Drug: something to be used for medicinal purposes; to aid,alleviate, treat and or cure ailments. Now should it be legalized for such use, I believe so. However (sorry to rain on your parade drug addicts) it should be regulated through FDA and its distribution and treatment measures monitored by the state and federal governments. Another thing that bothers me about this thread. Alcohol is not and has never been a drug. At best the only thing you can use alcohol for in a hospital is to sterilze open wounds. So i don't see where we get off saying alcohol and weed are the same thing. Alcohol is a highly addictive substance that resusts in thousands of deaths every year. I can't ever remeber opening a paper and finding an article about someone dying from a "weed induced" automotive accident or a weed related diesease. No but i bet all of you can think of someone who was killed in a DUI, or died from alcohol poisioning,or perhaps cancer and or cirrohsiss of the liver which is related to alcohol abuse. Weed is only lethal if you smoke it your entire life. Yes boys and girls..smoking kills you. Drug addicts typically move from weed to the drugs that kill them,e.i: meth,coke,crack,opium,prescription drugs and even over the counter medication. So lets stop trying to compare alcohol to any other substance as a way to get it legalized. It is just plain stupid.

Get educated. Do a google search on marijuana and car accidents. If it were legal, the number of people driving smoking the weed would skyrocket. So would the accidents. Evidently your family as never been touched by a drunk driving death. We need stronger alcohol and driving laws -get caught driving under the influence, confiscate the car, sell it, and give the money to the school system.

No. But mushrooms are alright? Herbs of any kind is alright?
There are poisonous things in nature that's prone to kill you, stay away, but marijuana has never killed anybody. Be realistic man!

I tend to be somewhat conservative but I also try to be intellectually honest about things. This war on drugs has been the biggest failure and the biggest waste of money since the dawn of time. Putting anyone in prison for a non-violent related drug offense is just stupid--as there are violent criminals being let out early, you know, for good behavior. That's another issue that makes me want to freaking lose it, but I'll save my fury for "good behavior" for another time.

Back to the original question. YES, we should. I hear and read all the time about "Drunk man gets in fight, stabs girlfriend." Is it just me or do I never hear about "Man, high on pot, goes postal on girlfriend." I NEVER hear about that. And that is because it does not happen.

And you know, I don't even care about the addictive/non-addictive aspect of this argument. Even if it IS addictive--so is caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol--all legal. We need to stop thinking we can get people to stop doing what makes them feel good. Some people like pot. I'm not one of them but I've never been nearly hit by a stoned driver.

I don't mean to suggest that we should stock the shelves of Wal*Mart with bongs and weed tomorrow right along side Percocet and Vicodin but we should have some real discussions about this issue and stop with the idea that this stuff is the white elephant in the room.

We are talking about pot, not every drug on earth and it needs to start there. It is not my job to tell a person how to live and to be honest, if a person wants to smoke pot every hour of every day, I might think him a moron for not making a bit more out of his life, but it's still not my right to stop such behavior--that is on him. If he is leaving mine to me and not hurting anyone--smoke away.

--Drew

Actually the arguement that marijuana is a gateway drug is false. The truth is marijuana is usually the second drug that people try. Alcohol is the first, and hence, gateway drug of most individuals.

The gateway drug arguement is also spurious. What the arguement says is that if you try marijuana you will eventually try harder drugs, like heroin. What the evidence of the agrument actually suggests is that people who are willing to try illegal drugs, are willing to try different types of illegal drugs, nothing more. But ask, and you will find that 95% of all potheads, drank alcohol first.

I don't think this thread is about alcohol, but thank you for your insight?

I hate to burst your bubble, but stoner driving is not something to worry about. Oh, they might be a little inatentive, but I doubt the pot driver is very dangerous. At least not near as dangerous as say, a person talking on a phone, texting, reading or (and yes I saw this one in traffic the other day) or using their laptop while driving.

Anyone who thinks stoner drivers are going to be running over busloads of nuns, obviously has never partaken themselves.

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20051201/marijuana-raises-risk-of-fatal-car-crash

The study also showed that drivers who tested positive for marijuana were more than three times as likely to be responsible for the fatal car crash. Researchers say the likelihood of being at fault increased as the blood concentration of marijuana increased.

People can't stop with one drink
People can't stop with one joint.
If you could buy marijuana like cigarettes people would smoke them like cigaretes and people would drive and kill.

But they are all damaging to your health. So that means, in your opinion, that because alcohol is legal, thats why people drunk drive? So why not make alcohol illegal? No. Because its profitable for the government. So take taxes on marijuana.

Heh, I got to agree with you on this one.

The anti-drug war is the greatest trick the liberal left ever pulled on the conservative right. It is the largest public works project ever conceived. It employs hundreds of thousands of government employees costing the taxpayers millions a year. Yet the smoke screen is firmly in place with this gross "redistribution" of our wealth in a "socialist" fashion. Why aren't more Republicans up in arms about this "Anti-Drug War?"

I can agree on some of that Drew. But just because you smoke pot doesn't mean you're not doing something good with your life. I have met all kind of people who smoke weed, all from craft-workers to business men. It is proven that pot will limit your level of stress in a very high degree. And if your level of stress is subdued, so will your psychical health. The doctors tell you to drink a glass of red wine with your food because it will make it less likely for you to get a heart disease, right? But pot takes your stress level down on all momentum's. Of course, like all things, too much will damage you. Look at MacDonald's, they kill more people every year than marijuana makes people stoned. Marijuana is not lethal, it can, of course, be damaging if you're still very young, easily manipulated, or prone to addiction. Then you shouldn't smoke pot. Plus. I hate people who use marijuana with the term: Drug. Its not a drug, its simply a relaxation substance..

But they are all damaging to your health. So that means, in your opinion, that because alcohol is legal, thats why people drunk drive? So why not make alcohol illegal? No. Because its profitable for the government.