main argument for legalization is that prohibiting its use has not proven effective. Legalization would eliminate the black-market flow, and the cost of law enforcement against it. Government regulation would generate a tax revenue, and permit better control over the safety and quality of the product. "The major disadvantage of legalizing marijuana is that its use would undoubtedly increase and with that, the possible harm to health, development, behavior, and public safety would also increase. This liability must be weighed against the problems of continuing to prohibit the supply. One should remember, however, that reductions for penalties in the use of marijuana have not caused more people to believe that the drug is safe." [1] If I had children, I wouldn't want them smoking marijuana. But, neither would I want them drinking alcoholic beverages, nor smoking cigarettes or using other tobacco products. Once an adult, the choice should be up to the individual, I feel. My feelings are based predominantly on the fact that alcohol and tobacco are both as lethal as they are legal. There is an inconsistency in the law, and that's what I don't like about it. I feel that too many of our tax dollars are going to this so-called "war on drugs," and that the police and the courts have more pressing issues to deal with and straighten out than who's smoking marijuana. I feel that most of the anti-marijuana propaganda is all just so much hype, just a smokescreen to divert the average person's attention away from the real problems facing American society today. And, I believe also that it is a ploy, more than anything, to benefit a select few private interests which are profiting from keeping it illegal. I see no overly-convincing evidence of harm to society from an individual's personal use of marijuana. In the final analysis, in debating the base issue of whether or not marijuana should be re-legalized, I am reminded of a line in the book "In Touch...
