The question is straightforward enough.  What do you think?

  Though I don't generally smoke it I feel that it should be legalized.  The United States has spent countless billions over many decades trying to stop people from smoking pot.  They still smoke it.  They always will.  It's a weed.. it grows anywhere.  You can't stop it.  Ever.  Also it's very hypocritical to declare war on marijuana while subsidizing a known killer like tobacco and taxing a much more dangerous, addictive drug like alcohol.  I'd much rather we declared a cease fire on pot and declared war on tobacco.  Like pot, we can never stop people from drinking alcohol.  We tried, it didn't work.  Anyone can produce alcohol themselves.  I don't drink alcohol, BTW.  
   Imagine if we stopped spending all that money on putting people in jail, anti-pot propaganda, and all other such nonsense and started taxing pot like alcohol.  National dept cured.  Other drugs?  That's another matter.  Certainly highly addictive drugs like heroine shouldn't be legal.

I took a course on drugs and society in undergrad simply because I wanted to have an intelligent and coherent stance on this issue. And my answer is still: I don't know.  
 
on the one hand I do agree that people should be allowed to abuse and destroy their own bodies if they so choose, however they want to do it. If you want to d,o it by abusing drugs or alcohol, then as a libertarian I say "Go ahead." Peyote? Weed? Tobacco? Caffeine and alcohol? makes no difference to me as long as you are affecting primarily yourself.
 
The catch I see is twofold:  
1. I do think drug use (especially harder drugs) does entail a societal level harm. Nobody quite knows how much and estimates go back and forth, a lot of screwy numbers flying around out there, but my take from the numbers I've seen is that it does include serious societal level harm. And while I'm ok with you hurting yourself it is when you hurt others that it is correct to make legislation (imho).  
 
2. The line has to be drawn somewhere and no matter where it is drawn nobody will be happy and will pick at it. I think that's just a part of human nature. Sometimes there isn't a good place to draw a line. And if there isn't a good place to draw it, and the line has to be drawn (which most people agree with in my experience), I'm hesitant to move it.  
 
 
I'm not sure that decriminalizing it is the correct tact, I do agree that much of the "war on drugs" has been big on the political capital and short on the useful effects while wasting an incredible amount of money. I don't want to waste money in a futile effort. On the other hand making it legal won't solve everything associated with it.
 
All that to say: I don't have a clue how to deal with weed  
 
What I'd like is a coherent policy on drugs. This is legal because xyz and this one is illegal because abc. But I haven't heard any such proposition.

I voted YES but it comes with this:
 
In Colorado we voted in the use of medial marijuana back in 2000. Back then I had 'moral' objections as most people who voted YES did, however we were thinking of grandma's glaucoma or auntie's breast cancer and that medical MJ would be perscribed much like penicillin, by a reputable doctor and from the local pharmacy. MJ was voted in to help people with chronic pain or diseases where it would be used to help people in need.  
 
Fast forward from then until now. There are MJ clinics all over the place and the largest percentage of medical MJ users are young men in their 20's. Tell me, how much cancer, glucoma, chronic pain, etc is really experienced by this demographic? It's become a joke.  
 
I still stand by my vote but these kinds of scenarios only turn off those people who actively vote and continues to perpetuate the stereotype surrounding dope and that is, 'only dopes uses dope.'  
 
The longer this country goes with this quasi-legalization the more complex the problem is going to be and blanket legalization may no longer be the best course of action in the future. My sense is that the Feds may never legalize it, not when states have loosely interpreted and applied laws and practices that make the active voting public suspect of the real motives behind it and these who continue to promote the use of pot look like they could use a bath, a haircut and a good job.  
 
I don't have any answers. I'm just voicing the opinion of one politically aware, law abiding, tax paying, hard working American family man.

I chose don't care. Marijuana is extremely simple to get in California, probably most other places in the US as well. Other than the fact getting caught with it by the cops gets you a nice handy jail sentence and fine (not like your life generally isn't ruined yet), the government has little control. Even then, if legalized, all underage people would still need to find a way to get their daily dose o' dope, probably from some illegal way. No I don't take marijuana, but I know too many people who do and at this point it looks like the government is no longer in any position to control it.  
 
 
On a side note, at a party I was at a few kids went to get high off marijuana. Long story short, one of them decided he was hungry and blew most of the money at McDonalds so they couldn't get their pot. Stupidest crap I've ever heard.

Quote from xxkid123 on Jun 12^th, 2012, 5:32pm:

Quick question: which is worse for you, Mary Jane or Mickey Dee?  

Quote from HurlinThom on Jun 12^th, 2012, 10:56pm:

 
I had to search both up on urban dictionary to get it
 
http://www.livestrong.com/article/36536-top-health-problems-america/
 
So, most people suffer from heard disease (too much fat from McDonalds) than lung cancer, caused by smoking dope.

Back when I started in police work in the late 60s, the head of our "Narcotics" division was a rabid right-wing type who was convinced that MJ was part of the "counter culture" that was destroying America.
He was writing long screeds on these views and disseminating them to the department...
 
This while about half of his officers were smoking dope "so they wouldn't become alcoholics"....
 
I listened to a panel discussion on NPR's Science Friday a couple of years ago.  All physicians involved in research in the area of addiction, drug dependence, societal effects, etc.
They all, to a man, described MJ as "The Most Benign Intoxicant".    
 
As noted, vastly less harmful than alcohol.   The continued criminalization of the weed only causes a flourishing underground business that simply cannot be stopped.  It's ludicrous.