The 10 Best Reasons to Legalize Marijuana

First off, I would like to do more than legalize marijuana.   I think its use should be encouraged and even, in some cases, mandated.  Some people need to be chilled out.  But, one step at a time, so here are 10 reasons I think marijuana should be legalized.

1. Health.  Of course, marijuana is helpful in the treatment of glaucoma, premenstrual syndrome, insomnia and migraines among many other things, but I’m talking more about preventive medicine and a general healthy lifestyle.  Visit the biggest stoner you know.  Visit the most vehemently anti-marijuana person you know.  Sneak a peek at their medicine cabinets.  The pothead’s will be virtually empty.  Damn near guaranteed.  Another quick test:  look at all the articles ever written about people who live to be 100 or more.  Some cite religion, some have a glass of wine a day, some smoke, some don’t, but they all have one big factor in common.  No stress.

Well, there’s nothing better for relieving stress than a big old toke on a fat doobie.  Relieves that stress in a second.

2.  It would save money.  The amount the police spend on trying to bust potheads and the amount of money governments spend propagandizing against it is enormous.  If there’s no money for new roads and bridges, there shouldn’t be any money for busting people who aren’t causing any trouble.

3.  It would make money.  Taxing pot is not going to bring in enough to balance the budget and end the recession, but it ain’t gonna hurt.  Also, there are the other products which can be made from cannabis and hemp.  Clothing, rope, cooking oil, perhaps biofuel, and more would be added into the economic mix.

4.  The police have better things to do.  I watch programs like CSI New York or NCIS, where they examine every crime scene with an expert eye, finding a hair on the carpet or a piece of furniture out of place, they run something through a computer and get answers in seconds, and I know it ain’t like that.

In real life, they spend most of their time arresting drug dealers and they only catch them when a rival dealer or a pissed off customer narcs them off.  I’m not saying they will all turn into supercops with the drug laws out of the way, but they might respond to 911 calls a bit quicker.

5.  It would free up space in prisons and on the court dockets, not to mention liberating a bunch of decent folks.

6.  This kind of goes back to the no stress argument, but on the societal level.  We live in a world of wars, riots, road rage, barroom brawls, domestic abuse, people flipping out in the checkout line at the supermarket, and it all goes around and it all comes around.  Everybody needs to chill the fuck out.  The Israelis and the Palestinians, the Russians and the Chechens, the Hindus and the Sikhs, all need to sit down and smoke a couple of bongs.  Work it out.

7.  It would make the roads safer.  Seriously.  People aren’t better drivers when they are stoned, but they are slower, less aggressive drivers.

8.  It’s a nice, environmental plant.  It gets along well with other plants and doesn’t require lots of nasty fertilizers and pesticides.

9.  As the fabulous, furry freak brothers used to say, “Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.”  Now, when nobody has any money, would be a good time to legalize dope.

10.  I sure could use a joint right now.