I began to study marijuana in 1967... I had not yet learned that there is something very special about illicit drugs. If they don't always make the drug user behave irrationally, they certainly cause many non-users to behave that way.

Cannabis is remarkably safe. Although not harmless, it is surely less toxic than most of the conventional medicines it could replace if it were legally available. Despite its use by millions of people over thousands of years, cannabis has never caused an overdose death.

We in this country have to make up our minds -- -- we can not have it both ways: we cannot be both drug-free and free.

Marijuana is one of the least toxic substances in the whole pharmacopoeia