Just A few Points,And I thing You'll Agree

1. Pittsburgh NORML
Should Marijuana Be Legal?

2. No Law is More Widely Disregarded And Severely Punished
103 Million US adults have tried cannabis,26 Million Annually,16 Million
Monthly (2011 National Survey on Drug Use & Health
Why Treat Them Differently Than Drinkers
44.6% Have tried Cannabis Nationally
11.2% Use Cannabis Annually
6.9% Use Cannabis Monthly
Why treat them differently than drinkers?

3. In Oregon for example despite reforms, Criminality Remains
Oregon Legislative Reforms Include
Removed drivers license suspension from 1 oz. Ticket
Reduced 1 oz. to 4 oz. to Misdemeanor from Felony
Added PTSD to Medical Marijuana Conditions
Created regulated dispensary market
Decriminalization still means contraband black market
15,874 marijuana arrests in 2012 (Oregon State Police
Uniform Crime Report)
Cannabis remains “theft – worthy”

4. We are spending Billions of dollars to enforce
prohibition, and it has failed to achieve it’s stated goals!!
And leaving Billions of more tax revenue on the table.
Because we mistakenly believe we must treat pot smokers
more harshly than beer drinkers!
For the trillions of dollars that we’ve spent on the drug
war, since 1990 this is what we have gotten.
Cheaper more potent cannabis
Twice the teenage users, even though we have quintuple
the amount of cannabis seized.(1)
Added 7 Million adult monthly users (2)

5. What About The Children?
No cannabis law reformers want children using cannabis
for non medical reasons
In the late 1970’s 93% drank and 75% of 12th graders smoked
cigarettes
In early 2010 these numbers changed to 69% drank and 39%
smoked cigarettes
Both of these drugs are legal and heavily advertised and
much more addictive than cannabis. How many adult drinkers
and smokers did we have to raid, arrest and imprison to get
this done .--NONE

6. What About Impaired Drivers?
The rates of accidents ,injuries, and deaths since the 1990’s has
been in decline ,even though cannabis consumption has
increased.
Much of this is due to seat belt laws, safer cars and
increased drunk driving patrols. But even States like
Oregon with Tens of thousands of medical marijuana
patients on the roads are reporting some of their best
traffic safety stats ever. And it doesn’t legalize stoned
driving, any stoned driver than could be arrested today
could be arrested under a legal market.
Washington State recently set up a drivers course with
pot smokers getting high and immediately driving, A
lady named Addy did remarkable well driving at limits
way over the nano-gram limits set by the law, try that
with drinkers way above the set limits.(1)

7. What About Crime?
Legalization automatically means that 26 million Americans are no
longer criminals
Prohibition creates the crime just like it did in the days of Alcohol
Prohibition
Micro-brewers are not shooting up the streets over turf wars.
We don’t have wine makers planting secret vineyards in are nation
forests.
We don’t have violent home invasions over home beer brewing.
And we don’t have cigarette smokers stealing to afford their
addiction.
Right now police make an arrest in half of all violent crimes,and less
than 1/5 in all property crimes.
There are more arrest for mere marijuana possession than all
violent crimes combined.(1)
Each arrest takes a cop out of the street for 2 hours and backlogs
the crime labs, which could be processing rape kits and evidence of
real crime.
And some of those convicted of marijuana possession turn to a life
of crime because they can’t find a job due to their conviction.

8. What About Public Health?
National Institute of Medicine and others have debunked the gateway drug theory.
Most people that use marijuana ,don’t use more marijuana let alone other drugs.
After 30 years research ,the leading scientist looking for a link between pot
smoking and head neck and lung cancer, concluded in 2006 that pot smokers have
less incidents than non-smokers, And no greater incidents of lung decease (1)
The Netherlands and Portugal have shown us that liberalizing Marijuana laws
doesn’t lead to more pot smokers, in fact their rates of Marijuana and drug usage
is much lower than the United States
Fears that Marijuana taxation wouldn't pay the bills,Cannabis users cost society
1/8 of drinker and 1/40 of a smoker.(2)
The list of Marijuana user that have went on to achieve greatness is too long,
So lets just say Michael Phelps and move on.

9. What About Workplaces?
In Oregon even with the increase of medical Marijuana Users, OSHA found
the safest and least recorded illnesses ,injury and absenteeism ever
recorded .
Legalization doesn’t nullify workplace drug testing or bans.
Legalization doesn’t mean marijuana smoke breaks or public usage
Legalization will create jobs and increase tax revenue.