I've treated a lot of marijuana addicts and it is not a pretty picture. Society pays big bucks for the consequences of this drug, which causes more accidents, cancer, etc. than most people realize. When people quote the "facts" about how "mild" marijuana is, 9 times out of 10 they are quoting a 40 yr old study that applied to the marijuana of the 1960s, a very different drug than today's MJ.
You "treat" marijuana "addicts?" Are you an MD? If you were, you would know that there is not a single study that supports your false claim that marijuana causes cancer. As for accidents, marijuana may indeed cause some, but no where near the number and severity attributable to alcohol . As for the BS about marijuana being more potent than the 1960s and somehow being less "mild" as a result, anyone who would make such a claim is obviously not knowledgeable about marijuana. So much for your claims of being an authority on the subject.
Marijuana should have been legalized decades ago. The pharmaceutical companies are the primary opponents to its legalization. They can't patent it, and therefore they can't make any substantial amounts of money off it. It competes with drugs they do have patents on, such as Marinol. With the money these companies make off of raping the public, marijuana will not likely be legalized any time soon. Here in California, voters approved medical marijuana, but the federal government is still prosecuting these users.
With all the serious crime rampant on our streets, including horrific crimes against children, I find the waste of law enforcement resources on relatively harmless acts such as using marijuana or compensated consensual sex to be a reprehensible moral crime.
Abaddon's post is right on. As the situation in the Netherlands demonstrates, legalization of marijuana and prostitution has not resulted in the horrific societal maladies opponents of legalization scare the general populace with. When will America wake up and focus its law enforcement resources on real crimes?