Some food for thought - our own president (a former member of the self-described "Choom Gang") puff-balled marijuana and even gave it a bit of a defense by saying it wasn't any worse than other things. This, at a time when more and more information is coming out about THC levels behind higher than prior decades, and the effects of even occasional use on teens.

And so, we're moving towards a trend of legalization - is this a historical accident as well?

It is positively scary just how much we think alike <g>. I was going to respond to Tamar that I thought that cigarettes would still be legal because of all the "revenue" they generate for the government. IMHO, that is one of the biggest reasons for the push to legalize marijuana. Making marijuana legal is not quite the same thing as decriminalizing it, although I suppose that the fines that could be levied for possession would provide he government with some revenue. However, revenue from fines would not be nearly as much as revenue from taxes on the legal substance.