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The Nation: Carter's Grass-Roots Appeal

Can 35 million Americans be wrong about pot?

Penalties against the possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself." So said Jimmy Carter in urging Congress last week to reduce federal penalties for possession of up to 1 oz. of marijuana, enough for about four dozen joints. For a first offense, the maximum penalty now is a year in jail and a $5,000 fine for possession of any amount of pot.

The President's appeal stirred little enthusiasm on Capitol Hill, though an estimated...

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
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