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and they say it would save money right? 10 billion is a pittance. the fact is we are still going to be trillions in debt. and they leave out the truth that regulating this industry is going to cost a whole lot of money as well. There are people out there who lace their products with such unsavory items as windex, rat poison, other stronger drugs. Students failing out of school would increase. our country would be full of smoked out zombies and not exactly the most appealing to the rest of the world who looks at us as setting the standard for the most part. Yes we have our flaws but something like this? is beyond a flaw it would be a black mark on us all even those who dont touch it.

I thnk that pot should be legalized for one simple reason. Alcohol.
How as a society can anyone who has ever had even one drink say that pot is bad? No one has ever died from pot, ever! No one crashes their car into a tree from smoking, no one beats their wife after smoking, no one gets into a bar fight after smoking or has sex in a way they would regret and then not remember. Alcohol is a dangerous deadly DRUG and yet you can buy it anywhere and in hundreds of flavors. Yet harmless pot is illegal? Who makes up these rules?

Jack,

I am divided. I don't know about a legal pot industry curing all our economic ills or reducing the violence in and outside of the country.

But with all this insanity in 2009 there are some days I long to be twenty again...with a bad case of the munchies!

Common sense tells you that weed should be legal there is no real argument against it. This world would be so much better if people got high instead of drunk. High people don’t beat their wives. High people don’t get angry and start fights. High people don’t rob stores. High people just relax and chill and eat. Weed is not addictive. There is no withdraw when you quite. You can’t smoke yourself to death. A grown man or woman should have the right to smoke weed. The government has no right telling us we can’t.

Well if Obama thinks that it deserves to be a drug then surely he wouldn't mind being given a court date seeing as how he admitted smoking it.
On the other hand, he could step through the obvious lobbying by big tobacco and admit that it causes no harm. I mean, he did manage to become president. Infact, since both our last presidents have tried it, maybe its a new requirement for the job!

Legalize everything. People who want to smoke marijuanna are gonna smoke it..legal or not....

I have always held the opinion that the only reason marijuana is not legal is because the government has not found a way to tax it! It is funny how all of sudden the country needs money, and now it is being talked about!
It is the least of all the other poisons like alcohol and tobacco. We make millions/billions off of those each year!
BAN ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have no qualms with it. Don't legislate stupidity. Same as don't legislate trans-fats, don't legislate what type of car I drive, don't legislate if I drive without a seatbelt. On the flip side. Don't make others pay for their stupidty. No government Drug Rehab, no sueing if you get fat or die of a heart attack, no insurance payment if you become a vegatable when your head goes through the windshield. Who knows Cafferty may be like Palin a Conservative-Libertarian afterall.

Marijuana was not criminalized by the US Congress until the 1930s and for anti-Mexican racist reasons that distorted the scientific facts. If cigaret smoking is legal, then marijuana should be legal too. It's certainly less harmful than cigarets and millions of Americans won't have to go to jail and become statistics in the criminal justice system.

Seems to me that America is stuck in the 1920's with the propaganda of "Reefer Madness", never mind that it's already Americas #1 cash crop and never mind that Thomas Jefferson & George Washington both said in writing that Hemp would save the human race! And if I'm adding correctly the $44billion we'd save from the enforcement of prohibition plus the $33billion in tax revenue just for one state and let's not forget about exporting it to other countries and last but not least the lives saved from bringing the business from underground / blackmarket to above ground! Too common sensical I guess, which is exactly why it won't happen! Because common sense just ain't very common anymore!

Not a good idea at all.... people forget what drugs do. does anyone pay attention to the news and how certain people react when on drugs? there is no set amount to what will cause someone to react in an unsatisfactory manner and put many peoples live's in danger? the street would be filled with walking zombies feening for that next fix but cant get it because they spent it already. hmm lets try some crack today. maybe some heroin tommorow? it does not make sense. all this talk makes me wonder where the mind is today.Police officers would deserve raises as would doctors because drugs in general are very unstable and both those occupations would see an increase in major incidents. The economy issues arent going to go away in a cloud of smoke. It's going to take alot of hard work but let's not lose our heads and common sense because the going gets rough.

