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Because the widespread use of marijuana would be harmful to society. It's ridiculously cheap to grow, its use is hard to detect, and over the long-term, it's harmful to users and society. When I was a kid, we called it "sh*t." That's a surprisingly insightful name.

Marijuana use is harmful for two reasons:

1. Like alcohol, while under the influence, users aren't sober. They can't operate equipment safely and they don't do the things sober people do. There are individuals who have smoked one joint a week for 35 years while continuing to function adequately. But to be honest, there are many more people whose free time is spent inebriated or whose lives are destroyed by illegal drug use. On the individual level, that's a tragedy. Multiply it 100 million times, and U.S. living and health standards would mirror countries where drug use is endemic -- Afghanistan or Yemen, for example.

2. Like tobacco, but unlike alcohol, marijuana is insidious. Take a drink for the first time, and you're aware you've consumed a powerful drug. Most kids puke. Smoke a joint, and you get high. You may feel like you've had a mind-altering experience. In fact, you've done nothing. String together 10,000 nothing nights and you've wasted your life.

Why is marijuana illegal and alcohol and tobacco discouraged and heavily taxed, but legal? It's cultural and historical. The economy of the first and most populous U.S. colony, Virginia, was built on tobacco. The harmful effects of tobacco were suspected, but not known, for three centuries. Similarly, wine was used in the sacraments and wine and beer have food value, unlike marijuana.

The transportation and sale of marijuana have been illegal since passage of the Harrison Act in 1914. It's not like we were raised to use marijuana and then had it taken away from us. From toddlers, we are taught marijuana use is illegal and harmful. It's known universally that the possession or sale of marijuana is a serious crime. It's not like marijuana use is the greatest thing in the world. You smoke a noxious weed, hold the smoke in your lungs, try not to cough, and feel disoriented after a few moments. Some people find the sensation pleasurable. Others regard it as a waste of time. As a practical matter, it's not worth the risks.

Realistically, the severe laws against marijuana are not going to be repealed for three reasons: a strong majority supports them, an entrenched bureaucracy's livelihood depends on them, and few people regard the question of legalization as a matter worth serious public attention. Marijuana users are a small minority. While enebriated, they don't vote. Even in Mendocino County or Berkeley, nobody's going to build a political career as a public advocate of pot use.

To open a serious debate regarding legalization, you've got to push Al-Qaeda, Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, the economy, the stock market crash, social security and Medicare to the back burner. Is that going to happen, in your judgment?