that the drug
effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse
of other illicit drugs."
As for Domenech's comment, "(I)magine if one out of every
100 hundred coffee drinkers got cancer, and you'll see what I mean."
Actually, because coffee is so widely consumed, and cancer is such
a major cause of death, far more that one percent of coffee drinkers
do get cancer, but that is not causation. Post Starbucks Ergo
Propter Starbucks.
However, the more important point made by the IOM Report is that
the real-world connection between marijuana and hard drugs is that
they are sold in the same markets. "(I)t
is the legal status of marijuana that makes it a gateway drug."
The foundation of all Dutch drugs policies is what they call the
"separation of the markets," and that is one reason for
their cannabis-only "coffee shop" system. One result is
that there are very few young Dutch junkies. In other words, marijuana
prohibition is actually counterproductive and creates the "gateway"
between marijuana and hard drugs. Legalization would remove that
connection. Freedom works.
As for marijuana being "addictive" — the IOM report does
not support the dire description by Dr. Charles Schuster, former
director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a highly politicized
prohibitionist propaganda organization. Schuster himself has said
that "the
likelihood of that occurring in people is much less than with drugs
such as cocaine and heroin."
The IOM report says that A distinctive marijuana withdrawal syndrome
has been identified, but it is mild and short-lived." Two prominent
British scientists recently wrote in the London Times that "For
some users, perhaps as many as 10 per cent, cannabis leads to psychological
dependence, but there is scant evidence that it carries a risk of
true addiction. Unlike cigarette smokers, most users do not take
the drug on a daily basis, and usually abandon it in their twenties
or thirties. Unlike for nicotine, alcohol, and hard drugs, there
is no
clearly defined "withdrawal syndrome" — the hallmark
of true addiction — when use is stopped."
Dependence is not addiction. I know thousands of marijuana smokers,
some are such heavy users that they might be described as "dependent,"
but I know of no non-medical users who have ever had serious problems
when they had to stop suddenly. People may become "dependent"
on anything that they really enjoy, but when they are dependent
on something illegal their problems are made worse by prohibition,
not helped. And that is the whole point.
Domenech should not worry that legalization will worsen the problems
that rightly concern him. On the contrary, the Dutch experiences
with tolerating marijuana use, and virtually all human experience
with freedom, tell us that coercion is usually counterproductive.
He should not fear that marijuana prohibition is somehow an exception.
|
