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Hi, I am 36 years old, and I do not smoke pot, I quit smoking cigarettes on Nov. 30 (almost two months without a relapse ), and I only drink occasionally.

Congratulations, man! I've heard for some people it is more difficult to stop smoking than to stop some harder drugs.

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I never saw the people who did enjoy it as being evil or losers or bad - hell, some of the regular smokers I knew in college were also honor roll students who have gone on to do amazing things. Though, just as there are morons who abuse alcohol and make dumb choices, there are also morons who smoke weed and make bad choices.

This is all true. Just as there are some people that shoot heroine and snort cocaine that are good, decent people that go on to do amazing things.

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When I was 24 I had a terrible bout of the flu and took some Theraflu. An hour later I realized that I needed to pay a power bill and decided to drive over to the GP office and drop off the check. I started hallucinating about five minutes into the drive. Scared the shite out of me. I pulled over and found a phone to call my roommates to come and get me. Dumb choice.

Anytime you are taking medication, drinking, or smoking pot you should NOT get behind the wheel of a car. I am glad you realized the problem and stopped driving and called someone. If everyone else were as responsible as you thousands of lives would be saved each year.

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I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but like many people, I made some dumb choices in my youth behind the wheel. I still make the occasional bonehead move. None of these lapses in judgement involved marijuana or alcohol, but they were dumb all the same. Not sure anything the government could legislate would have prevented me making those choices, short of raising the driving age, banning OTC flu medicines, or banning cars outright. But, if any of those things were to happen, where does it stop?

No. We can't ban cars or everything else. But legalizing everything is not the answer, either. Would you also legalize cocaine, meth, ecstacy and heroine based on your argument?

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Collectively, we've given our government license to legislate a lot of lifestyle choices - things that could potentially affect other folks, but a lot that really doesn't affect anyone but the individual.

Which ones do not affect anyone else? Smoking weed? How about the guy that gets behind the wheel of the car after smoking, and kills someone?
Does that affect someone?
Prostitution? how about the guys that bring a STD home to their wives or girlfriends? Does that affect other people? I can think of VERY few laws that the breaker does not affect anyone else. ALL of our actions affect other people....some in a positive way, some in negative ways.

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And we have laws that say "you can't drink alcohol and drive and if you do there are consequences." But, I don't believe that a "potential" threat is worthy of legislation or making something illegal - it's a slippery slope that we need to stop careening down.

Then you are against DWI laws? That is only a potential threat. Some people drive while intoxicated and never get into a wreck. EVERY law we have are to prevent potential threats as well as tangible ones.

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There are plenty of laws protecting people from morons who drink and drive or smoke and drive. We don't need anymore.

And yet thousands are dying on our roads every year. Tell your theory to the child that will grow up without a mother or father because someone decides to drive drunk or high. And YOU must take responsibility if you support the legalization of it. Why? because if it is legalized more people will be doing it. It's that simple. Many people will not try it simply because it is illegal. Imagine how many more lives will be lost with not only scores of drunk drivers, but also high drivers on the road. After all...it's legal, right? It's less harmful than cigarettes, right?