America’s longest war is the war on drugs—and we lost. That’s the focus of a thoughtful essay in the Wall Street Journal, looking at the losses over the past half-century: untold lives and billions of dollars spent on both law enforcement and the military. Since President Nixon’s declaration of war in 1971, drug use has soared in the U.S., drugs are more potent than ever, and the power of criminal narcotics gangs has exploded. Accidental overdoses kill more than 100,000 Americans a year, and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl has now killed far more people than all U.S. conflicts since World War Two combined. We declared war on drugs—and drugs won. The way forward, the article suggests, is to focus less on law enforcement and decriminalization and more on a health-based approach, with special attention to medication-assisted treatment.
Meanwhile, New York State’s cannabis control board has quietly revised regulations so that a licensed practitioner can certify a patient for medical weed for any condition they believe the drug can treat—rather than from a list of approved conditions. This change will vastly expand the market for medical marijuana and also pose risks to patients. Not that the list of conditions made much sense anyway: doctors could, for example, certify pot for those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, although patients-rights groups warn that there’s no scientific evidence showing that cannabis is an effective treatment, and might even be dangerous. Now, a doctor can simply say they believe pot will help with whatever is ailing a patient and issue a medical cannabis card, without any clinical data to back that up. So much for science and best medical practices.
And finally, the recent social media frenzy surrounding a study purportedly showing that cannabis can stop COVID is yet another example of how the hype and promise of pot products far outweigh the reality. The researchers stressed that the early-stage study was not definitive, and would require clinical trials and that consumers should not turn to untested pot products in hopes that it might protect them from the coronavirus. These facts, however, did not stop widespread media attention and speculation that smoking a joint would keep you safe from the disease.