Nice ad-hominem later, though. Why don't you ask Paul Armentano at NORML about that and find out how wrong you are. In fact, you don't have to: read
these arguments. That's a lot of work and legit scientists on a case for something that's, in your words, "just [because they] want to get stoned and not have to worry about being thrown in jail for it."
I'm not denying that marijuana has medicinal uses. I'm just saying that the vast majority of the pro-marijuana group don't care about that. They don't have cancer, they just want to get high. And if we do legalize medical marijuana, as 14 states and Washington, D.C. already have, its a guarantee we will see an upshot in people having
"chronic pains" or using it for "stress relief".
And while marijuana can be used medicinally, it can also go way the other direction. Marijuana causes the heart rate to shoot up between 20% and 100%--making marijuana smokers
5 times as likely to have a heart attack right after smoking. In younger smokers, it can stunt basic emotional development and cause paranoia in their still-growing brains. And if you have an anxiety disorder, marijuana may actually cause a panic attacks. Overall, marijuana users are more likely to get sick and miss work than non-users. And finally, it hasn't been proven, but it's been suggested that marijuana may causes schizophrenia in young users. Not to mention, smoking in general is bad for you--it deteriorates lung tissue.
I can link to things, too.
Here's the heart rate study. Here's the panic attack one. This is the one about paranoia. The one regarding illness. Here's the one that contends marijuana causes schizophrenia.
Yes really. Maybe you didn't think your comments through very well but the budget for the war on drugs is outstanding. All to stop the import of it, the low level sell of it and street level use/possession of it. Make it legal and the need for black market trafficking greatly goes down as well as the need to stop it. Legalize it and we cut down on the need to try and jail non-violent "criminals." Coming up with new regulations wont take long. The government even with its habit of not ever doing anything constantly come up with hundred page proposals as if they are making instant mac. The tax argument you have isn't the DEA problem, it's an IRS problem and like the majority of other stuff bought and sold between street dealers will likely have a blind eye turned to them.
Do you realize the War on Drugs is international and targets more than just marijuana, right? Legalizing marijuana won't stop the war on drugs, and if it does lower the cost of the WoD it won't be a huge difference at all. The U.S. gives hundreds of millions of dollars to Colombia alone, and Colombia isn't distributing marijuana, it's mostly exporting cocaine. If we make marijuana legal, we still have to help Colombia with cocaine. And that's just one example.
And yes, black market distribution of marijuana will go down, but it won't stop altogether. The proposed tax on marijuana (the one that would "fix" the economy) is $50. You know as well as I do that people won't want to pay $50 to get high, so there will still be black market sales of marijuana. And just because someone is non-violent doesn't mean they aren't a criminal. That's ridiculous. Prisons are full of robbers, embezzlers, etc. Do you remember Bernard Madoff? How about Rod Blagojevich? Neither of them committed acts of violence, but do you consider them criminals?
Ok, even if coming up with new regulations doesn't take long, it will still be a pain to enforce. It's easier for the DEA when everything about marijuana falls under the umbrella of "illegal". If heavier types of marijuana are illegal, etc, the DEA has a harder time because it has to investigate, test the sample, and more before it can tell if the weed is illegal or not. So it won't save time for the DEA.