Drug Legalization

What do you all think? I say pot should be legalized immediately.  About one person every 40 seconds gets arrested for smoking marijuana - an activity which, in and of itself, doesn't hurt anyone but the health of the user.  Making marijuana legal would strengthen and reaffirm the notion that an individual has the liberty to do with his property and his body as he pleases - so long as he does not harm another human in the process.

Furthermore, I think police resources would be far better used hunting down REAL violent criminals, such as murderers, robbers, rapists, etc, rather than harassing and imprisoning people for peacefully enjoying a joint while sitting in their home.

Of those arrested in 2005 for marijuana use/possession, 88% were charged with possession only - indicating that the vast majority of marijuana users are not harming anyone and should be free to pursue their happiness by smoking a joint, if that does it for them. 

Almost 94 million americans have admitted to having used marijuana at some point or other in their lives, including presidents, congressman, and even supreme court justices. 

>>8

It is entirely within their right because it does not harm anyone else, right? So, can doing something bad for yourself be good for other people? I think not. A person indulging in overeating and becoming morbidly obese does not help other people.

Even in a case that could be potentially construed as bad for me and good for others, the person is not hurting himself if he is helping others. A person starves himself so other people can eat and continue living. He is not hurting himself, as he is becoming just and heroic through his self sacrifice.

Therefore we only have the possibility of doing something bad for yourself being independent of affecting other people, or harming other people. And I think it is obvious that every little thing that we do affects others, whether it be overt, like the pothead not being able to save the kid from the speeding car, or whether it is very subtle, like just giving off an impression that may affect a person's future thoughts and opinions, and influence them negatively.

So, I think anything you do that harms yourself harms other people as well. If this is true, then people have the responsibility to be as good as they can possibly be.