The fact that people are being prosecuted and imprisoned for using marijuana, while alcohol remains a staple commodity, is surely the reductio ad absurdum of any notion that our drug laws are designed to keep people from harming themselves or others.
Alcohol is by any measure the more dangerous substance. It has no approved medical use, and its lethal dose is rather easily achieved. Its role in causing automobile accidents is beyond dispute. The manner in which alcohol relieves people of their inhibitions contributes to human violence, personal injury unplanned pregnancy, and the spread of sexual disease. Alcohol is also well known to be addictive. Marijuana's role as a "gateway drug" now seems less plausible than ever (and it was never plausible).
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