I think marijuana should be removed from the list of controlled substances and anyone who wishes should be given a permit to grow it for their own use just as people are given the right to brew beer, wine, whiskey and grow tobacco for same purpose. The reduction in crime statistics relative to cannabis would be immediate and devastating to the drug lords.
I heartily contest the notion that in spite of it’s long life in the body, THC is not addictive. Can it become habitual? Most certainly but it fails the test for addiction. Unlike real addictive substances like alcohol and tobacco and caffeine to name three legal ones, there are no withdrawal symptoms to speak of.
As for the smoke being bad for the lungs, fact is the new varieties of the weed allow for far less inhaling than the old less potent herb and if even this is a problem it is quite simple to eat the stuff in candy, cookies, brownies etc.
Though a lot of focus is placed on smuggled pot, nearly every state in the union produces quite substantial amounts of high quality cannabis much of it grown under lights hydroponically. Mexican weed has only one benefit to the smoker, it’s far cheaper than the home grown varieties which typically sell for $50 an eighth and that, I am given to understand, is a low figure.
Washington, DC: Marijuana production and the amount of cannabis available domestically are on the increase, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center’s (NDIC) 2006 “National Drug Threat Assessment” report.
The report finds that marijuana production in Mexico, Canada and the US is rising, with domestic cannabis production increasing sharply in 2005 to its “highest recorded level.”
Marijuana availability is also increasing, the NDIC finds. Among those state and local law enforcement agencies polled in the study, 98 percent rank pot’s availability in their area is either “moderate” or “high.” Last year’s NDIC report estimated that between 12,000 and 25,000 metric tons of marijuana is available in the United States.
http://www.natlnorml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6831&wtm_format=print
So much for the war on drugs which should, if anything, be concentrated on much more harmful substances like cocaine, meth and heroin, the last being a huge contributor to the Taliban from sales of opium grown in Afghanistan.