Well, it's probably too little and too late, but here's my take:
Marijuana is absolutely a drug, and it gets lost in the arguments that it is a drug with repercussions associated with its abuse. It can have serious side effects if it's abused too much. It will slow your brain down. I've seen it screw up friends lungs. It really will make you lethargic and not want to get off the couch ever. However, any substance ingested or absorbed into your bloodstream in too great of quantities over time will certainly harm you in one way or another, including benign things like sugar or milk. Pot is just another substance out there that can have consequences from over use or abuse.
However, pot's side effects are positively minimal compared to other legal drugs. I think fructose corn syrup (found in almost all American candy, and anything sweet) is vastly more dangerous then pot. Seriously.
Also, the only way to O.D. on it is to eat a crapload of brownies or other foods with THC in it, by which point you're more then likely going to throw up and pass out long before you reach a lethal dosage. Excessive use is dangerous, although not nearly as dangerous as plenty of other legal drugs, including alcohol.
It should be controlled, just like alcohol and cough syrup is controlled. Like alcohol, there are numerous situations where it should be illegal: When driving, while making decisions that affect lives (air traffic controlling comes to mind), etc.
It also should be available to patients. Doctors do not recommend it currently because of it's dubious legal status, but also because there's no current way to measure THC in pot and then prescribe a specific dosage. However, it certainly works. I am not a regular user, but I had a nasty bout with sciatica a few years ago. I could barely walk, and the pain was so intense that I couldn't sleep or go to work. Vicodin and Norephedrine didn't work. Oxycotin didn't work, although I was unwilling to take very large doses because of the addictive qualities that I saw in the drug even in the low doses I took.
A friend suggested using pot to cope with the pain. It worked. It worked very well, and it was the only way I found I could go to sleep. It also seemed to 'loosen up' the sciatic nerve, and I was able to walk. About 15 years ago, a family friend was battling cancer that eventually took her. The pain, as well the ability to hold down food, was great. Pot helped with both and she swore by it.
The fact that pot is illegal in most places in the U.S., let alone the world, but alcohol is legal is ridiculously hypocritical.
Anybody?...)
