I would rather deal with a person who is high than drunk any day.

As for my views on it ...

I think it should be legalized and taxed like tobacco (tobacco is 40% taxes) and controlled like liquor (21 and over, DUI, etc.).

The problem the government has with legalizing it for real is that anyone can grow it anywhere, so they don't have total control over it no matter what.

Some things left out are that the stalk can be used for fabric, oils, and many other things as well. Unlike tobacco it can be grown both year round as well as repeatedly on the same land (tobacco is grown one year and the land has to be fallow for 2 - 3 years).

There are many other reasons why it should be allowed but basically it isn't because tobacco companies as well as alcohol companies would stand to lose billions every year in sales.

The government says its because they don't know what it does and yet they have identified each and every chemical in both the plant as well as the smoke, tobacco has at least 200+ chemicals that can't be identified. There are no carcinogens in marijuana and there have been no deaths directly caused by it.

Yeah its bad to ingest smoke into your lungs so there will be some issues there, but far less than with tobacco, or the damage alcohol does to the system.