"Ten years after marijuana legalization takes hold in America, almost everyone will agree that it's an improvement"

Not so much that as the fact that marijuana was once prohibited will be as nonsensical as imagining when alcohol was illegal. Even moreso because of the health aspects of marijuana. The times we live in now will literally be seen as the dark ages!

"and those who most vigorously opposed it will probably deny ever having done so"

Totally, I can hear Grassley now "Why I never said I was AGAINST legalization, I argued for congressional debate!"

The entrenched bias against any form of cannabis has been a tough nut to crack. The arcane laws and misinformation has worked well over the past 70 years and has also served to provide a very nice living to millions of law enforcement people. It will be very, very difficult to pry their lips off the public tit any time soon, they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Cops, lawyers, judges, jailers, cities, states, and federal... How many of these people are there simply because of the millions and millions of dollars generated for them by the cannabis war? My dream is to someday add these warm and fuzzy creatures to the ranks of the unemployed. I am surprised and encouraged by the breath and depth of the current cannabis legalization surge. It has been my hope for 40 years now that maybe someday I can finally come out of the closet. The inroads we have gained on medical cannabis has brought reason and hope to millions of americans and now we must never quit the good war and road we are on. Write or call or e-mail your lawmakers, be a thorn in their sides. Tell them in no uncertain terms that after 72 years of bad law, misinformation and millions of incarcerations, not to mention the lives ruined, that you have had enough goverment lies and deception and that your vote for them in the next election will be determined by their actions concerning the legalization of cannabis. It is that simple. I believe that legalization will happen first in California and the cascade will follow. The federal gov. will be forced to change. We are seeing it already in the AMA's position last week on reviewing the placement of cannabis as a class 1 narcotic and possibly downgrading it to a class 2 substance. A small but important change. It took 72 years to change that but now it seems we have the momentum, the wind at our back. Now is not the time to lower the din. Now is the time to shout out your representatives and senators, your governors and city managers, mayors and councilmen. Tell them to re-educate themselves about cannibus, that last year over 35000 people died in the US from alcohol abuse. Tell them that NO ONE died from cannabis use last year. Tell them thousands more die each year from failed and scarred livers attributed to alcohol. No one died from liver failure using cannabis. Tell them that almost every violent act, every assault in the US has a alcohol component, every domestic abuse has alcohol at it's core, almost every child abuse! Every broken home. Violence and obnoxious behavior from alcohol appears at virtually every major sporting event to the degree that many families no longer attend these events because of the alcohol abuse. Tell them another Michigan student died last week of alcohol overdose. Tell them that last year 35 students died from alcohol overdose. Tell them that we want a SAFER alternative to the dangerous and mind numbing, violence inducing alcohol.
Either you add your voice now or we will wait another 72 years before reason and logic bubble to the surface again.

First, I would like to make the point that I am not a pot user although I have tried it on occasion. The last time being some very many years ago. The reason is not because I find it morally wrong; it is because it just wasn't really my thing, alcohol was.

I would now like to go on record as to say that I totally agree with the legalization of marijuana. I have friends that use it and have been around it and seen it's effects all my life. I have done more damage to my life drinking than I ever could have by smoking pot.

The general public is greatly misinformed about marijuana use. Our leaders would want you to believe that the use of marijuana is evil and causes crime and health problems and many more bad things but this is not true. Doctors even prescribe marijuana to cancer and glaucoma patients. Now just because something is medicinal doesn't make it acceptable for everyday use for anyone but it is one point. Another point is that marijuana users do not commit crimes due to it's usage not do they get impaired and cause so many fatal car accidents like alcohol does.

I thought that America was a free country (a democracy) where the people governed themselves by electing officials that represented their desires. Well, that is not exactly being carried out properly. At one time alcohol was illegal and is now very legal and acceptable. So will marijuana one day. There are too many people who want it legal. The government can't fight the odds of the general public forever. The general public is becoming more educated and sees the corruption that is going on. If marijuana were made legal then it would take huge sums of money away from the drug task forces, judges, lawyers, etc.

