[willy]

Just some thoughts from someone who has been literally on both sides of the issue in his life.
Cannabis should not be in the same spectrum as the scheduled narcotics and prescription drugs. To do so is as hypocritcal as you can possibly be. Alchohol is much more potentially damaging to society as a whole and it is regulated sold taxed and used thru out the world.
Having used it as a guy growing up and when I was in the service I am very familiar with it.
Once I decided to pursue law enforcement as a career and took an oath of office that put an end to that.
Had it been legalized I probably would have been an occassional user and likely as responsible about it as I have been about alcohol, which I have been known on occassion to dabble in. Can you say nationwide stash.
That being said I have also observed as I am sure many of you have in your lives that some people can drink all night and walk around and act perfectly normal, some have a glass of cheap wine and become your dream date. All in all my observations with mary jane is that other than laughing at sh!t that aint funny and wanting to love the whole world with a giant hug and snacking too much the occassioanl user is very non-offensive.
The effects driving while not as profound as alchohol are none the less very dangerous and Randle is absolutely right on the money with that.
I believe the best course of action is to do with it the same thing that is done with alchohol, regulate tax and control it. Abusers should be treated with the proceeds when needed as should be done with booze too. The fact that it is not done now is another one of the greed crimes our government is guilty of.
The benefits to the US society as a whole would far outweigh the costs, and it would stop making hypocritical criminals of our citizens. If you grew it for your own use or gifting to friends as we do now with wine beer etc. the police should have no buisness being involved with you.
In places where it is decriminalized now there has been no outrageous spikes of abuse or accidents. That says a lot to me.
To put some guy in a lock up for using it in his own home or growing his own is just ludicrous to me. Having common sense restrictions and some professions that have an absolute ban on its use like pilots train operators police officers etc. just as we do with alchohol would serve us all well and save us billions.
JMHO