Now, more than ever, we need to have clear heads, and stay focused. Although weed tends to make one feel giddy and bubbly all over (I've heard), that might not be the reality we live in. Once down from the high, depression might set in too deeply, and cause one to crave something more harmful and or habit forming.

I'm an extremely successful future Ph.D. in an engineering related field and I like to smoke pot. There's just nothing wrong with it, it's normal and just as harmful as tobacco or alcohol.

It would save us TONS of money

Legalize it

Heck No. From a true Dem. Time to Close the importing of it. Period. Stop worrying about the money and do the right thing.

I think it is a good time to have a good old fashion open debate about what whould be the pros and cons about decrimilzation of some recreational drugs.Maybie there really need to change we deal with drugs.Awful lot of money going around not to be put to good use.....just somthing to think about.

Oh, good grief! I answered that question in the affirmative in the 60s!
Pam

Pot should be legal. It has never been the cause of anyone;s death. Alcohol is far worse in many ways,(and as a recovering alcoholic I should know.) It's great to alleviate depression and for relaxation. They could tax it and make money. Not to mention all the useful products hemp could make for us. There is just some "moral issue" about it ,and it's all a bunch of crap!

Jack,
If the President is such a learned man who respects science, then why does he not think that legal and taxable canabis is a good idea? There is no science behind the "gateway drug" theory and we could sure use the tax revenue to pay for the President's plans. I voted for this man and I have heard him say that "if someone has an idea, he will entertain it"...Jack- today 92,000 people asked the question and showed how it could benefit the overall economy, agriculture, jobs, revenue, and even free up local and federal authorities to chace the bad guys. What did the President do? Instead of enteraining the idea and looking at the facts- he made a joke out of it and used it for entertainment. Facts don't lie, Jack. Is there a better idea? If not...legalize and regulate!

I guess a few thousand MORE will have to be killed or maimed in the failed war on drugs before even President Obama will listen to REASON.

Legalize it, tax it, control it; don't DEMONIZE it.

Alcohol is LEGAL, and does FAR more damage.

It is certainly time for the conversation. Can you imagine that? A serious conversation about the potential pros and cons of how legalizing marijuana would even work and what we would have to gain or lose... wow... that would be productive. Instead a very serious issue gets blown off with little "stoner" quips and the whole debate goes up in smoke. Pun intended.

That seems like an easy line item to cut back on the deficit. I say we legalize MJ and that will certainly kill off the cartels on the border.

All you have to do is look at "Reefer Madness" from the 30's and see that the mindset expressed then is just as illogical today as it was then. Prohibition has never worked, and yet we have to reinvent the wheel to realize the only realistic solution is to legalize

We're supposedly a free country. So why do we force people at gunpoint not to use particular drugs?

The War on Drugs has brought violence, especially in our inner cities, corruption, and suffering far worse than the drugs would cause. It's cost us tens or even hundreds of billions in enforcement and jailing people, rather than bringing in tax money. And for all that, drugs are fairly widely available.

Cut the cartels off at the knees. Legalize.

44 billion to enforce drug prohibition vs. 33 million in tax revenue if we leaglize the stuff.

I think what we've all learned in the last few months is that those figures are just nickel and dime stuff. We can spend trillions at the drop of a hat to bail out crooks and liars but can't find the resources to adequately address this issue in a way that makes sense. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

How have we not legalized it already. I am not a pot smoker myself but come on this seems like a no brainer. Instead of spending 44 billion a year we make 33 billion. That is in addition to job creation. A whole new industry could spring up over night. It is not any more harmful than tobacco or alcohol maybe even less. In addition legal pot would be safer. Regulated factory manufactured pot would be free from harmful agents that street pot is sometimes laced with. I understand the need to keep drugs like cocaine illegal. Cocaine can legitimately cause a person to do harm to another by spurring violent mood swings and such. However in this nation one should be free to do whatever harm they want to themselves, including smoking marijuana. Its time to turn a negative 44 billion into a positive 33 billion and create this industry from nothing. Its time to take the power away from the drug cartels and legalize marijuana.

This should have happened a long time ago. Weed should be legalized and the government should tax/regulate it just like tobacco and alchol.