Why not legalize pot? Then they can use their resources elsewhere where they are needed most like terrorism, global warming (finding alternative energy sources), and the economy (like help find jobs for our unemployed American citizens)

It's already time to starting planning for retraining the law-enforcement predators. The watchword should be : REGULATE. The officials who now "regulate" cannabis can be shifted to regulating the use modality. Laws could be written requiring every institution with a cannabis vending or serving license to provide instruction and assistance in learning to use a vaporizer or, failing that, a long-stemmed one-hitter (smoking harm-reduction utensil). For such duty they could hire previous abstinence-only-enforcers who have agreed to shift their ethic to harm-reduction and the enforcement of non-hot-burning-overdose use guidelines.

The handwork putting together the first billion one-hitters (narrow-screened-crater chillums etc.) will alone provide millions of short-term jobs and serve to integrate many persons with heretofore ignorant unemployed hands into a handworkerly economy extending to composting, landscaping, scrap-lumber carpentry and other pro-reforestation job categories. (Hemp planting is the first step, because hemp is the premium precursor crop for trees.)

And I smell smoke. But the DEA and ONDCP will continue too drag up older and older propaganda,because most of their bunk is de-bunked as soon as they raise their lil heads and speak it! And that is thanks too Bill Gates,so when credit too our cause is cheered,lets not forget what technology has done for this debate.
With the tools of the internet,the speed of information is out as soon as it hits the first wireless signal,and is responded too by the time they are bringing their interview or news
briefing to an end,and debates are hindsighted with "I wish they had asked" before the thing is over. Simply amazing.
And GREAAAAT. It has really brought this debate up too speed.

the govt made it so with their lies. I know a lot of kids who tried it, found out that they had been lied to about the effects and benefits, then they have gone onto other drugs such as coke or meth which nearly wrecked their lives. Did in some cases.

William Aiken

In forwarding the debate of marijuana legalization, the comparisons to alcohol as a regulated model give plenty of ammunition to our adversaries. The main point being that the cost of harm caused by alcohol is far greater than any tax revenue that's collected. We live in a culture that encourages drinking on every ocassion due to the billions spent on alcohol advertising. The regulation model for pot will be similiar to the restrictions of tabacco advertising, even though pot is far less harmful than tabacco.

When legalization arrives there's no way it will have the luxury, perks and loop holes that the alcohol industry enjoys. Pot will be taxed at much higher rate, the ability to advertise will be severly restricted and the licensing of it's distribution will be tightly regulated. Don;t forget that the alcohol industry has spend milllions funding "The Partnership for a Drug Free America". They have successfully lobbied Congress to defeat many sensible measure to identify the possible harms of their product through warning lables. And you can forget about any tax on alcohol to pay for the astronomical damages it causes society. Their influence is everywhere in government, the FDA and the broadcasters. The last thing they want to see is any laws legitimizing pot.

SAFER is wise to make comparative arguments with pot and alcohol. There is a mountain of evidence to expose the hypocriscy of pot prohibition that will win the hearts and minds of the public. Science based education is our biggest ally. Getting the message out will be the challenging aspect as the acohol industry has lock on the broadcasters. Once this monopoly is exposed then prohibition of pot will really fall like a house of cards.

