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The latest numbers are in and it's clear: For the first time since 1981, fewer high school seniors report having used cigarettesin the past month than marijuana. This is a victory for U.S. tobacco policy, which has used education, prevention and regulation to massively reduce cigarette smoking; it's also an embarrassment for marijuana prohibition, which has wasted enormous amounts of taxpayer money arresting millions of citizens with very little to show for it except construction of new prisons and shocking racial disparities.
Yet instead of asking what can we learn from historically low tobacco use rates that might improve U.S. marijuana policy,White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske points a finger at statemedical marijuana laws, the national debate on Proposition 19,and, well, anything but the failed, counterproductive marijuana policies of the last 40 years. The Times' editorial board was right to call him to task for going too far ("One toke over the line," Dec. 16).
Yet instead of asking what can we learn from historically low tobacco use rates that might improve U.S. marijuana policy,White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske points a finger at statemedical marijuana laws, the national debate on Proposition 19,and, well, anything but the failed, counterproductive marijuana policies of the last 40 years. The Times' editorial board was right to call him to task for going too far ("One toke over the line," Dec. 16).
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