Psychologist can't see forest for grasss on marijuana legalization

Clinical psychologist Aaron Weiner might as well have been arguing against ending Prohibition in 1933 in his December 18 op ed 'Don't go backward on marijuana policy.' Marijuana is both a valued medicine and sensible stress reliever for most of the 30 plus million American adults who use it. Eight states plus Washington DC have legalized it for recreation, taking a good chunk of the billions involved in the marijuana trade out of the shadows of crime and placing it in the sunshine of safe, responsible regulation. Excess revenue over expenses is certainly a plus, but sane social policy is the most urgent reason for its recreational legalization. Like any substance, some will abuse and become dependent on legal marijuana. Far better it be marijuana than truly life degrading hard drugs, alcohol or the latest scourge, prescription opioids. 

Rather than destroying physical health like those legal and illegal substances, all Weiner can charge is that marijuana "undermines my patients' ability to complete school, achieve their maximum earning potential, hold their jobs, function in a healthy marriage, and find overall life satisfaction." That's pretty tame and vague compared to dying from a physically ravaged body. We still spend countless billions enforcing historically racist marijuana laws and incarcerating thousands of mostly minorities for imbibing a plant substance nowhere near as dangerous as those bought at the local liquor or drug store. Weiner uses the worn out canard that "marijuana policies deserve a robust and informed debate." Eight states have had that debate, resolved it sensibly, and aren't going backward. They're looking at Illinois in their rear view mirror and wondering if, in the next 5 to 10 years, we'll come in dead last among the 50 states to enact socially and fiscally responsible cannabis laws. Backward? Illinois pot policies can't get anymore backward.