[robertpaulsen]

"Why should that be the criterion, rather than "nothing else works as well"?"

Ask yourself, "If there are a half-dozen legal drugs that work, and IF illegal smoked marijuana works 'just as well', is that a good enough reason to legalize marijuana?"

A hollow-point to the brain is 100% effective in curing migraines. Other than the obvious side effect, it works just as well (if not better) than any drug out there. Should that be an accepted medical procedure?

[Know your rights]

Ask yourself, "If there are a half-dozen legal drugs that work, and IF illegal smoked marijuana works 'just as well', is that a good enough reason to legalize marijuana?"

Wrong question ... the correct question in a free country is, "Is there good enough reason to ban marijuana?" With your givens, the answer is no.

A hollow-point to the brain is 100% effective in curing migraines.

False analogy: that negative outweighs the positives in 100% of cases.