Yeah, So? It's been with humanity going back 10 million years, and this nation has made a conscious decision to tolerate all the damage and death it causes.
Pissing and moaning about how this is unfair to Marijuana is just a child's argument. We don't have to be "fair" to Marijuana.
This nation will tolerate pot just fine. The drug war against pot is nothing but a big government welfare scheme to keep cops employed.
My bigger issue is some jackass from Utah telling my hometown how to govern itself.
You do realize, right, that just about EVERY illegal drug has been with humanity going back (well, not 10 million years, there was no such thing as humanity 10 million years ago, but 10 thousand years or more. Why do you think drugs like heroin and cocaine are some new-fangled thing? China produced opiates back to antiquity. Cocaine has been around at least for hundreds of years.
What is relatively new is the criminalization of such drugs. That occurred for the first time in the US during the 20th century. Why did marijuana, cocaine, heroin, etc. get criminalized while alcohol and nicotine did not? (Of course alcohol did get criminalized, but that was repealed. How did that work out?)
It’s not about whether it’s fair or not to criminalize marijuana (or any other drug). It’s about whether or not the government has the power to do so and whether or not it’s good public policy to do so. I am quite certain that the Federal government has no Constitutional right to criminalize any drug. If I am wrong, show me the clause in the Constitution that grants that right. I would also contend that criminalizing drugs is in principle no different than things like bans on certain types of foods that are bandied about in some localities. The government is asserting the right to control what you put into your own body based solely on the fact that it is bad for you. I reject the notion that government should have such power over the citizenry.