I have a lot of friends and family who smoke pot, and the majority of them are pretty vocal about wanting it legalized. Let me make perfectly clear right off the bat that I'm not coming at this as an "anti-pot" guy because I personally don't give a shit if they legalize it, and it doesn't bother me that people smoke. I've done my share of illegal substances.
But goddamn are pot advocates some of the most annoying fucking people on the planet. I'm not talking about the average Joe who just wishes it were legal. Hell, those people are inching into the majority and comprise a significant portion of our own audience. I'm talking about the people who push it so hard that they're just short of going door to door, like Mormons. And they get so aggressive and misguided in their arguments that I'm pretty sure that they are their own worst enemy at this point.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-pro-marij
Some good wisdom here, I think.
My personal belief why marijuana should be legal comes from a couple of reasons that were only partly covered by the article.
First is that, as best I can tell from both my own personal experience and from the scientific studies done, pot is no worse than alcohol. So if you believe that legal adults should have the right to drink Jagermeister (which I do, even though personally the stuff makes me gag) then you should also believe that legal adults should have the right to smoke weed. All the same reasons apply to both.
The article argues that the marijuana/alcohol danger comparison "doesn't matter" because weed is still dangerous enough, regardless of where that danger level comes in relative to alcohol. But personally I'm libertarian enough to believe that you are the owner of your body, and the FDA isn't. This isn't to say that the FDA shouldn't have the right to test and label every drug under the sun - I believe they should. I'm just saying that if you want to take risks with your own body that don't endanger other people (like say motorcycling, skydiving, rock climbing without a top-rope, or ingesting nicotine), then you should have that right. Also, the article seems to base part of its "marijuana is still dangerous" argument on the fact that most people use smoking as their delivery mechanism for THC. As a person whose marijuana experience involved (highly potent) pot brownies, let me assure you that THC works plenty fine when eaten, and smoking it is not necessary in any way.
Second is an economic issue. The article does a good job debunking the whole "marijuana will save the economy!!!1!!" myth, and I fully agree with it on that score. But the economic issue I'm thinking of is the one about how Mexican drug cartels make their money. I just recently read that the official line from DC is that Mexican drug cartels make 60% of their income from smuggling pot. Some other studies suggest that number is way overblown, and the real number could be as small as 15%. Still, wouldn't it be nice to kick those motherfuckers in the balls by legalizing pot? I certainly can't think of a more deserving group of murderous thugs to give a swift kick in the teeth. And it would be a victory for US citizen's civil rights at the same time. Now I realize that regardless of what the number really is, legalizing pot won't put the Mexican drug cartels out of business. But I still say that this is a no-brainer.
Lastly, if the nationwide experience with marijuana legalization unfolds in a similar fashion to how things have gone in Colorado so far, legalizing and regulating marijuana will cause about as much damage and disruption to society as a strong spring rainstorm...