I like how people that don't smoke pot, or haven't even dealt with what they are talking about, think they know what they are talking about. First off, most of the pot in the US isn't from Mexico. The pot would be in such poor quality, only an idiot would buy it. Most of the pot comes from California. My dealer would get his pot by mail. If pot were to be legalized, it would be taxed just like anything else, and we wouldn't have to spend the resources to enforce it anymore. That means we as a society and tax payer will not only save money but make it as well. All the other arguments about....I don't even know what, are just blind attempts to prove the other side is wrong. I can't even follow the logic it is so bad.
Why do you automatically assume that when someone is under the influence of marijuana, they are automatically at fault for an accident? Have you smoked pot? Have you driven stoned? I'm telling everyone this straight up. If you gave me a bag of weed and then told me to drive, I will never get into an accident. NEVER. Even if I were to encounter a drunk driver (as I have in the past while stoned) I would just ease on the brakes and let the idiot drive on by.
Now my stance is on legalizing marijuana, but that doesn't not mean it isn't a drug. I essentially wasted eight years of my life smoking pot. I learned a lot, and a lot of it I learned the hard way, but it was lessons that needed to be learned. Because pot is a weak drug, is probably why I think it might be one of the most dangerous. If you go into a rehabilitation center, and you talk to every coke, crack, heroin, opium, meth, and pill popper, they will all say they started on weed and booze. This is why the whole Gateway Drug phenomenon was started by the government, because they noticed that occurring. Unfortunately, I feel the gateway drug concept only applies to a certain population of people, the people with very heavy addictive personalities.
Everybody's brain is different. Some people when they smoke pot, get the munchies. Some, don't. Some do, but it might be a couple of weeks till they experience it. Some will be auditory stoners (me) and some would be visual. Some would be taste, and some would be touch. Some brains are way more addictive than others. Some brains, the moment they get that first high or those first couple of blunts, they are off to the races on getting high as much as they can as frequently as they can. Then, eventually pot won't really cut it anymore, and they graduate to a more potent high.
Some brains, as I know one personally, smoke pot their entire lives. THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is a weak acid. That basically means there is small disassociation when the THC reacts with the neurons. This is another reason why pot is dangerous as this man is a testimony to. He smoke pot daily since the 60's, and I can tell you personally he is a burn out now. He can barely keep a conversation. That is because even though THC reacts just a little tiny bit with the neurons, there is still a reaction. So over the years, his neurons has steadily deteriorated.
So I have said in the past, based on our current laws in place, there is no reason why marijuana should remain illegal. Alcohol is way more toxic than weed, as well as tobacco. With that said, marijuana is still a drug and there are dire consequences if a person decides to go that route in life. This is why drugs are a public health issue, not a legal or domestic one. Sending a pot head into jail isn't helping him. What would help him would be to send him into a rehabilitation center where addiction is best understood. Yes, there will be addicts who will not benefit from rehabilitation, and they will probably eventually die. However, it is worth to have these rehabilitation centers for the minority few that are able to benefit from it, like myself. Going to drug rehabilitation was one of the best things that has ever happened to me, and I learned the most in rehab at one time than at any point in my life.
I hope this post gives you a more accurate perception of drugs and its effects on society. Cops should pull people over for being tired if they are pulling people over for driving and being stoned. It really is that simple. That is why when you see a police officer arrest someone for possession of marijuana, you should point and laugh at him, because he thinks he is helping society, but really he is just making life harder for the stoner. He isn't helping anyone.