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By Todd C. Frankel
Source: Washington Post
Washington, D.C. -- As head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Chuck Rosenberg doesn’t approve of marijuana. And so it was no surprise that at a press briefing Wednesday Rosenberg called pot legalization efforts “misguided and wrong and stupid.”
But Rosenberg also struck a slightly more reasonable tone as he discussed the issue, revealing a potentially less absolutist stance toward marijuana than the DEA has offered in the past. He refrained from deploying some of the heated rhetoric used by others in the DEA, who have at times sounded alarmist about the issue, such as the DEA agent earlier this year who warned Utah lawmakers that legalization may lead to intoxicated wildlife, even stoned rabbits.
Rosenberg said it was too early to tell if legalization in Colorado and Washington had resulted in the harmful consequences that the DEA had warned about.
“Yeah, there are effects. Do we see them clearly today? No,” he said. “But it’s starting to come more clearly into focus. Will we start to see it clearly in 5 to 10 years? I bet we will.”
So the jury is still out.
When Rosenberg was asked by a Washington Post reporter about the effects of marijuana legalization, he began by noting that this was an issue he’d been mulling over since taking over as the DEA’s leader in May.
“I’ve been thinking about this a lot,” Rosenberg said.
He admitted his thoughts might not be “ready for prime time,” but he wanted to share them.
Rosenberg said he feels like the current public debate mixes two different issues – pot legalization and medicinal marijuana. He sees them as distinctly different.
If we talk about legalization in honest terms and don’t try to sell it as a medicine, “there’s at least an intellectual honesty to that,” he said. “I don’t agree with it. I think it’s dangerous. I don’t recommend it. But there’s other stuff in our society that’s dangerous that’s perfectly legal.”
He said he was bothered by claims that marijuana is medicinal. It’s not, he said.
Smoking marijuana has “never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine,” Rosenberg said, noting that this was different from marijuana components used in medicinal forms.
“If you want to make a bad decision and legalize it, make a bad decision and legalize it. But call it what it is. We decided to legalize this thing that’s harmful and dangerous. But when you collapse it into something that’s also medicine, I think that’s ludicrous,” he said.
Rosenberg also declined to draw any lessons from Ohio where residents voted down a ballot measure Tuesday to legalize pot statewide. The referendum called for Ohio’s pot supply to come from 10 exclusive growers, leading to criticism that this would create a “marijuana monopoly.”
“It struck me as an anomaly,” he said.
Source: Washington Post
But Rosenberg also struck a slightly more reasonable tone as he discussed the issue, revealing a potentially less absolutist stance toward marijuana than the DEA has offered in the past. He refrained from deploying some of the heated rhetoric used by others in the DEA, who have at times sounded alarmist about the issue, such as the DEA agent earlier this year who warned Utah lawmakers that legalization may lead to intoxicated wildlife, even stoned rabbits.
Rosenberg said it was too early to tell if legalization in Colorado and Washington had resulted in the harmful consequences that the DEA had warned about.
“Yeah, there are effects. Do we see them clearly today? No,” he said. “But it’s starting to come more clearly into focus. Will we start to see it clearly in 5 to 10 years? I bet we will.”
So the jury is still out.
When Rosenberg was asked by a Washington Post reporter about the effects of marijuana legalization, he began by noting that this was an issue he’d been mulling over since taking over as the DEA’s leader in May.
“I’ve been thinking about this a lot,” Rosenberg said.
He admitted his thoughts might not be “ready for prime time,” but he wanted to share them.
Rosenberg said he feels like the current public debate mixes two different issues – pot legalization and medicinal marijuana. He sees them as distinctly different.
If we talk about legalization in honest terms and don’t try to sell it as a medicine, “there’s at least an intellectual honesty to that,” he said. “I don’t agree with it. I think it’s dangerous. I don’t recommend it. But there’s other stuff in our society that’s dangerous that’s perfectly legal.”
He said he was bothered by claims that marijuana is medicinal. It’s not, he said.
Smoking marijuana has “never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine,” Rosenberg said, noting that this was different from marijuana components used in medicinal forms.
“If you want to make a bad decision and legalize it, make a bad decision and legalize it. But call it what it is. We decided to legalize this thing that’s harmful and dangerous. But when you collapse it into something that’s also medicine, I think that’s ludicrous,” he said.
Rosenberg also declined to draw any lessons from Ohio where residents voted down a ballot measure Tuesday to legalize pot statewide. The referendum called for Ohio’s pot supply to come from 10 exclusive growers, leading to criticism that this would create a “marijuana monopoly.”
“It struck me as an anomaly,” he said.
