On October 29, the White House responded to the petition to end marijuana prohibition with a message from Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The following reasons were given for continuing prohibition:
-addiction and respiratory disease
-cognitive impairment
-no medical value
-source of many voluntary drug addiction treatments
-many emergency room visits
To quote the director, "Simply put, it is not a benign drug."
An analysis of the dangers of tobacco use reveal similar problems. In fact, tobacco use is widely known to be extremely addictive, a major factor in heart and lung disease, and a leading cause of cancer.
Tobacco has no medical value.
We must push to make tobacco illegal. Anything less would be unfair to the American people.