by Mortimer B. Zuckerman

About the author: Mortimer B. Zuckerman is the editor in chief of the weekly newsmagazine U.S. News & World Report.

We are at a critical stage in the intermittent war on drugs. The plausible case for allowing sick patients access to marijuana for the relief of pain, approved by California and Arizona voters [in November 1996], has given impetus to those who would legalize drugs altogether. They are dangerously wrong. If marijuana is to be approved for hospital medicine, it is essential that general use be more rigorously curtailed. The narrow window of legitimacy in medicine will be a menace if it becomes a wide-open door.

The Legalizers’ View

The argument of the legalizers is that America has lost the drug war. No matter how many fast boats, helicopters, and antinarcotics teams we have...