Ha! Amusing stuff, Nicole...

Cruiser, that was a well-reasoned response, and I understand your position perfectly. Sounds like you feel about the same regarding drugs as I do. I spent the 70's surrounded by people who indulged in pot, hash, etc on a casual or frequent basis...had the long hair and the look...was a musician...and didn't indulge. They thought I was a bit odd. It's because pot is such a mild, innocuous drug that I object to it being illegal, because that results in essentially harmless people getting in trouble with the law unnecessarily, and it ties up a lot of police officers in what I regard as unproductive work.

Here's what I would do regarding pot if I were "king of the world", as you say:

1. I would make it perfectly legal to grow the stuff...privately...and smoke it...privately. That would immediately remove it from being a criminal issue, and would take it out of the hands of organized crime.

2. I would make it absolutely illegal to SELL it through any storefront or advertisment or official commercial operation...or under any advertised brandname...or in any package except a plain old unmarked baggy or paper bag. That would take it out of the hands of big business, whose attitude toward any and all legal drugs is: "How can we glamorize this drug and get as many people as possible hooked on it through aggressive advertising and fancy packaging."

3. I would not prosecute people for growing and smoking their own or sharing it privately with friends or selling a small, limited quantity of it...as they might do with some tomatoes they grew in their garden, for example. That's their business.

Now, my feeling is that under such a legal system the very same people would end up smoking pot who already do...although some might actually not bother, because it wouldn't have the allure of being "forbidden" any longer. Forbidden things are very attractive to rebellious teenagers.

Cops, on the other hand, would have a lot more time to deal with stuff that really matters.

And the power to decide would be in the hands of ordinary people, where it should be, instead of in the hands of criminals and cops.

I think this would work far better than making it illegal has. I still know many, many people who smoke pot now and then...and not one of them is any danger to society. They should be left alone.

However, my basic feeling about the drug is the same as yours. I don't get why people think they need something like that in their lives. But the fact is...they think they do. And they will continue to, regardless of laws that don't work.

How can it be illegal to grow and harvest a naturally occuring plant? The very idea is ridiculous. If I could, I would make 100 trillion marijuana plants sprout up everywhere in North America just to show how ridiculous an idea it is...it would be too much to deal with, the price of pot would hit rock bottom (a penny a pound), the cops would give up trying to do anything about it, and people would find something else to get worked up about. They'd probably even get bored with the whole idea of pot and stop smoking it. :-) A far more useful purpose for that plant is to make a very strong fabric.

- LH