SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGALIZED? PRO-

Let me clear the air on why marijuana should be legalized.

First of all, let's get things straight: I do not smoke pot. I have
smoked pot before but can count the number of times on one hand and
haven't touched it in more than five years.

But I will argue into the ground why those who like to partake in a
little bit of the puff-puff should be able to do so legally.

The recent media frenzy over that "scandalous" picture of Michael
Phelps smoking the reefer is a prime example of the need to make it
legal. Come on, people, the man won eight gold medals and broke world
records in swimming. I'd say he's entitled to a toke or two.

People will argue that marijuana is a dangerous, addictive
drug.

Guess what? So are tobacco and alcohol.

The number of deaths when comparing alcohol and tobacco to marijuana
is staggering -- 400,000 people in the U.S. die each year from
tobacco-related causes, and 100,000 from alcohol-related ones,
according to a National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bureau of Mortality
Statistics report.

Guess what the number of deaths attributed to weed are? Goose
egg.

That's right, zero.

Alcohol and tobacco are far more lethal than all illegal drugs
combined, which chalk up 15,000 deaths per year.

Just to get things straight, I am NOT implying that we should go the
other way and make alcohol and tobacco illegal. We all know how well
Prohibition worked in the 1920s and 30s.

Legalizing pot would stabilize prices and put the responsibility of
selling it into the hands of legitimate business owners rather than
padding the pocket of some deadhead dealer. Plus, the government would
be able to set age limits and impose a tax on it, which couldn't do
anything but help our current sorry excuse for an economy.

Federal spending to incarcerate drug offenders totals about $3 billion
a year, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In
2001, prisoners sentenced for drug offenses constituted the largest
group of federal inmates -- 55 percent, according to Bureau of Justice
statistics.

Police arrested an estimated 723,627 people for marijuana violations
in 2001, according to the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report. This
statistic far outnumbers the total number of arrests for all violent
crimes combined, including murder, forcible rape and aggravated assault.

I don't know about anyone else, but that disturbs me more than a
little bit.

The money to arrest and imprison marijuana offenders isn't appearing
out of thin air -- it's coming out of taxpayers' pockets. That
disturbs me as well. I know I'm not the only one.

Lastly, medical marijuana is already legal in 13 states. Why not go
the whole nine yards and make it legal, period?

The arguments for the legalization of marijuana far outweigh the
arguments for keeping it illegal. Is it going to happen? Probably not.
Our new "President for Change" has already made it clear on his Web
site, change.gov, that he is against it.

As it is, the government is making our right for using tobacco go up
in smoke. However, if the issue were placed on a ballot, I, as well as
many others, I'm sure, would be very interested to see the outcome.