She Who Will Be Obeyed! has a post about a family who was suspected of growing marijuana because they had a high utility bill.
The only thing the family was guilty of was using a lot of electricity.
I've stated before that I think marijuana, medicinal or recreational, should be legal. This doesn't mean that I think its sale should be unrestricted or that it should be available to anyone of any age.
It could be taxed so not only would we save government money in trying to find and arrest users (or harass innocent people), it would be a good source of tax income.
It could be controlled for quality. You may be thinking, who cares if someone gets stuck with some low quality ditchweed, but that's not the control I'm thinking about. It's making sure that nothing else (PCP or pesticides, for example) has been added to it.
One reason I've heard for prohibiting the use of marijuana is that it is a "gateway drug". I don't believe that everyone who uses it will go on to harder drugs and those that do may do so because they are buying them from someone who also sells other illegal drugs and wants to move their customers up to a higher profit (or more addictive) product. Buy it from a legal retail source and that contact is gone.
I'm basing my opinion on what I knew about people who bought and used marijuana about 20-something years ago. Maybe it's all changed but if it has, I'm betting that the chances of getting an adulterated drug or of being encouraged to try something stronger has gotten worse, not better.
Drug War Rant has a brief history of the ciminalization of marijuana. Read it, read other sources. Weigh the evidence objectively and make up your own mind.
Posted by marybeth at March 31, 2004 12:01 PM Other Stuff