I just had a buddy do ten days with two years of probation for simple possession. First offense, complete cooperation with the police, and less than an eighth. While waiting for his turn in court, he saw two other defendants in essentially identical circumstances get identical sentences.

If General Barry Caffrey took just a moment to think! He would have realized that legalizing Marijuana would for the first time in 100 years would make it possible to keep pot out of the hands of children "from the 6th to 12th grades" that he seems to be so worried about. He should know that if drugs were legal, laws could be passed defining who it can be sold to.

Just as virtually all tobacco and alcohol advertising is targeted at adolescents. This form of advertising called "lifestyle indoctrination" reinforces in children that drinking alcohol is how adults have fun and in the case of tobacco, that it makes you cool and popular with the opposite sex. Drug dealers target children in the same way because they know that if they can indoctrinate children into the drug lifestyle they will continue to use drugs (read be a customer)into adulthood and beyond.

Everyone knows that an adult non drug user would not be receptive to a dealer on a street corner mumbling "wana get high?" the fact is the vast majority of drug users are sucked into the drug lifestyle as adolescents, and for good reason, in plain english, adults are not as gullible as children are. Drug legalization would not only save countless, lives both ruined and lost but would reduce drug usage, free up Courts, Police, Probation, Parole, and jail resources. Save Billions in taxes and on top of that additional taxes would be collected by taxing the drugs.

There is no down side to this, the alternative would be to continue to sacrifice our children to the drug dealers who every day try to come up with new and better ways to get kids to try their products.