Are you trying to be funny, Henry? I think you must be. At least 90% of the entire generation of young people I grew up in would have qualified to be "shot on sight" under what you suggest, and that's a conservative estimate. Yeah...you must be trying to be funny, I guess.

Then too, we could shoot all the drinkers and smokers as well, because just LOOK at how many people end up in emergency rooms and cancer wards due to that! And look at all the violence and property damage that results from drinking. Ouch.

Hell, let's just kill all of them now and make the world a less violent place for us....the GOOD people! ;-D I figure a program like that would reduce the population to a bare 5% of the present one, eliminate most lawyers and politicians too AND get rid of most of our relatives to boot. Pollution would be cut to a bare minimum. Nature would re-assert itself. There'd be enough land and food for all. It would be a paradise!

Why are we waiting???? (Heh!)

****

Sawzaw - Yeah, I agree with a number of things you said there, such as...

"I personally believe smoking pot takes away one's ambition. It may not be true for every one."

Seems like that to me, based on what I've seen over the years. It isn't true for all pot users, but it is for many...specially those who are regular smokers rather than occasional ones. I guess some are just more vulnerable than others. The same is true with alcohol...some people are very vulnerable to it, others are not much affected and don't tend to abuse it.

***

"Why not just eliminate all laws?" Not a valid point, Sawzaw. Laws are definitely needed against crimes which are a direct violation of someone else's freedom or that directly endanger and hurt others (murder, assault, theft, rape, break-ins, fraud, slander, reckless driving, running red lights, etc.). Laws are NOT needed against someone who limits his OWN freedom and health through his own stupidity. That is his own choice, and it is not a direct assault upon another human being or his property, therefore it is, in my opinion, no business of the legal community. If it was, we could jail people for overeating, not exercising regularly, watching too much TV, and spending too much time posting on Internet Talk Forums........YIKES!!!!!!!!!   ;-D

***

"As for the POT-US, we have a typical two faced politician grasping for power, not the hope and change guy that was going to change the way Washington works."

Amen!

And if you elect Romney...you'll have another. (sigh)

****

Regarding the people in drug gangs who kill each other on the streets of our cities... Well, I don't know anyone who isn't upset about that, "liberals" included. We're all upset about it. Legalizing pot wouldn't affect it one way or another, because the drug gangs would simply lose interest in pot and move to other illegal drugs...something they're already doing anyway. Isn't crack the favorite one these days? Should all addictive drugs be legalized? Well, I don't think they should be legalized for marketing purposes, and I don't recommend legalizing pot for marketing purposes. But I think that prosecuting users is the wrong approach. It's marketers of illegal substances who should be prosecuted, not users. Users, if they cannot control their levels of use sensibly, should be treated for a medical problem...not for being criminals. They aren't criminals. They're people with an addiction, and an addiction needs medical treatment and counseling, not punishment.

Medical treatment and counseling are far more complex, take a longer time, and cost more than just arresting people and throwing them in jail with REAL criminals...where they are likely to learn how to become real criminals...or maybe just hang themselves in despair.

I suggest, therefore, that it is the sheer laziness, stinginess, and lack of patience of the "good" people which causes them to favor throwing the despised drug user in jail. They can't be bothered actually addressing the problem in a way that might heal it. They're too short-tempered, too lazy, too stingy, and otherwise uninterested to bother.

That suggests to me that most of the so-called "good" people who want to jail the drug user are really just as irresponsible and good for nothing as the drug user himself....but they imagine themselves to be the height of respectability and propriety. Such pride goeth before a fall! ;-D

*****

My basic reaction to (the idea of using) pot was the same as yours. "I abstain(ed) because I realized that it affected my perception of reality." Bingo! That's exactly why I abstained. And it's also why I don't like to get drunk. I want my perception of reality to remain clear and natural. I trust reality as it is.