I hate to be a buzzkill, but I'd like to point out that the Witch Trials went on for six hundred years. Keep your little sorcerer's heads down. That's why I don't give to the legalization movement. They keep records, records can be siezed (and are inevitably are, legally or not) . During a raid, or during a little "sneak-and-peek". I don't want to be in the next round of burnings.
Your Government is at WAR WITH YOU, or didn't anybody notice the moniker at the top of the page? They will kill you, and your family in this WAR. Innocent or not. You might be the next 92 year old St. Louis woman to be shot, and have drugs planted in your home to hide the evidence of murder. They do that, you know.
I watch the news. And with a cold heart I tell myself again and again, not to feel bad for these American servicemen killed on foriegn shores. For all I know, when they return, they may be ordered to round up or kill myself and my family for a medicine that I count on to stay alive. I wish I didn't have to teach my children to avoid the Police and government. That they don't and won't help. That calling them in the event of a crime at our house may result in our family being broken up, and their parents imprisoned.
In short, I hate these fascist motherf***kers. Obama included. One last note. If you find yourself appalled at my attitude or my use of the term fascist, I urge you to drop your outrage and go straight to your dictionary and look the word UP. Read the definition then you tell me... what is this place we live?

Those who are frightened to speak out against this outrage based on the specious notion that *they* are going to come after you need to grow some balls.

If *they* were ever going to go after someone, I humbly suggest that I myself would be among their targets. My site has been up since 2002 -- yet here I still am.

Nothing changes if we don't start acting like the "land of the free and home of the brave." Hiding in the shadows, trembling in fear is not very brave -- and certainly won't ever make anyone anywhere free. So stop pissing your skirts and stand up for "truth, justice and the American way."

When the road is finally clear, and the doctors and scientist are allowed to research all drugs, people will look back on the drug war and be amazed at our own stupidity !

Well Mr. Bennet, good for you. Here in the "land of the free"," they" arrested Tommy Chong. "They" will have their way with Marc Emery. These people WERE targeted for their legalization stances.
Best of luck chum, but I'm not bulletproof, so I'm stayin' low. Just an aside, but I fully expect them to come after me at some point, so I'm prepared. Not "pissing my skirt", I'm digging in for a long, real, fight.

I have used marijuana for a long time.I prefered it,I tried beer and sorts and it wasnt for me.I would like to have a choice of what I use to relax after a hard day.ATM my options are alcohol or alcohol.I work hard and I am not violent nor have I had to resort to crimes to enjoy my prefered high.Just like everything in life there is always someone to screw things up and make it look bad.We have so many out there saying one thing and others saying another that makes the whole issue in the clouds.I wonder if we took a nation wide vote how it would turn out,in favor or not.I would like to have a choice on what I get high on than to not have one.I guess I am such a criminal that because I smoke the buds of a plant I will come to your house and eat you(BOO!!)Well I have not eaten anyone in fact I have not beenn in a fight or criminal acts at all.So what makes a person that has 2 plants and smokes what he or she grows a criminal?Well if government really wants to know what percentage smokes marijuana world wide is well just like that movie fight club,we work in all sorts of jobs from flipping burgers to politics to police and military.Plus I have been to many places of businesses that I deal with that there is alway atleast 1 or 2 people who smoke depends also on how big the company is.You will never get a true number of how many smoke due to closet smokers hide just like gays did awhile back.The plant is from what I heard on a documentry (but i could be wrong)but it said marijuana plant is 56 million years old.Even if its not that old still its been around a very long time and still to this day how many have died or overdosed off it.None that I know of.I say let me make my own choice as a adult.I don`t mind that its treated like other stuff with age limits and driving laws,but to say I am not responsible or a criminal is down right rude and I take offence to it.Drink responsible can also apply to marijuana.Last note I would like to see police take more time tracking down and jailing the meth ,crack and heroin dealers and producers.Those drugs truely harm our world in a whole.Thanks for the time on my rant with very little time making this look good its what popped in my mind typed down.

My friend runs a web site called "The Truth About Hemp" that advocates the legalization of HEMP too! http://thetruthabouthemp.org
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"History, the Internet, and countless reference books prove that the founding fathers of our country grew and used hemp. Hemp was very good for everyone on earth - until about 1920 or so, when powerful men discovered how to import oil - and hemp, the world's most unique and useful crop, was renamed Marijuana, lies were invented and spread by media, and it was banned.

