Pot laws are completely ineffective at their stated task. There isn't a high school kid in the country who couldn't get a bag of pot by the end of the week if they so chose (and just about half of them will choose before they graduate.) Enforcement is inconsistent and in many cases marginal to the point of virtual nonexistance.
An illogical, malum prohibitum law criminalizing victimless behavior which occasionally ruins someone's day but is otherwise broken without consequence by millions of Americans every day. If that isn't a BS law, what is?
That the occasional unlucky doper goes to jail for a couple weekends or loses his job doesn't make these laws serious, it just makes the system out to be capriciously cruel as well as just stupid. Laws like this are why many people don't respect any law.
We only arrest a very small fraction of people who break the speed limit, yet you wouldn't suggest that speed limits are BS. Or would you?
Speed limits are a broader topic than personal use of one soft drug. Some speed limit laws are BS, just as some drug laws are BS.
True. It's easier for them to obtain than alcohol. Every teen survey says that. Yet they use hard-to-get, legal, regulated alcohol 2:1 over easy-to-get, illegal, unregulated marijuana. And now you wish to legalize and regulate marijuana also, thinking that it will be different.
"Enforcement is inconsistent and in many cases marginal to the point of virtual nonexistance."
Recently, with these politically correct and inane "medical marijuana" laws, decriminalization, and "marijuana enforcement as lowest priority" movements among the states, we've seen an increase in marijuana use. (Surprise!)
So, I'll agree with that one.
"An illogical, malum prohibitum law criminalizing victimless behavior which occasionally ruins someone's day but is otherwise broken without consequence by millions of Americans every day. If that isn't a BS law, what is?"
Illogical?
What it IS is a society setting standards by which they will live. It's too bad that an individual's character, self-esteem, and morality no longer keep them from doing drugs and that these laws are even necessary. And that's made even worse by the fact that 5% of Americans continue the activity, though illegal.
We are always going to have drug use. Just like we will always have burlaries, assaults, DUI's and murder. The law is an attempt to minimize the behavior, not eliminate it.
"Laws like this are why many people don't respect any law."
Well, as I said, only 5% of the population smokes marijuana on a monthly basis, meaning the other 95% respects the law. And that 95% is quite content with the law and has no desire to change it.