So, I can't really speak for the US, but I'll speak for Canada, where at least 80% of our population has at least already tried MarijuanaMarijuana should be legalized, I think, especially in Canada. You can't really call 80% of the country criminals... and in 2001, according to a Globe and Mail study, 47% of Canadians were for the legalization of marijuana (probably more now). There are 6 major points I see that make sense as to the legalization of weed.

1. The most obvious reason why the government would choose to legalize weed: profit. From http://www.rxdirect2u.com/marijuana_...030716-01.html :

"$170 Billion : around 15% of the entire GDP for the country in 2001. We could give every man, woman and child in Canada five hundred dollars every year, and have about $20 Billion left for foreign aid."

The government taxes alcohol and cigarettes and makes massive profits off that... why not this? BC in particular would profit.

2. Marijuana, according to a University of Pennsylvania study, is not as addictive (if at all) as alcohol or cigarettes.

3. There have never been any deaths directly linked to marijuana, ever, as there have been (obviously) with alcohol and cancer-causing cigarettes. Obviously it's not good for your lungs, but is still better than cigarettes and cigars, and people smoke those daily.

4. Marijuana, for the most part, evokes a non-aggressive and peaceful mood in the user, usually resulting in increased relaxation and comfort.

5. People say that Marijuana is a "gateway drug" (you probably heard this in CAPP class or something, or from your parents). The biggest reason for this is because you "never know what's in it" or "if it's been laced with something". Well, if it was grown by, and came from, the government instead of some sketchy guy in a puffy jacket on a street corner... then wouldn't you know exactly what was in it, and all the inherent risks associated with it? Wouldn't there be no more reason to fear random drugs in your weed?

6. The biggest, and maybe the only, reason that marijuana is illegal is the very status it has of being illegal, as paradoxal as that sounds. Most historians would agree that Emily Murphy's [I]The Black Candle (published in 1922) was the most influential anti-marijuana writing. Murphy writes in the book that

"When coming from under the influence of (marijuana), the victims present the most horrible condition imaginable. They are dispossessed of their natural and normal willpower, and their mentality is that of idiots. If this drug is indulged to any great extent, it ends in the untimely death of its addict."

Is it just me, or is this a gross exaggeration? Emily Murphy's numerous anti-drug articles were published in Maclean's magazine and primarily relied on anecdotal evidence from rich, conservative white women and police officers. Murphy's writings "make strong links between drugs and race and the threat this poses to white women." In fact, Murphy was somewhat of a racist, or at least someone who holds prejudices and stereotypes against African Americans. In The Black Candle she writes that

"many Negroes are law-aiding and altogether estiminable, but contrariwise, many are obstinately wicked persons, earning their livelihood as freeranging pedlars (sic) of poisonous drugs."

This has been cited as the work that caused the induction of Marijuana to the Canadian Confidential Restricted List in 1923, thus making it illegal.

So really, if you look at it, the only reason it became illegal in the first place was one person's racist and extremely conservative opinion that the entire world would just succumb to idiocracy if weed wasn't illegal. Well, people in almost every career field smoke it today. So that view is as good as nothing. As I said in my 5th point, many people fear the legalization because of its "gateway" status, but that also contradicts itself in relation to legalization. To a large degree, Stephen Harper (who is a Yankee ass-kisser in my opinion) just tries to follow the USA's "War on Drugs" which seems to be failing miserably, anyway. With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics coming up, perhaps American companies would stop sponsorship, or perhaps less conservative Americans would venture above the border; but many, many profits would be made off this. It seems like a win-win situation.

Also, I just read a post about wanting the US gov't to allow you to grow like 4 plants with registration... I think that's a great idea.

I didn't read all that because it's probably the same old recycled info, but I personally disagree with legalization in Canada.

EDIT: Just read it, and yeh it was.

I got arrested in Quebec and I had some weed in my pocket too and they says since this is Quebec they'll forget about the weed. They just took it off me.

Isnt it decriminalized in Canada?

Anyway, I dont care if it's ever legalized in the US. Aslong as they decriminalize it.

Yeh, it is. IMO it's working great, with the exception that cops love to confiscate expensive glass paraphernalia.