I decided to make a new post about this to get real feedback from everybody. Voice your opinion and maybe why you believe it should or should not be legal.
Personally, I think they should start out small, and legalize medical marijuana. Depending on how that would turn out, maybe take bigger steps to making this "drug" (i think of it more as a medicine), in fact, legal. It would free up tons of space in the jails, and abolish the "mandatory minimum sentence" bullshit, and make more room for murders and rapists. Doing this would give a good chunk of money back to the community for things that matter like, education, and maybe treatment (not like you would need it, but, like every other substance on this earth-- it's not made for everyone). Not only getting money from that, they have so many oportunities to do what the government does best (take your money, that is). If they do decide to legalize it, think of how much money they can make off of taxing marijuana. I would say, millions, at least.
What about health reasons?
I found this website to help back up my reasoning behind this:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/armentano-p/ ... no-p10.htm
I picked out some of the highlights in the report and pasted them below for the lazy.
"In a recent preclinical study – the irony of which is obvious to anyone who reads it – researchers at the US National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) reported that the administration of the non-psychoactive cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) reduced ethanol-induced cell death in the brain by up to 60 percent. "
"Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon found that the administration of synthetic cannabinoids in rats stimulated the proliferation of newborn neurons (nerve cells) in the hippocampus region of the brain and significantly reduced measures of anxiety and depression-like behavior. "
"Investigators at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute reported that the administration of THC on human glioblastoma multiforme cell lines decreased the proliferation of malignant cells and induced apoptosis (programmed cell death) more rapidly than did the administration of the synthetic cannabis receptor agonist, WIN-55,212-2. Researchers also noted that THC selectively targeted malignant cells while ignoring healthy ones in a more profound manner than the synthetic alternative. Patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme typically die within three months without therapy."
"Most recently, a scientific analysis in the October issue of the journal Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry noted that, in addition to THC and CBD's brain cancer-fighting ability, studies have also shown cannabinoids to halt the progression of lung carcinoma, leukemia, skin carcinoma, colectoral cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer."
edit: for more information on marijuana law reform- http://www.norml.org/