Well, I don’t know that I’d call mj intoxication benign. It’s of course very different than liquor, which in excess - well, we all know what it does.
But it seriously damages ability to think rationally, damages judgement and reason, impulse control, lowers IQ, seriously messes up sensory perception and reaction time, and in a segment of people can and does cause psychotic episodes. Obviously it doesn’t effect everyone in the exact same way. But enough studies have been done that prove to anyone who is not a user and thus has addled wits, that it is dangerous.
Do I think users should be arrested? No.
I think it should be legal for anyone who wants to grow it themselves SOLELY for personal use. Ditto legality for poppy growing solely for personal use.
Dealers or sellers or those growing to sell - public caning for first offense, twice the stipes for second, and public execution for the third offense. Dealers of harder drugs, execution for the first offense.
That way the price would drop so fast and a few dealers getting whipped in public would change the face of the drug trade. Of course politicians will never do it since they profit off the drug trade. The WOD is merely to keep the prices nice and high.
seems like this case is another argument for requiring all pot users be registered.
Without going into unseemly detail, I am quite confident that my understanding of the effects of marijuana use, both immediate and long-term, surpasses that of anyone else posting here.
But, yes, I am agreeing with you on just about every point, including the thoughts on "legalization." Country people used to make their own laudanum; that kind of self-suffiency could only be a benefit to our culture.