This is horribly scary. 1 out of 15 teens are taking marijuana on a daily basis. 1 o/ of ten smoke pot. Scary numbers, eh?

Let the debate begin: Is it right for medical uses? Or is it just plain wrong in the first place.

I say it is okay for medical uses but not for anywhere else.

I think that people should be allowed to use it for medicinal uses because it has been proven to slow down the pain receptors in the brain.

It is wrong; let me tell you a story about my sister, Julia.

Julia was an A+ studnet, she made honor roll and was quite and shy. She was in the band, played flute and was really good at it. She was even in competions (which she won with her mad flute sills). Anyways, She was nice, always helping the family and trying to learn new things, like other instruments. She was active in the community theater, and was a pitcher in softball. One Saturday night evening a bot named Adam (a grade lower than her) had asked her to come over. Julia was right on it, she sneaked out and say him, 7 times. Then went to go see ADAMS BROTHER 16 times, all of the times she went the did not waste time (if you know what I mean). Later in the year after she was severely punished for her unacceptable ways, David (Julia and I's brother) went snooping in her room and found weed. She is now an addict and has my former step mom (Maggie) addicted. She smokes a cigarette everywhere and nightly lights a joint. She in now out of band, out of the plays, out of golf and softball, out of her mind, and out of honor roll. She is getting straight D's. I keep in touch with them over Facebook. Maggie is trying to recover but isn't punishing Julia. Adam and his cousin sneak over to Julia's new house every weekend for the usually late night up. Julia is only 16 and will be turning 17 in January.

I will never touch drugs and I think that Julia has showed me what it really does. This is a real story, no made up names or anything, I will tell you all, but never touch drugs.

Actually there is a similar thread here: http://victoryroad.net/showthread.php?t=4314

I believe it covers your topic and more.

I'm honestly really pro legalizing it.
Marijuana isn't more dangerous of a drug than tobacoo or alcohol, if it is even that dangerous. Plus states like California could use potential money that could be made from taxing and regulating it.

Plus you got it's medicinal uses as painkiller, which I highly doubt is worse than the morphine that's used in hospitals.

Even if it were legalized, who in their right mind would smoke marijuana if it screws up your mind? I wouldn't. Plus, so many people who haven't committed a violent crime are jailed for smoking marijuana. This war on drugs is only costing us money, time, resources, and lives, when anyone with a shred of common sense would think twice before smoking something that's bad for your brain anyway.

I agree with teamplasma, it's an addicting and mind-altering drug. My dad is constantly wasting money on just tobacco, money that we could have saved for Christmas this year.

If people want to get high, they should say they want to get high and people have no right what to tell them what to do with their body. That's the only argument I've heard that makes sense.

Back door arguments claiming it's super-healthy ( spoiler: it's not ) and can be used for ( random use here ) make it sound like you don't even believe the fact you have a right to do what ever you want with your body isn't a compelling reason.

I don't have a problem with it being used for medicinal purposes, but the excuses some of the "patients" use are just unacceptable.

I don't care about your sore back, you can take some Advil and be on your way. Medicinal Marijuana should be used for people with severe pain and terminal patients.

Legalizing marijuana is extremely controversial in today's society, however I believe it would beneficial on the economy, crime rate, and even the addiction level. Let us look at the economic aspect. Taxing marijuana would stimulate the economy. Having the tax would provide money for the government, the new job outlet would decrease unemployment. The crime rate would decrease because a major legal problem is out. Marijuana is also cause a pshycological dependence, not a pshyical dependence, which is better than tobacco and alcohol. If regulated and age-restricted, there is no reason marijuana can not be legalized.

Okay, here is my OPINION. Marijuana Should be just as legal as cigarettes are, if not switch the laws around entirely. Marijuana has never, and this is in government censuses, killed anyone directly or indirectly, where as cigarettes have killed people directly and indirectly. They only reason it was ever banned was because it became the US governments scapegoat in the 60s. The had propaganda spread out to instill the fear of communism. They said if you smoke it, it'll turn you into a commie. In conclusion , Marilize Legauana!

I'm not surprised, I just found out recently my sisters been smoking pot for who knows how long but whenever she'd do it she'd be annoying or overly happy, I feel like a moron for not noticing the signs earlier.

Even though everyone and I mean EVERYONE I know around my age has done it I'm just not interested in it, if I want to relax I just try to take my mind off of what's driving me insane. If I want to see insane things I can just look that up on youtube. And if I want to act socially awkward I can that's already my choice.

I really don't have a problem with it though some of the people I know who use it are really nice people and it keeps them calm if they're willing to waste there time because of some emotional trauma let 'em because they're just going to do something even stupider if they're not. As for it being a gateway drug I think that completely untrue it's only a gateway drug BECAUSE it's illegal just like what happened with prohibition.

Plus if it where legal we could tax it and save money on court room stuff. So yeah even though I don't care about I'm all for it being legal.

I feel like legalizing marijuana wouldn't really change anything. Sure, they could tax the living daylights out of it. But wouldn't that just encourage people to grow it in their kitchen windows illegally but more cheaply?

It should be legal, it is less dangerous than cigarettes. (Just so you know I think all forms of smoking are bad, but they should be taxed highly)

1) Legalize it
2) Put taxes in it
3) Have our economy back to normal
4) Less crime and gang wars
Plus, it's less damaging and addictive than tobacco.
Now let's talk about how it's legal in Amsterdam, and how little users there are there.

Even if they do legalize mari, there will still be a market to traffic it illegally just to avoid paying the high taxes. This is exactly what happened when they legalized moonshine.