politifact
Federal Authorities Refuse to Admit Marijuana less Dangerous than Alcohol
Last week, we at marijuana.net were pleased to report on Attorney General Holder’s decision to alter the way federal minimum drug sentences would be handled. This week we found out it may have been a case of the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.
The momentum for marijuana reform has been rising steady so it was right on cue that federal authorities needed to fight back with false and ridiculous propaganda. On Monday, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) released a statement that not only calls into question their grasp of the facts, but also questions whether or not the agency is operating in 2013 and not 1933. On Monday decision makers at the NIDA thought the following statement was a well thought out idea: “Claiming that marijuana is less toxic than alcohol cannot be substantiated since each possess their own unique set of risks and consequences for a given individual.” The statement seems to be a response to the group Marijuana Policy Project’s (MPP) recent ads that describe marijuana as less dangerous than alcohol.
Mason Tvert of MPP commented on the odd NIDA statement by telling Huffington Post “Our federal government has been exaggerating the harms of marijuana for decades, but at this point it has gone off the deep end…NIDA’s statement that marijuana can be just as toxic as alcohol would be on par with the FDA announcing sushi is as fattening as fried chicken.” The Huffington Post article also pointed out that PolitiFact was unable to identify a single marijuana related death in 2010 but found 41,682 linked to alcohol during the same year.
The public trust in federal drug policy has been declining for decades. However, the feds have learned to smile, dress nice, and say little when questioned on these issues. NIDA’s mission statement is “to lead the nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction .” Their actions indicate that perhaps the NIDA does not hold its mission statement in any sort of high regard. As we said last week with Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s reversal on medical marijuana, how do we trust those who have policy making influence when they are the last to be educated?