Natures best source of fiber, medicine, fuel, food, fabric, hope, peace, and much more - is currently forbidden. If it was legal, it would be used for low-cost food, fiber, paper, lumber, cloth, medicines, oil for cooking, and fuel for cars. Keeping it illegal does not stop hemp, it just limits the wonderful plant to be primarily grown illegally as "marijuana". It's time to change laws so this plant regains it's Royal status in Nature, and let it help mankind again. "
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The folks in the discussion forum there agree with all of you intelligent and articulate people that history's most important plant should not be banned in this country. It was rope to use on ships: other historically notorious plants spread around the world only with the help of hemp sails and rope - until just recently. You would be welcome to join the discussion over there.

Whole new industries of Hemp to Paper / Hemp Seed Oil to Bio-Diesel Fuel / Hemp Clothing Manufacturers / and, yes, all the "Pot Smoking" related entertainment industries (pipes, bongs, rolling papers, vaporizers, etc) would spring to life or be renewed. The Country has "Cut off our noses to spite our faces" by spending billions to eradicate this plant, and anyone that lovingly touches it, from our nations soil. I say let both pot AND hemp be legal: and let the money flow!

I just want to say GOD bless all of the Cannabis growers world wide. It is people like you who put your ass on the line everyday, so that everyone can enjoy the kind herb. In Genisis on page 2 of the bible, GOD says, "I give you all green plants for food". He did not exclude cannabis. I answer to the MOST HIGH!! Peace, Love and Legalize!

Legalize Medical Marijuana

   As a society, we can’t continue to label substances legal or illegal because of government reasons. If drugs more harmful than marijuana are legal, marijuana too should be legalized for medical purposes.

 Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (joint) or in a pipe. It is also smoked in blunts, which are cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and refilled with a mixture of marijuana and tobacco. This mode of delivery combines marijuana's active ingredients with nicotine and other harmful chemicals. Marijuana can also be mixed in food or brewed as a tea. As a more concentrated, resinous form, it is called hashish; and as a sticky black liquid, hash oil. Marijuana smoke has a pungent and distinctive, usually sweet-and-sour odor.

    Marijuana has been grown for over five thousand years for use of many different things. The Chinese used marijuana to make rope for their fishing nets. Other ancient civilizations used marijuana for rope as well. The first American flags were made out of hemp. Hemp can be used today to make clothing and paper. If used for paper, marijuana would save oxygen because fewer trees would be chopped down.

    Getting “wasted” or stoned became popular in the United States during the 1920’s and 1930’s. From 1914 to 1931 twenty-nine states made marijuana illegal. Then it happened in the 1937, The Marijuana Tax Act passes making marijuana an illegal drug in the United States.

    But marijuana actually can help pain and other terrible diseases such as spinal cord injury from spinal cord disease, which is major trauma to the backbone.

   Cancer is a severe disease that can take place anywhere in the body such as the blood your bones and in the brain. A lot of cancer is untreatable or hard to deal with but marijuana can help relieve stress and pain.

    Lawmakers are considering changing marijuana from its current classification as a schedule 1 drug a category that includes more dangerous drugs like heroin, to a schedule II drug, like cocaine and morphine, which are available for medical use. The reclassification would give physicians the right to prescribe marijuana to patients whose medical conditions warrant  

 such treatment.        

   Many California doctors recommend the drug because they’ve seen salutary results with marijuana not found with its legal pill form equivalent, Marinol. For some reason, Marinol doesn’t take with many patients, who find relief by smoking, drinking or eating marijuana. Marijuana, they say relieve their nausea, mitigates that ravages of some diseases and increases appetites depressed by chemotherapy.

   Even the federally funded report by the Institute of Medicine Conceded that smoking marijuana might provide relief for some patients. Unfortunately the federal government resists scientific inquiry into therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and relies on falsehoods in making policy.  

