TO THE EDITOR:
As an expert on drugs of abuse, I was saddened by the recent story of the UNC sophomore who had to pay $420 in costs for possessing less than one ounce of marijuana. This total included $190 for a court-ordered “drug class.” It did not include the $175 she will have to pay to have her citation expunged from the record. It is very sad that such events continue to play out in 2018.
The laws against marijuana were a politically-motivated hoax in 1937, driven by drug warrior Harry Anslinger’s fabricated claims of Mexican workers giving marijuana to white women and raping and killing them. The La Guardia report of 1944, as well as the 1972 Shafer commission set up by Richard Nixon, called for the decriminalization of marijuana possession in the United States, and pointed out that marijuana was much less dangerous than alcohol.
Today, progressive states are approving not only medical, but also recreational marijuana, yet in states like North Carolina, legislators have managed to avoid gaining any real knowledge about marijuana. What a pity, and what a disaster for young people caught with small amounts of this weed.
It is past time to get up to speed with the facts on marijuana and change the North Carolina laws.
David E. Nichols
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Purdue University
Adjunct Professor, Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, UNC Chapel Hill
