i grew up around alcohol & believe me..marijuana has NO EVILS in comparison! i truly believe if my dad smoked marijuana instead of drinking alcohol that my mom & dad would've stayed married. i divorced my husband because of alcohol...& its legAL. i've watched alchol destroy families..never once have i known marijuana to cause divorce. or violence or infidelity or anger & aggression. i've lived that unfortunately..i vote that we legalize marijuana , make alcohol less available and crack down on meth, cocaine, ice,etc. the world would be a more beautiful place with much less crime,divorce, absent parents, etc.

I'm a 54 year old lady,i was borned with spinabifa back pain all my life.Four years ago i got cancer I was verry sick,losted a lot of weight,my dr told me to try marijuana.I did just to find out it helped with all my pain.I will smoke pot because it helps.

i'm a college student currently studying to become a botanist, and ive completed 2 of my 4 years of study. i just completed a project on this plant and this issue.

the only reason the government hasnt legalized is because they cannot tax herbs. cannabis sativa is an herb, thus falls under the guidelines which were laid out in the declaration of independence (which was in fact, drafted on hemp, a cousin of sativa) by our founding fathers. the truth about the reality in all the gray area is that the government can't substantiate the facts. the only thing that is common in ANY studies of this plant is that the effects are only prevalent in long term effects.

before i talk about the truth behind the facade, some other interesting facts are cannabis is usable for over 60,000 industrial products like lubricants and fuels, as well as common items like rope, clothing, food, plastics, rubber and many others. the diesel engine was originally designed to run on hemp seed oil. it has also been recognized as a cure and usable treatment for commonplace ailments like arthiritis and glaucoma, and is currently been cultivated and engineered for research and application for other treatments, like the cure for CANCER(big one, i know).

During world war 2, the government exempted farmers from military service if they agreed to grow and cultivate HEMP. betcha didn't know that one

Anyway, government studies have users "getting high" 5 times a day for 20 YEARS! thats a ridiculous amount for any recreational or medical user, unless you're about to die. extremely with the potentcy of the modern day plants, being 50x more potent than just 10 years ago.

EVERY MAJOR STUDY has conflicting information, why? because of the CONTRIBUTORS to the study.

the facts are there:

tobacco kills 1200 people per day

alcohol kills 365,000+ people per year

aspirin kills 12,000+ people per year

Cannabis sativa has NEVER been attributed (by itself) to the death of ANYONE, EVER! if you dont believe it, look it up.

How is this, you may ask? the overdose ratio of marijuana is 1:15,000. that means you have to smoke 15,000 "joints" in less than 10 minutes, and even then, you would die of involuntary esphyxiation.

for everyone who feels that this "drug is an unspeakable scourge", i recommend you read a little bit more, learn to make your own deductions from the facts that are out there.

on this GOVERNMENT website

http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/marijuana.html

it is clearly stated that

"Numerous studies have shown marijuana smoke to contain carcinogens and to be an irritant to the lungs. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke."

So, it's more dangerous than tobacco, right?

However, not even 3 sentences away, the pages contradicts itself by saying

"Thus, the link between marijuana smoking and these cancers remains unsubstantiated at this time."

THIS IS THE GOVERNMENT? their scientists can't even substantiate what they're trying to say!

if you want to know the real truths about ANY drugs, go to www.erowid.org

if you want to get caught up in the hubbabub nonsense about intolerance, then watch the movie Reefer Madness and don't forget to go down by the soda parlor for a rootbeer for 5 cents with sweet little mary-jane tyler and billy-joe.

anything from how to help a friend whos "in a bad way" to overdose ratios, to REAL FACTS PUBLISHED BY REAL SCIENTISTS IN EUROPE WHO ARE PAID BY REAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS FOR REAL RESULTS! theres no "special interest" groups who contribute, just people looking for cures for un-cured ailments

maybe if people stopped making so many judgments about this PLANT, we would FINALLY REALIZE the amount of benefits that could be had. if we spent less time slashing and burning and more time being intelligent human beings, not evironmentally destructive neanderthals, we might actually discover something useful

IMO the risks of use outweigh the benifits.

the prohabition should be lifted alltogether.. the revenue would be at least as high as with beer. with less problems.

It's about time!

i am a strong states rights
conservative and have enjoyed marijuana since 1968..
.this is the first time in my memory that the federal
gov. has taken a RATIONAL (though still somewhat restrictive)
stance on pot......but its a start..........I only regret
that it took our nation's first Socialist President to do
it....When will capitalism embrace Marijuana and Hemp ?....

Is the Obama Administration trying to relax the
enforcement of federal immigration laws?

We're talking about the sale of American citizenship.
Being undocumentd in this country is not legal under any state or federal law, but because unsrupulous employers create huge revenues by violating federal law, shops are seldom raided by the ICE. Now top
officials say the ICE's priority should be to arrest those who provide jobs as a shield to those who steal American jobs and use up our precious resources and who turn our leaders into PIMPS who sell the Constitution for VOTES...

Meurte a Aztlan....LONG LIVE FREE TEXAS