Weed is no more harmful than vitamin C? What about someone stoned driving a car and hitting a kid on a bike? Not to harmful for the guy driving the car by it kinda sucks for the kid on the bike. I do t want to hear about that happening with alcohol because as I stated before I am fine with alcohol being illegal as well. Both are straining the economy the way it is!
Here is my question for you. If murder was legalized do you think the murder rate would go up or down? So if they legalized weed do you think more people would smoke it? The answer for both is yes. I know murder and marijuana are apples to oranges but they analogy is still the same. More people will try marijuana. You can deny marijuana is a gateway drug all you want but you are only lying to yourself. I smoked weed when I was younger and the buzz was great and I knew there were stronger drugs out there and acid was one of them so I did acid until I had a bad trip!
The easiest or the hardest question to answer (depending on your stance) is do you want your kids to smoke weed? If you said yes I will give you something else to ponder. My wifes cousin started smoking weed in high school and got expelled for having some on him! He did quit smoking weed to start taking OxyContin because he heard about the great high it gives. He did manage to get off the oxy by getting himself addicted to meth. He has now been found twice unconscience, not breathing with a faint heartbeat. Both times his little sister is the one who found him. This is not the road I want my children to travel. You can say that I should be able to tell and teach them to not use drugs but peer pressure is a bitch.
My wife and I are also licensed foster parents and we get to see the result of what life is like for the children of parents that use drugs. Not every person that smokes weed ends up going down the wrong road but some do and the same goes for alcohol. Like I said twice before two wrongs don't make a right.
I am not trying to change your opinion I am just letting you know how many other people see it. I am not trying to argue that marijuana itself is a dangerous drug because I myself have used it. However my brother had road his motor cycle before when he was drunk and he decided to do it one too many times. People as a whole like to test their limits and he did. If you legalize weed then there will be people who say that the high is good with weed and I heard meth or oxy is a better high. Then they will think that they didn't get addicted to weed so they won't get addicted to meth. I know that won't happen to everyone but it happens to one person then legalizing it isn't worth it. Now think of that person being your child.
I am not an angel by any means and I have my bad habits as well so don't think I am preaching. I am just stating what the other half of the people think.