well fortunately your wrong, those people you knew were not victims of marijuana, there victims of there own lack of fiscal responsibility and self motivation. And no one has said that smoking marijuana helped there GPA but how can you say that its because they smoked that there GPA fell, if they were drinking too much or just being lazy then they are products of there own choice. So have all the successful people in this country that have and still use marijuana been lucky? I doubt that, i would think they were smart and responsible enough to stay below the radar and not do anything to put them in a position to hurt others or themselves. And so you can get belligerently drunk and beat your wife and kids and thats ok cause alcohol is legal, but if you smoke pot and relax in front of the tv after work you belong in jail with the real criminals? Obviously i dont think its ok to get wasted and beat your wife and kids but really, because i don't like destroying my body with tobacco and alcohol i deserve to be thrown in jail and locked away. Most of the people that have such problems with marijuana is because of ignorance and greed, but not in that order. Greed is from the Federal Gov't and BIG BUSINESS working together to trying to control our lives and ignorance because many people just believe what ever the gov't tells them even if its ridiculously absurd. Read about hemp and cannibus pre-1937 you will see that most of what you know is lies on top of lies.

well i must disagree with you because obviously you and i did not live through the time when this plant was never even seen as being anything but helpful. ive been doing lots of research on our founding and our history as a country. Im convinced that we are worse off without that plant in our lives. Not that i want everyone to get high, thats absurd. However you cant convince me that this plant has any sort of harmful properties to it, all the research ive found has shown that we were a healthier society when we were using this plant as the main ingredient in our #1 #2 #3 most widely used medications. As well as the fact that hemp seed oil has all the most essential amino acids that our bodies require to stay healthy. How can you say we are better off putting all this synthetic crap in our bodies, all these white pills do is destroy our livers. And in the 70's they found out that thc fights cancer. If thats the case why are people still dieing from cancer everyday? Because if the gov't lets hemp and cannibus be legal they will have a hell of a hard time taxing it because we can all grow it in our back yards, and if theres a cure for cancer then there is an immediate drop in Rx drug sales and then they lose there tax dollars. So even though we would make 100x the taxes on marijuana they still feel like wasting trillions of dollars a year to control a plant they obviously cant. where is the logic in that.
please read this
http://www.worldaudit.org/Hugh%20Downs%20re%20Hem...

so let me get this right, if you die because of indirect death because you were taking lets say an aspirin that kills more people directly and indirectly than marijuana directly or indirectly, so we should make aspirin illegal because it might (does kill 7600 people per year directly) kill a lot of people. Does that really make sense? Or that we have two of the top three killers in our convenience stores within access to children. Yeah they cant buy it legally but who really has a hard time getting alcohol or tobacco even though your underage.
On your second point did you not read the link i put up on how Portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs and how across the board less youth were using and treatment centers went up in business because the stigma attached to this ridiculous fight kept people fearful. We are not fighting for marijuana to be as laxed as the laws are on tobacco, they need to be enforced just like alcohol. No working under the influence, and no driving under the influence. Are you really trying to say everyone is just going to get high all day and the country will stop moving. That is completely absurd, just because you enjoy a joint over a beer or liquor doesn't mean you cant be a productive part of society. And what about all the successful people that use and still find time to get to work and be productive, and not kill anyone, not rape or get std's. People need to be responsible for there actions, because you cant justify acting like a dumb ass while high or drunk. But why should the people that don't cause these problems be punished as criminals because they don't view the plant the same way you do. STATES RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PEOPLES RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! more important than what any Gov't bureaucrat has to say about things they don't even understand.
And hemp( 0% thc) should be legal there is no reason why it still has the ridiculous stigma attached to it, and i believe the same way Glenn does we cant have full legalization till we make sure we are not taking care of lazy druggies on the tax payer dime. WE must be responsible for our own actions!

not at all, the gov't should not be able to control your life and tell you that " Go ahead smoke your cigarettes till you die of lung cancer, and you can drink yourself till you drown" That should be your own choice and your own responsibility to educate your family of the dangers of those two LEGAL KILLERS. And i believe that you can do the same on marijuana educate and regulate by the STATES not the feds, they fuck up everything that they touch. So the only way tobacco and alcohol should be illegal is if the people in there state want it illegal.

first off the so called pharmaceutical drugs kill more people per year, so the life threatening issue is not valid. also with Rx drugs we haven't had them in the system long enough to know the long term effects of dumping synthetic man made white powder drugs into our bodies. And your second point isn't valid either, because even thought the gov't has made marijuana illegal it still is the # 1 cash crop of America, and more are using this plant than any other substance on the market(BLACK MARKET). So we allow alcohol, Rx drugs, and tobacco to kill thousands of people a year yet are afraid that if marijuana was legal, taxed, and regulated that more people would use it over the latter.
Annual Causes of Death in the United States
Tobacco 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,000
Alcohol 85,000
Microbial Agents 75,000
Toxic Agents 55,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes 26,347
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,000
Suicide 30,622
Incidents Involving Firearms 29,000
Homicide 20,308
Sexual Behaviors 20,000
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect 17,000
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin 7,600
Marijuana 0

try and fight those stats, or heres a challenge for you find one marijuana cause death in history that wasn't also attributed to other health issue
I DARE YOU

http://www.worldaudit.org/Hugh%20Downs%20re%20Hem...
please try and get the chance to read this article by Hugh Downs its very informative

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=...
Portugal decriminalized drugs and they have had a very very positive result, less are using, more are going to treatment centers which is a result of them not being afraid of the gov't attacking them.
All laws not designated to the fed gov't are directly left to the people and the states. And if that was the case then we can try legalization and or decriminalization or a few states and see how it works it doesnt have to be across the country. Thats why we were set up in 50 sovereign states so that we could mess up laws in some states then the others would learn from that state without having to fail at the same problem.

sorry to disappoint you but most libertarians believe in the founding fathers who believed in cannibus and hemp so you cant remove us from them we are aligned in the truth.

just a few off the top of my head
Michael Phelps
Barack Obama
Michael Bloomberg
Ted Turner
Montel Williams
Stephen King
Arnold Schwarzenegger
you could lump most of hollywood in but there mostly liberal and i think this is a liberty issue which they seem to construe alot to there own cause

what is your point with this reply? are you attacking my reply on how its an individuals responsibility to govern there own lives, not yours, mine or the fed gov't. Because Pandabeads has it right, and there is no war on drugs there is a war on American citizens that wish to succeed or fail at there own whim.