In a recent Daily Caller article entitled “Why we shouldn’t legalize marijuana,” The Heritage Foundation's Charles Stimson urges voters to avoid ending cannabis prohibition. However, Stimson has been badly misinformed and his arguments are based on a serious misreading of the scientific evidence. His first sentence suggests that cannabis is an addictive gateway drug. Real research, published in the peer-reviewed scientific journals mentioned below, says otherwise. In fact, numerous polls of scientists and extensive research on humans and animals reveal that the plant’s addictive potential is less than that of caffeine. (See Nutt et al., 2007 in the respected medical journal Lancet and Gore and Earleywine’s chapter in the Oxford University Press book Pot Politics). No study has ever suggested that 30% of those who try it become dependent.
