> To be honest most of the fascination with pot is the fact that it's illegal and you are not supposed to smoke it. This is easily disproven by looking at dome

> To be honest most of the fascination with pot is the fact that it's illegal and you are not supposed to smoke it. This is easily disproven by looking at domestic marijuana usage in states where it is legal -- reported past marijuana use has increased year after year in every such state. > Governments around the world should think long and hard before legalizing it because as soon as they do, people will move to the next thing. This view is myopic. What about societal benefits? Shouldn't governments also think about: tax revenue increases, fewer people in jail, more people employed, lower use of opiates, etc? (Not to mention personal liberty and giving citizens the right to grow a plant whose effects are clearly less harmful than alcohol in the aggregate.) > The way I see it , alcohol is the layer0 . People use it to lower their own inhibitions and also groups as a whole to lower the group's inhibitions. People also use alcohol and then commit domestic abuse or kill people with automobiles or kill themselves, while their "inhibitions are lowered". Sounds great for society. (On re-reading, I see you are not necessarily arguing for alcohol to be legal -- you seem to be saying that there will be a slow ramp-up of legalizing all drugs because people want to "one-up each other". I find this claim strange and it doesn't resonate with me -- I know plenty of people that like alcohol and not weed, and vice versa. There's no hierarchy of drugs.)