Legalize it......

So I have something controversial to discuss today. I need to start off by making this disclaimer: I have never, and will never smoke marijuana. I was never interested in it growing up, and I've been randomly drug tested for basically the last 7 years.

That all being said, it's about time we legalize marijuana. I just don't see what the hang up is over it. Treat it like alcohol. If someone has it in their system while driving, send them to jail, suspend their license, give them the scarlet M (or W). Charge crazy taxes on it. Legalizing it would cause it to drop in cost, but then you could charge taxes that would make the prices stay similar to whatever they are right now. That money could be used for any of a million projects.

The ATF could regulate it just like they do with booze and tobacco. Yes that would cost more money, but a small portion of the tax money could be spent on regulating and testing the legal product coming in. This would mean that there would be openings in the ATF (job creation, hmmm is that something we need right now?).

The best part about all of this is that we could reallocate our efforts in the War on Drugs to drugs that actually can kill people in regular use. A big part of the gang/drug war going on in Mexico right now is related to the United States' crackdown on marijuana entering our country. If the drug is illegal, I agree 100% in doing everything we can in preventing it from entering our country. But if by legalizing it we can save lives in Mexico by legitimizing the business (and reducing their profits by removing it from the black market), that doesn't sound like a bad side effect.

I can't see any reason to keep marijuana illegal except that it is a drug that alters people's state of mind. But nicotine and alcohol do that very thing as well, and they are very much legal. I say legalize it, make it just like a cross between alcohol and tobacco (which it pretty much is), tax it like crazy, and utilize our drug enforcement agents to stop the serious drugs like coke and heroine from infiltrating our country.