Barry R. McCaffrey

Barry R. McCaffrey is America’s “drug czar,” or director of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy. In the following viewpoint, McCaffrey argues that the passage in 1996 of Arizona and California initiatives legalizing the medical use of marijuana sends the wrong message to Americans, particularly youths. There is no clinical evidence to support the use of smoked marijuana as a medicine for AIDS and other diseases, McCaffrey contends. Smoked marijuana is a dangerous drug, he asserts, that can harm the immune systems of AIDS patients. McCaffrey insists that legal medications—such as pills that contain the synthetic form of marijuana’s active ingredient—are safer and more effective than smoked marijuana.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In McCaffrey’s...