   The Legalization of Medical Marijuana is one of the most controversial issues we face today as a society. There are many advantages and disadvantages that are attached with smoking marijuana. Many people believe that this drug should be legalized for medical use, and others disagree. Even if marijuana is legalized, there are so many problems that people will have to face because of this drug. Either way you look at this situation people are going to smoke marijuana if it’s legal or not.

Legalize Medical Marijuana

   As a society, we can’t continue to label substances legal or illegal because of government reasons. If drugs more harmful than marijuana are legal, marijuana too should be legalized for medical purposes.

 Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (joint) or in a pipe. It is also smoked in blunts, which are cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and refilled with a mixture of marijuana and tobacco. This mode of delivery combines marijuana's active ingredients with nicotine and other harmful chemicals. Marijuana can also be mixed in food or brewed as a tea. As a more concentrated, resinous form, it is called hashish; and as a sticky black liquid, hash oil. Marijuana smoke has a pungent and distinctive, usually sweet-and-sour odor.

    Marijuana has been grown for over five thousand years for use of many different things. The Chinese used marijuana to make rope for their fishing nets. Other ancient civilizations used marijuana for rope as well. The first American flags were made out of hemp. Hemp can be used today to make clothing and paper. If used for paper, marijuana would save oxygen because fewer trees would be chopped down.

    Getting “wasted” or stoned became popular in the United States during the 1920’s and 1930’s. From 1914 to 1931 twenty-nine states made marijuana illegal. Then it happened in the 1937, The Marijuana Tax Act passes making marijuana an illegal drug in the United States.

    But marijuana actually can help pain and other terrible diseases such as spinal cord injury from spinal cord disease, which is major trauma to the backbone.

   Cancer is a severe disease that can take place anywhere in the body such as the blood your bones and in the brain. A lot of cancer is untreatable or hard to deal with but marijuana can help relieve stress and pain.

    Lawmakers are considering changing marijuana from its current classification as a schedule 1 drug a category that includes more dangerous drugs like heroin, to a schedule II drug, like cocaine and morphine, which are available for medical use. The reclassification would give physicians the right to prescribe marijuana to patients whose medical conditions warrant  

 such treatment.        

   Many California doctors recommend the drug because they’ve seen salutary results with marijuana not found with its legal pill form equivalent, Marinol. For some reason, Marinol doesn’t take with many patients, who find relief by smoking, drinking or eating marijuana. Marijuana, they say relieve their nausea, mitigates that ravages of some diseases and increases appetites depressed by chemotherapy.

   Even the federally funded report by the Institute of Medicine Conceded that smoking marijuana might provide relief for some patients. Unfortunately the federal government resists scientific inquiry into therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and relies on falsehoods in making policy.  

   The Legalization of Medical Marijuana is one of the most controversial issues we face today as a society. There are many advantages and disadvantages that are attached with smoking marijuana. Many people believe that this drug should be legalized for medical use, and others disagree. Even if marijuana is legalized, there are so many problems that people will have to face because of this drug. Either way you look at this situation people are going to smoke marijuana if it’s legal or not.

Sites

"Legal Marijuana: It’s Coming, Whether You Like it or Not." one penny sheet. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2010. <www.onepennysheet.com/2009/11/legal-marijuana-its-coming-whether-you-like-it-or-not-stop-the-drug-war-drcnet/>.

Minamide, Elaine. Medical Marijuana . farmington hills, mi: Elaine Minamide , 2007. Print.

Amar, Mohamed. "Cannabinoids in medicine: A review of their therapeutic potential." Ethnopharmacology 1.1 (2006): 24. Print.

"MMS: Error." MMS: Error. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199708073370621>.

Head, Tom. "Why Marijuana is Illegal - Top 7 Reasons Why Marijuana is Illegal." Civil Liberties at About.com - Your Guide to Civil Liberties News and Issues. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. <http://civilliberty.about.com/od/drugpolicy/tp/Why-is-Marijuana-Illegal.htm>.