Alcohol VS Marijuana Debate

I am not a marijuana smoker and never have been any kind of smoker for that reason but what you say does interest me a little. I have always played devil's advocate when it comes to the marijuana vs. alcohol debate. It's not that I agree one way or the other but some interesting points have been brought to my attention. For example, which drug has ruined more people's lives via family members, individuals etc. The answer undoubtedly would be alcohol. I know first hand the terrible things that come from alcoholics and I should, there are six recovering alcoholics between both my mom and my dad's immediate family. For this reason and many others, I don't think the question is "IF" but "WHEN" is marijuana going to be legalized?

This is something that I have a similar opinion about. From a purely logical and factual standpoint, there is absolutely no reason why marijuana should be illegal while things like alcohol and tobacco are perfectly acceptable. Those two substances are very addictive while marijuana (at least from the sources I've heard) is not chemically addictive at all (although it is still of course possible to become psychologically addicted, as with anything).

Therefore it is interesting to think about why it might be that marijuana is not legal. It has this stigma about it that hints at marijuana being much more dangerous than the facts actually prove that it is. I've seen anti-marijuana advertisements from decades ago claiming that weed will cause you to go insane or even murder people. Though I don't remember exactly why this campaign was still prominent, I wonder if it is actually the work of these radical advertisements and the fact that people are not very educated about it that has caused marijuana to maintain its "dangerous" identity in our culture today.

I think that you bring up really interesting points. I agree with you in the fact that doing harm to ourselves is our decision and that it only becomes an issue when we harm others. I think that the problem with legalizing marijuana is that it would be difficult to put many restrictions on it and it would be hard to put different limits on it. I do think that it is wrong that alcohol and tobacco are legal when all the facts prove that they can be more harmful to us than marijuana. I think that the arguments people could make to make alcohol illegal could be some very strong ones, however we have tried that before (prohibition) and it proved to have more negative effects than positive ones.

I agree that it might be hard to legalize marijuana at first but after awhile it'll turn into exactly what alcohol is like now-a-days. They'll have to be an age limit, be it 18 or 21, restrictions one when and where it can be used and whatever rules are deemed necessary. But legalizing marijuana will eventually happen sometime soon and I say this just because more and more people are trying it and smoking it regularly and it's already been legalized in I think 16 states. Eventually they'll have to either invest A LOT into stopping marijuana from being used or they could legalize it and make a lot money from it and it’s by product hemp. I just feel that the pros for legalization outweigh all the cons.

I agree that there is a very interesting debate about the government regulations on alcohol and marijuana. Medical marijuana is legalized in 16 states, but no recreational use is permitted by the federal government yet. I think economic reasons is one of the largest factors with regards to changing any standing laws. For example, people being able to grow their own marijuana would take away from important tax benefits and no pricey tickets could be handed out. On the other hand, alcohol can be made at home, but it is a more complicated and time consuming project so not as many people do.