Legalize it

Sonia, in her pundit mode, has a good post up at The Soccer Mom Vote on medical marijuana. She's got plenty of information on where the Presidential candidates stand on the issue, as well as links to resources about medical marijuana.

I'm willing to go one further. Legalize marijuana, tax it, and regulate it as we do alcohol and tobacco.

Legal marijuana would provide millions of dollars in much-needed revenue to state and federal government, and just might save us some other tax increases. Kentucky and Tennessee, two of the nation's most prolific pot-growing states, would especially benefit.

Spare me the moral arguments. There wouldn't be any massive increase in pot-smokers with legalization. I assure you anybody who wants to smoke pot in this country is already doing so. It may be easier to treat those prone to abuse if marijuana were legal, since the abuser wouldn't have to admit to law-breaking. Making pot legal could well lead to less abuse, since you'd no longer have the allure of forbidden fruit. Not to mention the benefits that cancer and glaucoma patients would receive, along with their no longer haveing to jump through legal hoops in order to obtain marijuana.

Continue to deal with marijuana use that interferes with work the way we do now. Alcohol is perfectly legal, yet if I come to work drunk they'll fire me. Handle those who come to work high the same way. With freedom comes responsibilities. Same with underage pot use. Those getting caught selling pot to minors should lose their license, get fined, and/or go to jail, just as with alcohol.

Alcohol causes more social problems, family misery, and deaths than marijuana ever will. Drunks get belligerent and fight. Potheads zone out, put their headphones on, and eat a lot.



Peter Tosh:

Legalize it, yeah, yeah
That's the best thing you can do
Doctors smoke it
Nurses smoke it
Judges smoke it
Even the lawyers too

Legalize it - don't criticize it
Legalize it and I will advertise it