I'm reading these responses and honestly, I can't take some of them seriously. There are far too many to respond to individually, so this is my response to all of you:
Whoever wrote the essay - I read it all (minus the words that are cut off on either side) and it was fairly well written with the exception of some grammatical errors. You make some good points that are few and far between. Lets see... Poor old granny, busted for her cooking - there is a difference between recreational marijuana and medical marijuana. Medical marijuana is legal (I guess she didn't have a prescription) and I have no problem with it but that is not the issue that is being debated here. In the Netherlands, you said that marijuana use has gone up and hard drug usage has not. Hard drug usage has not gone down, though. So they've got more potheads and no less hard drug users. So legalizing marijuana did not help their drug problem, did it? The medical tests in which users of marijuana score almost as well and drive almost as well. But not as well. Almost, but not quite. There is a difference. And participants drive better under the influence of THC than under the influence of alcohol? Guess what? Driving under the influence of alcohol is illegal too.
Whoever said that they started getting A's in school instead of C's when they started smoking - If I have ever heard a worse argument then I have somehow forgotten it. If you became smarter or concentrated better when you started smoking then there is either something wrong with you or else there was some coincidence in which you started focusing more at that exact time anyway.
I can't remember what anyone else said, but I thought of this since my last post: Why do you suppose the government sponsors public schools? Why do you suppose the government sponsors public universities? Why do you suppose it is mandatory for every child to attend school? I'll tell you. The more educated the population, the better the economy. This a general truth that I think everyone can accept. It is a fact that people can run businesses and be more productive if they are educated, smart, and sharp. Marijuana negatively affects memory and it lessens concentration. If marijuana becomes legal, more people will use it and more burnouts will emerge. A generation of burnouts and potheads does not make for a productive work force. As long as marijuana is illegal, it will stop some people from using it. Obviously, many people will always use it. But if you look at the countries that have legalized it, usage has gone up. Therefore, laws banning it stop some.