Reefer Madness
Why the Clinton administration is terrified by medical marijuana.
Reason , March 1997
When California and Arizona voters gave substantial majorities to the proposition that sick people ought to be allowed to use marijuana (and, in Arizona, other illegal drugs) if it might ease their suffering, the reaction in Washington was predictable: utter horror. Propositions 215 and 200 struck not only at the heart of drug war propaganda but also at the most sensitive assumptions underlying the regulatory state. (See "Prescription: Drugs," February 1996.)