Heavy usage can cause temporary memory lapses, and if you smoke it unfiltered it can cause throat cancer like cigarettes, cigars and such, but there really has been no definitive proof as to what the plant does to your brain. If anything, the inhalation of the smoke is what makes it unhealthy rather than the contents itself.

This might be taking it off-topic, but I would say that, if your sure it's 100% marajuana with no additions, it is less harmful, both physically and mentally, than alcohol.

Actually, there is some pretty compelling mental proof.

Additionally, filtered is actually worse then straight.  Using a water bong or a cigarette actually is worse for your throat ironically because you need to smoke more to get high.

Compelling, but nowhere near definitive. There are so many conflicting reports, that it's not even worth taking a stance either way.

I disagree.  There isn't anything outright conflicting.

There correlation is there.  It's all a matter of causation.  Of which there is some confliction... but not as much as you'd think.

It generally seems to be a 2 way street causation wise... that's where the "conflicts" pop up.

If you don't smoke it, why would you want it legalized?

Its not a bad idea since people smoke it anyways, but if we legalize it the government can control it more effectively and get lots of tax from it.

No, I want it legalized because the ONLY reason I have problems with drugs are ethical. It's your own body and you can do as you wish to it. When you buy drugs you are fueling the drug markets, which plague many countries. If people were to grow their own drugs for their own use then those markets would dry up and the issue would be a lot easier to deal with.

Good points. I agree with you in that sense.

Thats exactly why I want it legalised. It will bring in a lot of tax revenue and because the substance would be more standardised then it would become safer then it currently is. Though thats not a huge problem with marijuana anyway since its less harmful then many legal drugs. But taking money away from the drug cartels and putting it into the hands of legitimate businesses and the government is preferable in my mind.

There would be no point in taxing it because it would just mean it would be cheaper to buy it illegally (Presuming we're talking about controlled legalisation, where you can only buy it and smoke it in certain places and certain grades of skunk are illegalised) and would null the point of legalising it in the first place, Make it tax free to begin with in order to outprice and destroy the illegal market then gradually put a tax on at a rate which keeps it below the price illegal traders can afford to sell at. Combine this with laws to heavily punish people selling it to children and importing skunk and other thing that government would want to control and you should have a decent system. Another Idea might be to nationalise the drug industry and control it that way (I would be in favour of this option).

OT: You REALLY should the reportage: "Super HIGH me" from the comedian Doug Benson. It's a parody of the movie "Super size me" but instead of eating MCDonalds food, he smokes weed. First, he doesn't smoke for 30 days while his mental and physical status is monitored. Then, he smokes weed for 30 days nonstop. His status is watched, too. If you want to see the results, go see the movie. Very interesting. You could learn a lot about Marijuana.