[headsonpikes]

Thank you for raising the level of civility on this thread.

I said, "I believe your concerns are valid. To me, the obvious solution to this conundrum is to treat marijuana and other common plants as beneath the dignity of the law. The law should simply not deal with weed, mushrooms, and such."

You replied, "The problem with this approach as I see it, is that most all drugs are natural. Penicillin is just a natural mold spore."

I should have explicitly stated 'unprocessed' plant material. Extracts or other refined or transformed products such as THC, heroin, cocaine, and penicillin are drugs like any other, as you point out, and must be regulated for purely utilitarian reasons, but not from some posture of moral improvement of the people by the state.

[SampleMan]

I should have explicitly stated 'unprocessed' plant material.

Thanks for the clarification. Let me ruminate on your idea for awhile. At least on the surface it seems like a good place to draw a line for those drafting a process of legalization. Its certainly more workable than the sledgehammer approach of constitutional mandate.