I need to take a step back from this discussion. I am not in a good mood anyways and this being a non professional setting is making me let my emotions on the subject at hand that much worse. I will gladly try and find more links if you want later on. However, I need to keep my opinion to myself I guess. I should not have entered a thread where I knew it would be pretty one sided on thoughts about it with my current mood. Thanks for the friendly discussions. I would recommend doing a bit of research on both sides to anyone though.

"And you think marijuana is going to be any different if it is made legel?"

Yes, I do think it will be different than alcohol and tobacco. Alcohol itself can kill people as well as by the actions of a person influenced by the substance.

"Hell, even in its current state people put crap in it."

That's true. That's why I said, weed that isn't laced.

"You do realize Tobacco was not always full of all this shit right?"

Yes, I do. That's why I said, "Tobacco (with dozens of man-made ingredients)."

"Also, where do you get Marijuana cannot kill you?"

Of course, someone under the influence of weed can get behind the wheel of a semi and drive into a Wal-Mart ,but I don't believe you can OD on weed. Most studies are inconclusive and/or contradictory in determining whether weed causes health problems, so I may or may not be wrong on that one since my source is from someone's health class report a few years back. If you can find somewhere that says a person can OD on weed, please post.

So instead of people smelling disgusting because they're been smoking cigarettes, they're going to reek of pot?

Personally, I think it's pretty stupid and I'm just going to leave it at that. I know it's cool to think pot is all good fun and doesn't hurt anyone, but everyone I know that regularly smoked it has had their life ruined because of it (and none of it due to any law). Personal bias I guess.

I never considered either one to be worse than the other due to how many contradictory claims on the subject are.

However, I believe that marijuana should be legal, since it is definitely no more dangerous than alcohol.

I think its a wonderful idea... Marijuana should absolutely be legalized. Its less harmful than alcohol or tobacco and it makes no sense to jail non-violent people for possession of this plant.

If your interested, here's the argument that turned me to believe legalizing drugs would be beneficial:

I don't know much about how bad it is for, but I think it should be legalized anyway because it's so easy to get illegally now, that it may as well be legal.

I agree with the legalization of marijuana. It's just a drug.

Great news. I don't smoke it anymore but the majority of my friends are regular smokers.

An interesting way to look at the issue is that if your a stoner then you should be against the legalisation as its already pretty dam easy to get hold of at pretty much any time, and the price will be increased greatly what with all the taxes.

Uhh, no they don't. And unless your buying a pre-rolled joint (which I've only seen in the projects) its pretty easy to see if it contains any other 'crap'. But even if you assume every dime bag sold is laced with crack, its still an irrelevant argument since legalization would also bring regulation.

Good thing smoking isn't the only way of consuming marijuana. Every dispensary I've been to in cali sells edibles, which is just THC baked into food, candies, added to drinks, even pill form. Or you can just use a vaporizer, which is just inhaling THC vapor without smoke. So why should marijuana be illegal just because smoking is harmful when plenty of other methods of consumption exist?

As for violence, I recently read that 7000 people were killed in Mexico last year as a direct result of the drug war. And thats not a bunch of gang members and smugglers being killed, politicians, law enforcement and their families are often the victims of targeted assassinations. Although most of the deaths are innocent bystanders.

And as for the money saved - I've also read that around 35 billion or so a year would be saved just by decriminalizing marijuana. States that have a 3 strikes law often require mandatory sentences in the range of 5yrs plus for anyone with a previous strike caught with marijuana on them.

SPOILER ALERT: tons of people are already driving while high. Making it legal wont suddenly cause people to start driving while high in droves.

But I would like to see your statistics on pot addicts.