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Pot is a gateway drug

Know why pot is a gateway drug? Because you have to go see a drug dealer to get it. You have to hide it and conform aspects of your day to day life (got to be careful who you let in your house or car, gotta jock it in the car etc...) in the same manner as a hard drug user. But most of the gateway is the fact that it is illegal.

Before you go pulling my profile and calling me a DUer, I am a sane hard working, tax paying conservative. I also work in a business where drug and alcohol use is rampant. I have seen and lived with my share of people destroyed, and I don’t use the term lightly, by cocaine or it’s derivative. I’ve had friends rob me and in retrospect I don’t blame them, I blame cocaine. The old white lady was calling and there wasn’t hell, high water or lost friendships that would stop them from getting her.
But pot? Drawing the line a bit early my friend. Make cigarettes illegal out of altruistic concern for my health and I would believe that you believe in your premise. The prohibition of pot is far more dangerous to your rights than you realize. Want to end it? Taxpayer funded urine tests every two weeks for 250 million people. Massive investment in infrasructure (Jails, courts, counselors etc...) Police rights to pull and search your home or vehicle anytime they want. Gonna be a bummer when you or someone you know has their home broken into at night and lost their 2nd amendment rights. Having everything you own rifled through by agents of your local government..I am sure I could think of a few more, but it is late. Want to live in that America? I don’t. This is a free country. Or at least in most respects it is.

I understand the difference of opinion, and I'm not in the habit of making ad hominem attacks. That laws are imperfect is a given, and that the efforts to mitigate undesirable behavior are likewise imperfect is also to be expected. In my mind that doesn't mean that we as a society should do nothing. In any event, I responded to his inquiry with what I think is a logical formulation, even if others do not. Thanks for the thoughts.

Your last paragraph is silly, and I would say that even if I was the most hardcore pro-legalization guy around. aising the specter of 250 million people getting urine tests makes you sound like a wacko, and the “we can’t stop it unless we violate everyone’s rights in every possible way so let’s not fight it at all” argument could be used with murder, rape, shoplifting, embezzlement, drunk driving, etc.