JUST LEGALIZE IT ALREADY!

Montana citizens are again debating medical marijuana across the state
as the Legislature deadlocks on repeal and the Drug Enforcement
Administration raids local growers. Some people call it a crucial
medicine, others a social poison.

Here's an idea: Why not just legalize pot already? The federal
government turned marijuana into a demon in the early-to-middle 20th
century for political purposes, and the propaganda was successful. The
simple fact is that marijuana, while certainly not harmless, is one of
the most minor drugs known to man. Scientists have been unable to
establish a lethal dose of marijuana. Few, if any, deaths have ever
been attributed to it, even indirectly.

No, it is not a good thing, when people use marijuana, but it's not a
good thing when people eat McDonald's or smoke cigarettes either. We
all accept those behaviors as allowable vices, things to be
discouraged but not illegalized. There is no reason not to accept
marijuana for the same reasons. It is not as if people already don't.
Whether or not medical marijuana does help some, thousands of Montana
citizens light up legal and illegal weed every day solely to get high,
as anyone who's ever attended college can attest.

Most criticisms of marijuana are just, well, wrong. One legislator was
quoted as saying "it's destroying the fabric of our state." This is
typical political inanity; it not only fails to mention a single
actual fact, it's not even clear what "destroying the fabric" means.
That legislator may as well have been claiming the existence of Santa
Claus for all the evidence he has.

Yes, marijuana is unhealthy. Yes, medical marijuana is something of a
racket. Oh well - we're better off just letting go of unjustified,
decades-old prejudices.

Kevin Rouse

Missoula