Not Drugs in General – Marijuana – Legalizing Marijuana would help spur the economy in a number of ways. First, our police officers could focus on the chemical based drugs that are destroying our society and with those extra funds we could employ more officers. Freeing up these kinds of dollars could help all industries in the big picture...

It would be an incredible source of revenue. And by the way millions of Americans smoke pot, including doctors, lawyers, lawmakers, and yes, even religious clergy. You can't overdose on it like you can on alcohol, and widthdrawal is very easy, unlike alcohol, which people have died from lack of treatment during widthdrawal from alcohol. It would also save billions in our war on drugs which has been as wasteful as any program ever established, and does not work.

What the article ignores is one pointed fact. The drug strategy we've followed for the last 50 years has been a monumental disaster. We've made hero's and billionaires out of drug lords and drug dealers. They're using the drug money to buy guns and kill cops and innocent people while defending their 'turf'.

Would legalizing drugs help? I don't know. I just know what we're doing right now isn't working at all. Would we be better off w/pharmacists and doctors doling the drugs out?

I'm ready to try legalizing drugs provided it's done slowly and very carefully.

This is no laughing matter. My brother was murdered because he was busted for pot and the narcs used him to get other busts. Pot must be legalized now. This ois an urgent issue and one that should not be laughed at. I'm not laughing and am totally sick opf our drup policies and the people who enforce them.

Yes Mr. Cafferty it is time. However if you heard President Obama this morning it didn't sound like it. – There are a large number of us that are working both online and off to have the laws changed. – He can laugh at us now. But when we take to the streets with signs and support from a large number of "swing voters" we'll see how funny it is then. =D

Anybody with a lick of sense can tell that violence linked to marijuana comes from the MONEY connected to the ILLEGAL SALE of pot, not the drug itself. We could save a lot of money and lives by legalizing it.

That $33 billion could be used in part to bolster rehabilitation programs. Pot being illegal has not affected it's availability, but it has affected the violence and cost of fighting it. Those are two things that I could do without, violence and spending. And hey, $33 billion would be nice to put back into our economy as well!

Not to mention farmers and laborers that could be put to work legally (and pay income taxes). A lot of "unemployed" people work in pot fields seasonally. "Employing" them would help fuel our rebound numbers and spur other parts of the market as well.

Jack,

Marijuana should legalized and taxed – it would make millions. But that's not likely to happen in my lifetime, and you know why? Because the government and the Mafia can't figure out how to cut the money up!

President Obama really nipped that in the bud today during his town hall meeting. Do we really want to legalize cocaine, crack, and heroin? Even the Netherlands differentiates between marijuana, hash, and mushrooms and harder drugs like cocaine and heroin. There's also a difference between legalizing and decriminalizing. Most people that are for legalizing just want to smoke a little pot, but legalizing ALL drugs can get us into trouble. If we're going to highly regulate prescription medications the way we do, how can we let drugs like cocaine be sold so broadly?

Yes legalize marijuana and tax it as cigarettes are taxed. It seems its okay for someone to drink whenever they want, why should those of us who smoke be denied this freedom. However I am sure that the quality wouldn't be the same therefore more people would quit smoking pot.

I think if they could be legalized and regulated, it would reduce the problem. That and not treating addicts and people who sell drugs as always the same group of people and jailing both, when all an addict needs is help to be free of that lifestyle.

The entire approach needs a drastic overhaul.

Jack didn't the president just say NO he will not consider this? And Why? I'll tell you why!
This is why we will never return to a nation founded as a republic as our founding fathers intended. This position alone should be a warning to every citizen that our government has no intentions of allowing the lives of private citizens to be free. No matter if you are against or for the use of smoking pot. The government is sending you a message that they will watch your every moment from cradle to grave like you are a slave here to serve them.
Please post this CNN do not censor the voice of freedom again.

Yes, legalize drugs and when the Cartel start selling in Public arrest them and say sorry it was a mistake.

Wouldnt need the tax revenue if Washington's out of control spending was put in check!

Legalize it like alcohol and tax it!

We are wasting money, time and energy on this pot prohibition!

Let's get real here!!