With a majority of Americans now in favor marijuana legalization, President Barack Obama is now saying weed is no more dangerous to individuals' health than alcohol.
In an interview with the New Yorker's David Remnick published Sunday, Obama said while he believes marijuana is "not very healthy," the drug isn't as harmful as some insist.
“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol," Obama told Remnick.
When asked if he believes marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, Obama said it is less damaging "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer."
"It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy," he added.
Marijuana is currently classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as aSchedule 1 substance, which the DEA considers "the most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and/or physical dependence." Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin, ecstasy and LSD.
Obama said his focus on reforming laws that punish drug users, noting the racial disparity in drug arrests.
"We should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing," he said.
In August, the Obama administration announced it would not stop Washington and Colorado from legalizing recreational marijuana use, marking a major step away from the administration's war on drugs.
In the New Yorker interview, Obama said he believes these new laws are "important."
“It's important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished," he said.
据美国媒体1月19日报道，日前，美国总统奥巴马接受《纽约客》杂志专访，坦然提起自己年轻时曾吸食大麻的过往，并现身说法称“吸食大麻不会比喝酒更危险”。
“大麻不比酒精危险”
“众所周知，我年少时曾吸食大麻。在我看来，这是一个不良习惯或者说恶习，但与我成年后吸了很长时间的香烟相比，没有迥然不同之处。”奥巴马说，“我不认为它比酒精危险。甚至就对个体消费者的影响而言，大麻的危险性比酒精更小。”
不过，奥巴马强调他不是在鼓励吸食大麻，“我已经告诫女儿们，我认为抽大麻是个坏主意，是在浪费时间而且不太健康”。
“少数族裔更易受罚”
在美国，大麻合法化的呼声日益强烈。然而，奥巴马更为关注美国法律处理大麻相关指控时暴露出的不公平现象，即处罚大多落在少数族裔身上。
“中产阶级的孩子不会因为吸食大麻被捕，但穷苦人家的孩子就会。而且，非洲裔和拉美裔美国人往往更为贫穷、不太可能获得资源和支持以避免过分严厉的惩罚。”奥巴马认为，吸食大麻的青少年和个体消费者不应面临过长刑期，“毕竟某些制定法律的人也做过同样的事情”。
奥巴马还表示，科罗拉多州和华盛顿州通过法律允许休闲娱乐用大麻合法化是重要的实验，“因为，对一个社会而言，大部分人偶尔违法但仅有少数人受罚的现象不复存在，这很重要”。与此同时，他还指出合法化不是解决社会问题的“灵丹妙药”，这两个州将会面临挑战。
“重新考量大麻禁令”
一份民调结果显示，超过半数的美国民众支持将休闲娱乐用的大麻合法化。导师学者认为，奥巴马的表态凸显了美国政府应顺应民意、重新考量大麻禁令的必要性。
“改善我国大麻政策的步，就是承认大麻的危害比酒精小。既然总统意识到把吸食大麻的成年人关入监牢不合适，就是时候修正错误、采用更基于事实的大麻政策了。”美国非营利性组织“大麻政策项目”负责人梅森?特维特表示。
伊桑纳德尔曼是致力于实现大麻合法化的组织“药物政策联盟”的负责人，他对奥巴马的言论表示赞许，认为总统针对科罗拉多州和华盛顿州立法行动的评价很重要，“这相当于把风注满风帆，结束大麻禁令运动真正动起来了。”