[TKDietz]

There are a lot of us that neither smoke it nor have any desire to smoke it who think marijuana should be legal. People who argue that marijuana should be legalized all have their reasons, and certainly not all of them want it legal so they can smoke it. In fact, for the most part people who want to smoke marijuana already smoke it, regardless of its legal status. Do you think the tiny possibility of getting caught on a misdemeanor crime is keeping many people from smoking marijuana? Most pot smokers never get caught, even if they are heavy smokers for years and years on end.

You say there are no good reasons for legalizing marijuana, and then you mentioned a couple right in your post. You talked about legitimate medical reason why people might want to use it, and then you said marijuana ought to be at least regulated. I agree that it should be regulated. As it is the marijuana industry is entirely unregulated and run by a bunch of criminals who make a lot of money they use to fund other criminal enterprises. If it was legal, the industry would be regulated. Regulators could help insure that the product is as safe as it’s can be. The shops that sell it can be regulated and face stiff penalties for selling to anyone under the legal age, and so on. The increased ability to actually regulate the industry is one of the “justifications” for legalizing it. There are plenty of other good reasons for legalizing it. You may not agree with any of these arguments, but a lot of us, whether we smoke pot or not, do agree with a lot of the various arguments for legalizing marijuana. That does not make us all “pot heads” or or “pro-druggies.”

[elfman2]

"Do you think the tiny possibility of getting caught on a misdemeanor crime is keeping many people from smoking marijuana?"

Absolutely. In the 80s, people were booted from the Marines after their second marijuana offense. (And their first ruined their career.) The thing that most kept me clean was the $17k of college benefits I had from 4 years in the Marines, but I had to be eligible for reenlistment to get them (aka, no drug convictions). I don’t think a major accounting firm like one I worked in would hire someone with a recent marijuana conviction. I presume it’s the same across a wide range of industry. People may or may not be in those kinds of jobs, but many if not most imagine they could be one day.

I might get high on occasion if it was legal, but I don’t want to deal with the risks, much less the drug culture. There are good arguments for legalization, but no increase in use is not one of them.