I'll say right now that I haven't read the whole thread, but wanted to throw my two cnets in, esp. in response to the original post.
While I agree that pot isn't nearly as dangerous as other things out there, and I think that a lot of time and money could be saved if possessing small amounts of ganj was decriminalized, I think that it's incredibly naive to say that there are 0 deaths as a result of smoking pot. I mean, look at drunk driving. High driving has got to kill some people too. If not a direct result of being high, then maybe falling asleep at the wheel because the driver is high. Honestly, there can't be 0 deaths as a result.
I know that legalizing it would not solve every problem, but there's always fools out there who will fuck up things for others. it would, as a whole, in my opinion, be okay to be legalized.