[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by Kevin

1) It costs a crapton of money to enforce the law.

2) It costs another crapton of money to warehouse nonviolent (drugs only) offenders.

3) Keeping marijuana illegal allows organized crime to have a major source of revenue which leads to violence and in Mexico's case, government instability which leads to a lot of deaths and bad stuff which wouldn't happen if the drug was being sold legitimately.

4) It's a low cost way for many people with serious ailments to deal with those ailments without the use of expensive drugs which may have undesirable side-effects (as far as I know, and I've never used the stuff, so I don't have much frame of reference, marijuana doesn't have any undesirable side effects, bad interactions or anything which might give rise to concern).

5) Constant marijuana use isn't nearly as bad for you as continuous alcohol use.

Again, I've never used the stuff and I never plan to. I do, however, find the arguments for legalization to be pretty compelling. Here in Oklahoma, each year, the Tulsa World orders the statistics from the department of agriculture about the size of the state's marijuana crop. Apparently, just like every other plant, marijuana reflects certain light back into the atmosphere which the government can track and get an idea as to how much there is in any given place. The last time I heard about this story, if marijuana was to be legalized in Oklahoma, after realizing cost-savings in law enforcement and just ordinary sales taxes on in-state sales of the stuff, we could fund common education.

Does that mean legalization could be a good thing? Not necessarily. Are there some excellent arguments urging legalization? I think so.

Kevin, this is all good information, but making it legal means that someone who smokes it would be able to smoke it around other people. I've never used it either and I never will, but I know the second hand smoke can have some of the same effects it has on the actual user. I'm just a casual drinker (beer only at ball games, dinner, etc.) so I don't know the long term effects of alcohol abuse either. We already have a problem with DUI laws, so why even add to it. I like what you posted though, I guess it's kind of like how prohibition was during the 1920s, but just not on that level. I just think that if they legalize it, that it's going to cause major problems for people who don't use it. I mean I can't even stand the smell of alcohol coming through someone's pores when they've had to much to drink. I don't know how I would accept pot smoke around me, or having contact with someone who's been using it. I think it's a bad idea.