The essense of my point is bystanders can be harmed by simply being in the same room as the second hand smoke. This is not necessarily the case with alcohol.

Here's the difference: My girls are friends with the neighbor's kids a few houses down. We have been family friends since my wife and I moved in. They always have wine with their dinner, and I have no problem allowing my girls to be over there without us at dinner time even though my wife and I never drink alcohol, ever. The neighbors know our beliefs, and we trust them. Now if I knew they were smoking pot, there's no way in hell I'd allow my kids into that house. Not because the impairment or addiction brought on by smoking pot is any different than a glass of wine, but because my kids would then be inhaling the stuff too.

Whenever I hear of the legalizing marijuana arguments, I never seem to hear about the controls that would go with them. It always seems to be all or nothing with most arguers for and against. Put in some decent controls and I'd be more willing to accept it. Without controls never.

I realize my beliefs on drugs and alcohol are more extreme than the mainstream. However, we've made a lot of progress as a society in the fight against tobacco and other drugs. Do we really want to take that step backwards. The war on drugs may not be the right approach to deterring the use of illegal drugs. I'd prefer to see more effort spent on rehabilitation than incarceration, but simply legalizing the stuff is absolutely the wrong direction in my opinion.

-Steve G.