Seriously, legalization would be best and decriminalization comes in at a close second.
Even if you want to ignore the benefits of decriminalization in the Netherlands, just think in terms of how much HARM is caused by
(1) Marijuana use
or
(2) Criminalization of Marijuana
MJ use:
-smoking really does make you a worse driver. Of those involved in accidents, a statistically significant number of them have MJ in their blood (meaning they have used in about the last 24 hours - 3 weeks). This is confounded by the fact that alcohol is usually the cause of the accident rather the MJ, as both substances are in the blood stream in over 90% of the accidents (where there was MJ also found in the blood stream). This is also confounded by the fact that many pot users will drive much more slowly (even too slowly) while driving stoned because they react to the drug with paranoia (at least while behind the wheel of a car).
-Smoking pot can cause dependency (really, it's nothing like tobacco or alcohol dependency, much less like heroin addiction, but there are people who are to a small degree chemically dependent or psychologically dependent . . . they THINK that they need to smoke).
MJ criminalization:
-Costs the states and the nation billions upon billions to keep users (not talking about dealers even) in jail.
-Prevention measures like crop burning (yeah, they burn whole fields of it!) and international boarder patrol time spent blocking enterance to the US costs additional millions (this is hard to estimate because you can't really differentiate when a boarder patrolman is stopping pot or people from entering).
-Most prevention is targeted at youth who are likely to use anyway (or perhaps are caused to use by being told not to . . rebelous or the
"forbiden fruit" effect) and MOST grow out of it (like many of you perhaps). The focus should be on preventing dependency and harm caused to those who use habitually or as some negative cost to themselves or their loved ones, not experimental teens or adults who occationally use.
-Think what happens to a teens' life prospects after a drug conviction, they are asked on all employment applications about these infractions and have to tell employers about them. They are blocked from all federal grants and aid for their higher education.
The harms caused by keeping pot a criminal offence vastly outweigh the costs of reducing possession or consumption to small fines. Actually, since so few people are caught, it doesn't even matter how harsh the penalty for use is. The likelyhood that a person will use an illict substance is an equation based on expected benefits ("getting high and playing half-life2k3 or the alpha of doom3") minus by the negative costs of my expectation of getting caught.
If I'm 99% likely to get 100 units of happiness from smoking and .001% likely to get arrested (say, -10,000 units of happiness) then the option is to smoke!
(100x 0.99) x (10,000x0.00001) = 99 - .01 = +99 units of happiness!
Does that mean everyone ought to smoke? Of couse not, just that for those who want to the chances of getting caught and the severity of the penalty are not good reasons not to smoke. The health risks of an uneducated population and an unregulated product are far greater concerns for users than the risk of imprisonment. And those should be the only concers of users, just as is the case for alcohol and tobacco, health and responsibility while intoxicated are the behaviors and consequences that need to be regualted.
How many people have overdosed on pot?
How many car accidents resulting in injury or death has pot caused (knowing that in more than 9/10 cases persons in accidents with pot in their blood also had far more than the legal limit of alcohol in their blood)?
It's all about how to reduce harm, not about if using pot is morally right or wrong. It's not an area for moral agency (or as a utilitarian might suggest, it's morally neutral), even if what we do while using substances like pot or alcohol is an area for moral judgements.
That being said, hemp is great and useful stuff. Softer than coton if treated right and much longer lasting. It's also more stain resistant.
Serval
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~maccoun/DWH.html
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~maccoun/DWH_Links.html