If one is going to legalize drugs, one had better have in place a comprehensive program and the mechanisms to measure success – so we don’t keep arguing from anecdote and political muscle.

case in point… the Atlanta women who was shot and killed based on a bogus raid… thankfully the cops in said case are in jail.

Or… I can even give you a personal example. My brother, eagle scout, was convicted on felony marijuana offenses while attending college. Even though he was maintaining a job and high grades he was tried, convicted, served jail time, and was kicked out of school. Sure he was breaking the law, and he knew the consequences (he would be the first to say so), but tell me what good did this serve society…. and at what cost… I cant even imagine the untold thousands wasted on prosecuting my harmless brother. Not only that, but now he has a felony which makes it harder to be productive, He has to come up with thousands of dollars to pay probation fines, and therefore spends his time working instead of finishing his college education.

Thankfully he is on his way back to college, and since I know him I know he will overcome, and be quite successful despite this delay. The one thing I can say though… It finally made my mother (who used to be in the “believe the propaganda crap”) see the light and she is now firmly pro-legalization.

Lives have been ruined across this great country, and billions have been wasted on a lost cause. The sooner we admit it the better.

I believe that most people who think legalizing marijuana is a good idea think they are talking about the marijuana they remember from the 60s and 70s. Today’s marijuana is much more powerful – - 3 to 5 times the THC content.

I understand and believe that there are some legitimate medicinal uses for marijuana. My state has a medical marijuana law and I have dismissed cases upon proof of compliance with that law. One area where marijuana is useful is for chemotherapy patients in that it helps with the nausea that happens as a side effect. This medicinal effect has led to death among people who combine marijuana use with extreme alcohol abuse. The body of the person who drinks to the point of alcohol poisoning will not be able to help itself out when that person has used marijuana – - to put it bluntly, the marijuana will not let them puke. So, aside from the lung cancer warnings your legalized marijuana will have to carry at least one other surgeon general’s warning.

If it’s legalized, will the school bus company still be able to test their drivers? You may want you kid’s bus driver to be on the road the morning after they have smoked marijuana, I don’t. The same applies to taxi drivers and airline pilots. And the same applies to these folks and alcohol as well.

I am certainly not on the side of the cartels and believe me, I don’t profit from drugs being unlawful (can’t say illegal – - see my signature). Legalize drugs tomorrow and I will still have plenty of work as a prosecutor. Holding people accountable for their actions is not ruining their lives; in fact in many cases we break people out of behavioral cycles and actually save their lives (I have run into former defendants in public years later who have actually thanked me). My first question when I get a new case is always what alternative way is available for this defendant from Diversion to Drug Court to Drug Offender Sentencing Alternative (sentence to in patient treatment in lieu of prison). People on my caseload ruin their own lives.

This is a factor, it does not fit in all circumstances, but it does affect things. I simply do not believe if marijuana was decriminalized, there would be a huge spike in its use; hell, Americans don’t even smoke cigs anymore. And the odd thing is, teenagers can get pot easier than they can get beer. Square conservatives like myself would not even no where to look for pot.

Decriminalization works because you can still get fined for possession but we don’t fill up the prisons with pot smokers. The money saved and liberty gained would be a major plus. In these decriminalization countries, the cops cite someone because they are causing some type of nuisance.

The other side of decriminalization is that they can still go after criminals, dealers, hoodlums etc. If you legalize, it will just cause more bureaucracy and open up all kinds of lawsuits, oversight etc. In fact, decriminalization does not even have to be official, the police could just stop busting users today by focusing on other more dangerous crimes.

There are only a few people who still support marijuana being against the law… people who still fall for the propaganda (my grandmother would fall into this category), and people who actually profit from it… cops, drug dealers, and you! I bet it feels good to be on the same side on this issue as the drug cartels.

Anyone that is honest with themselves though will have to admit that it is no worse than cigarettes/alcohol. Now if you are pro criminalization of grabbing a beer then at least your not a hypocrite..

Drug use is a health issue not a criminal one. If you want to help addicts maybe you should become a doctor instead of a prosecutor.

The “we need to protect drug users from themselves”, and the “wont someone please think of the children” B.S. has been way overplayed.

** Nearly 22 years as a prosecutor, founding prosecutor for my county’s Drug Court program.

To answer Gamecocks question. I would let the states decide. But If I was president, I would dictate that they must either, ban, legalize some, or legalize all drugs, Not some form of half way decriminalization.

But that does not translate into a higher overall rate of addiction, since people who are likely to become addicts are already addicted to something, Booze, over the counter drugs, etc.

All you are doing is maybe replacing very harmful booze use with less harmful marijuana, at least in some cases.

more later

What I mean by that is, they have only a perfunctory knowledge, they ignore the literature that goes counter to their views, and they invest heavily in the emotions of the subject rather than the substance.

Not surprisingly they come up with a non-conservative, big government, solution.

All vice laws ultimately fall into two ranges, prohibit it, or control it. Since it is a historically proven impossibility for prohibition to work, then to my way of thinking we are stuck with the “control it” paradigm.