The Time to Legalize Pot is Now. It Should Have Been Legal Years Ago.

Legalizing it could help pay for a public option in health care. It isn't physically addictive like alcohol or tobacco, which are both legal drugs nor does it lead to increases in domestic violence like alcohol does. When was the last time you heard of someone beating their wife after smoking a joint of pot? Pot makes people actually calm down instead of increase their anger like booze. It makes people laugh together instead of fight. It is the best thing for an upset stomach when you have the flu and doesn't induce vomiting like drinking can nor does it have a hangover like alcohol.

Many responsible people smoke marijuana. I know working professionals who smoke it like drinking a glass or two of wine after work and they are some of the best workers I know. They are invaluable assets to their industries. So it's time to shed this image that all pot smokers are like Cheech and Chong.

Besides, this is America and our country was founded upon personal liberties and freedoms so why is it the government's business if someone wants to smoke a joint in the privacy of their own home and laugh at cartoons? How does that hurt anyone? Sure there need to be laws preventing smoking it and driving and keeping it away from minors. However, did you know that because marijuana isn't legal and thus not regulated that it is easier for minors to get than alcohol?

And It blows me away that taxes from marijuana could pay the salaries of 20,000 teachers in California!! What the HELL are THEY and WE waiting for? You may be personally against using it yourself but what right is it of yours to decide that for everyone else? Sure it can be abused if you smoke it all day but honestly how many people are doing that besides college kids? Another argument is that the pot today is stronger. Blah, blah, blah. Pot has NEVER, EVER led to any over-dose. You simply can't overdose on marijuana. You can smoke it all day and the worst that happens is you fall asleep and get a good night of sleep!! Wow. Soooo dangerous. The stronger pot argument is only valid if it led to overdoses but it doesn't. It simply isn't true.

Sure it might cause emphysema but that's a personal decision that someone shouldn't be making for someone else. Besides you can bake marijuana into brownies and ingest it orally without running the risks of smoking. Plus now there is the vaporizing method, which is a mist that you ingest and it has been shown to be safe. Hell, eating too much junk food leads to heart disease, diabetes and other major health problems but do we make Twinkies illegal? Alcohol leads to liver and kidney damage but we saw what prohibition of alcohol brought us in the golden age of gangsters in the 20's. And the same members of Congress that say pot should remain illegal are guzzling alcohol by the barrel full. Porn can be abused but it's legal, working can even be abused and break up marriages.

Anything can be abused but does that mean we should make everything with the ability to be abused illegal? We'd have to outlaw cold medicine, mouthwash and paint solvents to name but a few things. We wouldn't be able to function as a society or leave our house!! Should we outlaw greed? Good luck. And what about the "legal drugs" that are aired non-stop on t.v. and take half the commercial time listing adverse side effects? No, I choose not to live in fear. It's time to stop demonizing marijuana and throw it in the same category as heroin, cocaine, crack and meth. Marijuana is to those other substances as B.B. guns are to AK-47's.

Then there is bullshit about marijuana being a gateway drug but why do they focus on just marijuana? How about sugar because that is a drug in the sense that is gives you a rush and a buzz. What about caffeine? Shouldn't that be called a gateway drug? It gives people a rush of energy, a buzz and they crash when they don't drink it. It causes withdrawals in people who are regular drinkers when they don't drink it. People drink it all day in their offices and we even have the high octane stuff that's like crewing on handfuls of coffee beans. How come we don't call that the gateway drug?

The Mormon religion sees it bad enough to ban it with all these other drugs so why single out marijuana? The whole war on marijuana is a sham, a failure and a waste of money and resources. It's costing us tons of money when it should be bringing in tons of money for our communities. Enough is enough. Let adults be adults. I find it very odd to say the least that Conservatives who are usually for personal liberties and the government butting out of a person's private life are for keeping pot illegal!! Huh?

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