I'm one of those guys that believes all drugs should be available OTC at the local drug store. They used to be. The history channel airs "the history of drugs in America" about once a year. They say heroin, cocaine, opiate based pain killers,...they were all available in our freedom loving country. Funny, the country didn't go to hell. As a matter of fact, that era was one of the most rapid growth and successful eras we have enjoyed. Drugs of all types were available until an ever expanding government looking to please a busybody constituency passed a few laws and took away a few freedoms. I have noticed, the more the lawmakers do their thing, sooner or later someone out here in fly over country loses their right to do something.

Consider this, the black market for drugs make it a multi billion dollar per year industry. Legalizing drugs of all kinds would send organized crime back several decades. At least to the Nixon years. That's just a part of the money around this issue. On the white hat side of the drug war there are billions of $$$ paid in salaries and gear purchased for the purpose of catching the bad guys. In reality, neither side of the war on drugs could exist without the illegality of drugs.

Consider freedom of choice. If you were walking down the aisle at CVS and came to the pain killer section, would you be drawn magnetically to the habituating narcotics, or would you just move along like so many other trips to pick up prescriptions. I can only speak for myself, but all of that stuff has no attraction for me. If it did, I could go to the east side of town and purchase any of it tonight without rolling back the law. People do it everyday.

Is it our place to be satisfied with the loss of our freedoms simply because addicted drug users exist and we must all pay a small price to look out for them? I say no. I say let them use what they want. Let them destroy themselves if that is their desire. Put all of that moocher money to work back in the taxpayer's pocket, where it rightfully belongs.

Finally, something that I can agree with from Obama. Alcohol kills. Marijuana does not.
Hiraghm, do you truly know that it robs your "ability to reason and be productive". I find that it increases creativity.
What gives a government the right to control us in this manner?

it's impossible to be productive all the time. There is nothing wrong with a little down time.

This is the primary reason for me, not to use weed/booze. I ask myself "why would anyone purposely do something to diminish their capacity to think clearly?"

I quit drinking around the same time I realized that being a libertarian appealed to me, some years ago. I don't know which one may have caused the other to happen, and it doesn't really matter.

I wonder if the (former) Soviet Union government helped provide vodka to their citizens in order to keep them from understanding the tyranny that they imposed over the "workers". I wonder if this is the intent of the current US administration, letting our citizens smoke all their troubles away.

I can't argue with you about the "fact" part, it seems like an opinion to me as well. However...
we could have a philosophical argument about wanting freedom to use substances that possibly rob you of the freedom to think clearly. But the fact (ha found a use) remains that freedom of choice is something I value very highly and our Government loves to rob us of those freedoms!

I have never smoked pot, or eaten it, or anything really that has to do with it but I am a supporter of legalizing it in a similar way to alcohol's legalization because it is a freedom of choice that I would like to have. I also feel strongly about other scenarios, seat belts, health insurance, etc.

I would rather be able to make the choice to lose my mind than to be told my mind is not mine to lose.

He said it might be less dangerous the alcohol. Unless you define dangerous in some convoluted way, this is just a scientific fact.