REGULATE POT LIKE ALCOHOL

Recently I heard a speech about legalizing the distribution of
marijuana and putting a tax on the substance to raise money for
government. I have never really been on the "legalize marijuana"
side. I have always thought of it as a negative drug. After more
thought and a more realistic sense of what the drug really does to
your body, I started thinking, "Maybe it should be legalized."

Much as alcohol was available back in the day when it was illegal,
pot is being grown and distributed illegally today. After the
Constitution was changed to make alcohol legal again, the illegal
sale of it was eliminated almost entirely. This made it significantly
safer to drink alcohol because safety standards were placed on the
companies that mass-produced it. So why would it not be the same for marijuana?

I do believe that the positives of legalizing marijuana would greatly
outweigh the negatives. The money raised off a "pot tax" would be an
enormous amount because so many people seem to smoke marijuana
regularly. Why not get some sort of positive out of marijuana when
the problem itself is not going away?

Casey Erickson

Woodland