While we're being "honest" about marijuana, let's be honest about why it's still illegal, shall we? Marijuana is still illegal because it's easy to police. A trained dog can smell doe through two feet of sheet lead. If terrorists were as easy to detect as stoners, all the bullshit the TSA puts us through when we fly would begin to make some sense, instead of remaining the silly/Kafkaesque giggle that it is. Look at all the big-time jocks who've been busted or whose careers have been blighted by overreactions to dope. remember when Robert Parish (Center for the great Celtic teams)was busted at the border with something like a pound of the stuff, all for personal use? He played at all-star level until he was something like forty years of age. But his career could have very well been over in a minute, because we can't have our star athletes smoking dope, now, can we? So now we hve Cliff Robinson, backup center for the Nets, last year, until a urine test showed he'd been smoking some non-addictive, non-performance-enhancing weed. The only reason we maintain marijuana's illegal status is so we can keep the bar low for the cretins at AFT.

You're right, but it is more complicated than that, as you know. There is a mentality in the U.S. that is satisfied only by restrictions and controls, and the idea that the government knows what is best for its citizenry (not to mention various churches). Giving the appearance of being in charge outweighs actually getting something done, and this attitude bleeds into every aspect of government, both federal and local.

Easy detection, as you say, makes for a weapon easily used on those with the most public face, and privately to generate local revenue. After all, meth production can be a dangerous endeavor and we wouldn't want our law enforcement officers put in jeapardy, now would we?

Why has marijuana become so evil? It was first listed as a bad drug because it was smoked mainly by Mexicans. That seems to have changed and it's teenagers who are the big smokers now. How is marijuana a bad drug? The cops like it. They get to put so many in jail because of it. The earliest settlers in the Carolinas and Virginia were encouraged and grew a lot of hemp, used mainly in making ropes for sailing ships. Queen Victoria used marijuana during childbirth. Why wasn't that made known for American women in childbirth? Why does every other country in the world not try to control marijuana? We want reasons to try to deport South Americans. We want reasons to build huge Corporation owned prisons. We want our cops to stay busy? The yearly budget for police in my town is 2/3 of the entire city budget and grows larger and larger. Our police chief has a helicopter and an airplane. I hear the helicopter a lot but I don't see the plane. Maybe it's one of those stealth ones. Maybe the government is still getting money from Bolivia and Peru and Panama for the coke and heroin (?) still being imported but people can grow their own marijuana in their back yards or even (forbid) in a corner of the bedroom. The cops out here even arrest people for having medical marijuana and we have a law that says they are allowed to use it as a pain killer. How can we tell the good guys from the bad ones in these days?

Marijuana laws make criminals out of people who would not normally break the law.

Smokes is right . Potheads arn't criminals (generally).

is the whole problem. We label people, instead of living by the golden rule. No one is a "criminal" we are all human beings.

some day, when we quit playing the devil's games, that's when we will stop suffering the devil's abuse. Hemp grows naturally all over the world; it is like outlawing rain; it is totally absurd.

There's no reason to prohibit anyone, including athletes, from smoking dope. It's the virtual antithesis of a performance-enhancing drug, which SHOULD be illegal in the context of sport.

Bottom line, Barry Bonds gets away with years of muscle-building through chemistry, and his "record" will likely be recognized - even though he hit half those homes on 'roids. But let Ricky Williams smoke doobies on his own time, and he's a 'dangerous criminal' who must be banned until he sees the error of his ways.

Bunch of crap, to put it mildly.