I think small amounts of pot are therapeutic, for me anyway. When my life seems bleak and pointless I will sometimes have a puff or two. The effect is not "stoned", but a state of relaxed reflection. Gardening, house cleaning, dish washing or other simple activity then becomes very enjoyable rather than a chore. I have to take my happiness where it comes, and if I can promote it with a natural herb, why not?

I think it is insane that the government has assumed the right to police how I use my most privileged private possesions, my body and brain, so long as I do so not put anyone else at risk.

Certainly some people use some drugs to great harm to others, such as driving under the influence, or using drugs while pregnant. Most, however, don't do this. If all the responsible illegal drug users were to come out of the closet tomorrow we would all be amazed who they are and how many there are and how NORMAL they are.

The down and out stoners you see on the street are there for a lot of reasons. They do often abuse drugs, but there are likely a lot of other more important reasons for them to be in such sad shape. Drugs are a part of the picture, not the cause. The world has abandoned these broken people and they may have no better choices than to self-medicate. Getting high might be the only thing keeping them from worse fates like suicide.

There is MUCH more damage done to average drug users by the legal system than done by the drugs themselves. This is where the damage control needs to begin. Most drug victims are victims of the "War on Drugs", not victims of the chemicals they use.

I am very much a libertarian on this issue. If homosexuals have the right to have sexual relations, if women have rights to abortion which is certainly harmful to fetal human life, then by extension the right to choose how one uses one's own body in other ways, not harmful to anyone else, should not be abridged. (I have no issues with gays or reproductive rights, I just used these items to make a point.)