John, I see we've taken this thread into an entirely different realm.

I won't participate in long discussion on this so if I stop responding I've become bored. But, funny as it sounds there is a big part of me that says people shouldn't get mixed up in marijuana and the drug culture in general. I agree with you on many levels.

At the same time, I think the same about alcohol. It is as easy for someone to loose control of their life when they're introduced to alcohol.

And video games, and television. These consumer electronics are the modern equivalent of drugs. They numb young minds and discourage social behavior. A society of anti-social potheads cannot be any worse than a soceity of anti-social video gamers. In fact, the biggest difference between pot and television is that what the television watcher sees is decided in a boardroom by media conglomerates that have the interest of themselves in mind, not their consumer. With marijuana you don't have that extra control.

If we're going to take the ideological stance that this activity is a problem and therefore restrict the freedom to engage in said activity, then alcohol, tobacco, dirt bikes, video games, and cheetos should all be taken a way too.

But, that's a slippery slope. That highlights the problem with ideological stances. So let's consider the real issues here:

>We already have enough of a problem with alcohol and you are advocating adding another problem. It makes no sense.

What other problem? There are marijuana users today. The studies that I've seen conclude that if marijuana were legalized tomarrow the number of users would not increase by significant levels, if at all.

Now, do you deny that the prohibition of marijuana is a problem in itself? Money getting re-routed from our capitalist society into the hands of thugs and outlaws? Gang wars and money laundering?

It would seem that problems associated with the war on drugs already exist, and the scientific evidence suggests that legalizing marijuana wouldn't legions of new users that create new problems in society.

So the questions we are faced with is: what other problems would we be introducing? And with what arguments do you dismiss the claim that legalizing actually solves some other important problems?