Last week US president Obama surprised many by claiming in a New Yorker interview that marijuana is 'less dangerous' than alcohol 'in terms of its impact on the individual consumer'.
The statement was made amidst the legalisation of cannabis in Colorado and Washington, which Obama called an important 'experiment'. Although careful not to endorse the drug (he explicitly stated he would discourage his own daughters from partaking), Obama nonetheless drew swift and heavy criticism.
The Drug-Free America Foundation claimed the president is 'either seriously ill-informed ... or is completely ignoring warnings from his highly-esteemed advisers'.
The American Society of Addiction Medicine released a statement saying marijuana impairs memory, motor function and respiratory health, while the National Institute on Drug Abuse pointed to the drug's highly addictive nature, with 4.2 million Americans either addicted to or abusing it in 2011 alone.
In mistaking comparison for endorsement, Obama's critics spectacularly missed his point.
Far from giving the drug his presidential seal of approval, Obama was attempting to start a conversation, on societal attitudes to marijuana versus alcohol certainly, but primarily on the way marijuana laws disproportionately affect black and Hispanic communities: 'Middle-class kids don't get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do ... And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.'
Obama has highlighted an obvious double standard at work and the reasons for its existence must be explored.
Cannabis use is targeted with a fervour that saw eight million arrests from 2001–2010. And yet alcohol, despite its own addictiveness (one 2007 study found that 30 per cent of Americans will abuse booze at some point in their lives), is not only socially accepted but widely encouraged.
But pointing out that marijuana may not be as dangerous as alcohol is not the same as saying it is harmless.
Indeed, a recent long-term study has indicated that cannabis affects young brains differently than those of adults, leaving teenage users 'at risk of permanent damage to their intelligence, attention span and memory'.
While such findings are used as justification both for criminalisation and harsh punishment, the already legal status of alcohol makes it easier to excuse its own destructive qualities. These include impaired brain function, increased risk of some cancers, liver disease, weakened immune system, loss of concentration, and decreased productivity. Then there is the problem of alcohol-fuelled violence, which I will get