You had a bad reaction to some substance and so you want to make it illegal for anyone else to consume it, even if most people don't have a bad reaction to it and can moderate? And throw them in jail to rot if they don't comply?

I can't understand this attitude. I had some problems because of alcohol and now abstain (and have for 10 years), but I'm not in favor of re-enacting prohibition. I'm totally fine with people drinking, it's just not a good idea for me. (btw, I don't use marijuana, either)

I don't smoke or drink, but I believe in complete legalisation. Individuals, as long as they're not hurting anyone, should decide what to do with their own bodies.

The war on drugs has caused more harm than the drugs would have themselves. Countless lives lost and trillions of dollars wasted. For what? More people than ever use the substances. The 'war' has kept the cartels in business, inflated their prices and degraded the quality of the product. The war on drugs hasn't progressed anything, only destroyed.

A family member was badly harmed by marijuana abuse. I still support legalization.

I don't think smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco are good things, but I'd still rather have them be legal, warn others of the risk, and treat those that are harmed.

I would recommend against abusing any drug, legal or illegal. It's not a good idea to abuse alcohol, caffeine, nicotine or pseudoephedrine, all of which are quite legal. Aspirin abuse can cause intestinal bleeding, acetaminophen abuse can cause liver failure, ibuprofen abuse can cause hypertension, and so on. The question is we have to ask is: does criminalization of a drug do more good than harm? In the case of marijuana, it's abundantly clear that criminalization has caused vastly more harm than the drug itself.

Ahh, so you admit you abused it. Just like someone can abuse alcohol. Or prescription drugs. Or countless other things.

I can kill myself by overindulging in water, but that doesn't mean it should be outlawed. Maybe education and some common sense and people can enjoy the thing they like without causing permanent damage.

Isn't the key word here abuse?

Too much of a lot of things is going to cause most of us problems. Alcohol, for example?

In moderation, it's an entirely different scenario.

With use out in the open, we can do education just like we do for other things people use out in the open. Given that scenario, perhaps you would have used differently.

I had a similar experience long ago. I used a little, liked it, then used a lot. Not good. While I am not sure I actually suffered any harm, I did see changes in what I do and how I do it. One nice thing about cannabis is a very large number of people are able to just walk away from it.

Which is precisely what I did. Literally no issues. I can't say that for other things, or I can't say that as easily. The trigger was a new career dangling out there, and if I was going to go for it, I needed to prioritize and just did.

Since then, some recreational uses are just fine. Very enjoyable, and being in Oregon, quite legal very soon.

For some time, I've been involved in the medical program helping some people close to me with various formulations and extractions. The differences are amazing, and in a few cases, not really addressed with the body of accepted treatments out there now. I see people living fairly well now, who really didn't before. That's worth some research to optimize.

Normalizing recreational uses seems a net gain good to me personally. I suspect some people will fall into bad patterns of use and may be impacted, but we can help them. A whole lot of other people will benefit by not having to make harsh choices to enjoy their lives in ways they find worth enjoying.

Presumably you were abusing it despite the fact it is criminalised. And numbers from Portugal shows no massive rise in use after decriminalisation. Even assuming your claims are right about the damage potential (which is far from obvious), it does not present a good reason for the current method of dealing with it, which in addition to clearly not preventing abuse causes substantial criminal involvement.