sorry for double post but i just came up with something.
the reason the government does not legalize is not just a thing of morals or anything but several simple issues
-the government would not able to tax it because people could grow it in their homes
-it would just add another thing to cause accidents so it would lose LOTS of votes among mostly women, the upper class, girly men and holier than thou pieces of crap who say it causes your genetals to rot even though they never tried it
-millions of people running heat lamps 24/7 would cause a HUGE energy crisis in America, especialy in California
-just another thing to cause health problems to strain the health care system in the US, there's already problems with cancer in smokers, weed has like 10x the amount of tar and with the price drop due to legalization the use would increase, although the dangerous chemicals in weed is less such as no methanal or amonia or other screwed up things that should not be in cigarettes
-stoned people are a bit harder to detect than drunk people, although stoners are paranoid instead of lax which usualy causes safeness, they can get easily side tracked and forget what they are doing. accidents! drunk drivers just sort of run lights, stoned drivers just SLAM on the brakes at lights but they can get distracted by something like a sign which they think is sort of funny at the time.
marijuana is a very nice drug but as Snoop Dog said "PEOPLE NEED TO RESPECT IT". alcohol is a great thing that causes socialization but it's people who don't respect alcohol who abuse it and cause lots of problems for society. more people using marijuana would just cause more people who don't respect it enough to stop when they have had enough.
i think it should be illegal but not exactly punishable. it's sort of like that now but some cops are total dicks. for the most part, cops simply don't care. i was walking on the sidewalk with my friend and he was smoking a joint, i wasn't, a cop pulled us over and he said "i'm taking you to the station" and we are pretty smart kids, we know our rights and the law states that he has to have actual physical evidence or else he can't do s***. my friend popped the bud in his mouth then quickly swalled it. the cop said "s***" then he got back in his car and drove away. in Alberta you can smoke a joint on the sidewalk and a cop driving by simply won't care. it's too much hassle for such a minor crime that they don't even bother unless it's something like dealing or trafficing.