Jane Kelley wrote in a message to Steve Kemp:
SK>I doubt it. But, if pot is more available...that would be a GOOD thing.
SK>It's hardly a troublesome drug at all. Actually, I'd dare say it is the
SK>best drug. It is better physically and emotionally on one than ANY other
SK>recreational drug. Better than cocaine, meth, uppers, downers, or even
SK>alcohol. NO adverse side effects, except "the munchies".
 JK> There were several members of my daughter's high school class who
 JK> did not make it to graduation because of this "hardly troublesome
 JK> drug".  I have also worked in a county jail, several treatment
 JK> units, and other places where those who were adversely affected by
 JK> this "best drug" outlined the very real problems they had with the
 JK> stuff.
Notwithstanding your apparently unique universe that puts you in
contact with with a small minority of people with personal problems that
you and they like to blame on drugs or any other convenient scapegoat
for lack of personal responsibility, Steve is absolutely right.  In fact,
the DEA's Administrative Law Judge, after evaluating all of the evidence
that the government could muster to prove that marijuana is harmful, came
to very much the same conclusions as Steve did.  Judge Francis Young
determined that marijuana was one of the safest drugs known to man:
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Drug Enforcement Administration
In The Matter Of
MARIJUANA RESCHEDULING PETITION
Docket No. 86-22
OPINION AND RECOMMENDED RULING, FINDINGS OF
FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND DECISION OF
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE
FRANCIS L. YOUNG, Administrative Law Judge
DATED: SEPTEMBER 6, 1988
=================
                   UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 
                      Drug Enforcement Administration 
_______________________________________ 
                                       ) 
  In The Matter Of                     ) 
                                       )              Docket No. 86-22 
     MARIJUANA RESCHEDULING PETITION   ) 
_______________________________________) 
                OPINION AND RECOMMENDED RULING, FINDINGS OF 
                  FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND DECISION OF 
                       Administrative LAW JUDGE. 
FRANCIS L. YOUNG, Administrative Law Judge 
[...]
Findings of Fact
[...]
          4.  Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal 
effects.  But marijuana is not such a substance.  There is no record in 
the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented 
cannabis-induced fatality.
                                 - 56 -
          5.  This is a remarkable statement. First, the record on 
marijuana encompasses 5,000 years of human experience.  Second, marijuana 
is now used daily by enormous numbers of people throughout the world.  
Estimates suggest that from twenty million to fifty million Americans 
routinely, albeit illegally, smoke marijuana without the benefit of 
direct medical supervision.  Yet, despite this long history of use and 
the extraordinarily high numbers of social smokers, there are simply no 
credible medical reports to suggest that consuming marijuana has caused a 
single death.
          6.  By contrast aspirin, a commonly used, over-the-counter 
medicine, causes hundreds of deaths each year.
[...]
         15.  In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many 
foods we commonly consume.  For example, eating ten raw potatoes can 
result in a toxic response.  By comparison, it is physically impossible 
to eat enough marijuana to induce death.
         16.  Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest 
therapeutically
                                 - 58 -
active substances known to man. ...
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