norml22 - Page 42
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record keeping requirements. Any adult may possess and use those drugs
without fear of any criminal sanctions whatsoever° A person who wishes
to distribute or possess marijuana has no such option; distribution or
possession of any amount can subject him to penal sanctions° The
irrationality and arbitrariness of the exemption provisions are clear:
persons involved with marijuana, a relatively harmless drug, 8 are
subject to severe penalties, while persons involved with alcohol and
tobaccos two very dangerous drugsf are not° If society is going to
permit alcohol and tobacco_ with their attendant harms, including
death, to be imported, manufactured_ distributed, possessed and used,
then_ in light of the current scientific and medical knowledgef there
is no rational basis for prohibiting the _same when it comes to
marijuana. 9
WHEREFOREs based on the foregoing and on any evidence adduced at
Duke and Gross in ° a _ _" _a_ point out:
Approximately 100 million Americans over the
past three decades have smoked (or eaten)
marijuana. Millions of these have used
marijuana on a regulars almost daily basis
for decades. Despite these massive numbers
of long-term users, no reliable evidence has
appeared that such use has _ adverse
effects on their physical health.
/___, at 51.
9 See Memorandum, _ at 5-6 regarding Justice Swainson_s
opinion in P__9_/_S_incl___, 387 Micho 9!s 194 N.Wo 2d 878
(1972), wherein the court concluded that '_there is not even a
rational basis for treating marijuana as more dangerous than
alcohol, v,
41
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