Washington: The New York Times on Saturday called for the legalization of marijuana, in a bold editorial comparing the federal ban on cannabis to Prohibition.
The paper said pot laws disproportionately impact young black men and that addiction and dependence are “relatively minor problems” — especially when compared with alcohol and tobacco.
“It took 13 years for the US 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,” the newspaper said.
“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.”
Citing FBI figures showing there were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2012 — far higher than for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives — it said “the result is racist, falling disproportionately on young black men, ruining their lives and creating new generations of career criminals.”
In January, President Barack Obama made headlines when he said smoking pot was no more dangerous than drinking, though he called the practice a “bad idea. Some US cities now allow legal sale of pot.
