The AG seems to be jumping on a slippery slope. Legalize marijuana and what's next in fighting crime, legalize cocaine, heroin? Key word is demand. Decrease our demand for the drug and we decrease the flow.

I agree with the slippery slope. Marijuana is easy to grow and takes little specialization to do so. How will it be regulated when "legal"? If it were legal do you think people will take the legal route, following the restrictions and taxes place on the legalization bill? Or do you think users would take advantage of the "legal to use" open door? Do you think the cartels would simply lower the price making it really worth while to buy black market stuff thereby bypassing the restrictions and taxes, and who's going to know....Is it sanctioned stuff or black market stuff? Making it legal would create an open market for the cartels and do nothing but help them in their efforts.

The government should sell licenses so that individuals can raise a minimum amount of Marajuana in secure fenced in areas for their own use. Not for friends only them and a spouse if they pay twice the fee. violations of the terms would be subject to stiff fines. that would break the drug lords. but it won't happen . In fact we can't even grow hemp to make paper with less impact than wood. I don't do drugs. I don't smoke and drink a little wine. but selling growing permits makes sense.

Mark and George make interesting points. But first just let us agree that we want to end the violence and power of the cartels, and agree that we will need strong enforcement to uproot them. Mark, our government has been working hard to "decrease demand" for marijuana for at least 40 years. Do you have a new idea for how to do it? Why do you think this is a "slippery slope" to legalizing other drugs? Do you think Congress can become addicted to drug legalization after "just one hit," i.e., legalizing marijuana? You don't have much respect for the intelligence of the legislature, do you? George, you ask important questions, but assume the answers that support your fears. Is it easier to grow quality marijuana than to make good wine or brew beer at home? I don't know. Our laws allow home brewing and wine making. I guess it is easy to grow tomatoes. I don't, and I don't know more than a handful who do among the thousands of people I know. One can assume that creating a legal regime for marijuana will be simple, by assuming simple, easily evaded laws. One could equally assume that creating an effective legal regime make require some complexity, and enforcement.

You would think someone with a law degree would be smarter. Making one drug legal would not hurt the cartels, they just concentrate on another drug. Do you think they would say oops no more weed guess we will go out of business. We thought we did a great thing in 1989 with opperation Triple Neck that took the biker gangs out of the Meth business, what happened was the cartels filled in and made the problem 10 times worse. They will flood our neighborhoods with heroin and give it to 12-14 year olds free. We fight this marketing tactic all the time since Mexico is just a short drive away. I agree with Mark stopping demand is one of the keys.

Why would an educated AG think that "legalizing" an activity or item would have any effect on a criminal organization? Did repealing prohibition stop the Mafia? Did legalizing gambling in Vegas remove the Mafia from that city? Legitimizing a criminal activity to stop an organization only legitimizes the criminal organization. If they start stealing cars is he going to legalize that? Murder for hire? Child prostitution? AG's are suppose to enforce the laws, not find cheap copouts to doing their job.

Please re-read the last paragraph. Or check the original article. The AG wasn't really supporting legalization at all..that's just the spin put on it by the newspaper to sex up the story. Mr. Sterlin, our government has NOT been working hard to reduce demand for 40 years. They're only now beginning to figure out what works and what doesn't. But demand reduction is the only way out of this mess.

Mark: legalize marijuana and the air will go out of the demand for cocaine, heroin, and... tobacco cigarettes (that's who really puts the big money behind fighting it). George: once legalize marijuana, and you and I will be free to go forth like mormons and witnesses and convert the hot burning overdose cigarette addicts to single-toke, e-cigarette and vaporizer, which is what Big Tobackgo doesn't want, that's why they fight cannabis. Now for the time being they can fend off these downsizings of the dosage, and extermination of their profit, by the specious ground that harm-reduction equipment is related to illegal (and demonized)cannabis.

Decriminalization and legalization of most all of the now illegal drugs is the only answer! You will never change the demand need and want for them. They will still be obtained! Illegal drug importing and related crimes and criminal activity will come to a virtual halt. God willing, someday soon all the governments of this world will wake up to this solution.

Alchohol prohabition didn't work. Adults still made the choice to use this dangerous liquid drug that has killed many each year. So now the government taxes and regulates it(gov. makes money) instead of the mafia. marijuana is endorsed by many medical groups for treatment of HIV, Cancer, Alzheimer's, PTSD and others. Why make patients criminals and let the mafiososake money?

Let's learn a lesson from our own history. Liquor was outlawed in the US a few decades ago because it was believed that drinking alcohol was ruining lives and was not in the best interest of the country. Along comes the underworld syndicate and crime is up. The legislature legalized liquor again but the syndicate did not go away and the problems of alcohol consumption didn't either. It's costing billions every year and the human suffering can not be measured in dollars and cents. Legalizing marijuana is no solution - it's a cop out. Even if it did put the cartels out of business (which it woud not) what about the wasted, ruined lives that the weed produces!Legaization wouldn't eliminate that. Don't human lives enter into the discussion? Don't they matter? Passing a law does not nulify the effects of an addictive, stupifying drug. If the Arizona AG doesn't have the guts to enforce the law then let's get one who will, but legalization solves nothing.

Fact: the 30+ year billion-dollar "war on drugs" has NOT worked to reduce demand. That's no secret -- read the studies. "Keep It Simple" (while reciting the Serenity Prayer!!!) = legalize, regulate, and tax pot like we do alcohol.

I am a 73year old white female who has been smoking pot for 40 years. I find the drug a help with my depression, it is an introspective drug, and otherwise innocious. When I buy 1/8 of an ounce I pay $50. Do the math. This is $400.00 U.S. an ounce, etc. Allowing adults to purchase pot from a taxing entity of the U.S. Govt. is the way to go. This takes the profit out of this multi million dollar illegal, violent criminal activity, and into the same revenue coffers that cigarettes and alcohol taxes currently supply.

I work with teenagers every day who have diminished productivity, loss of interest in activities, other than smoking weed, and little aspiration for the future. There are many others though who are staying clean so they can get a job and know they'll be tested. I shudder to think how diminished our work force will be if there is no impetus to stay clean. Lax opinions on mind altering equating to recreation keeps our demand up. Lets start being united in enjoying life without substances.

If we're serious about securing our borders, protecting our children from drug-dealing murderers, AND pumping some much-needed revenue into the public treasury, we'll implement a Personal Use and Cultivation Permit, similar to a fishing permit, allowing ordinary Americans to grow a little marijuana in their own back yards. Sold by the States and splitting the revenue 50-50 with the Federal treasury, it the permit cost $100 per year, and if even one-third of the estimated 30Million Americans who use marijuana each year were to obtain such a permit, it would pump a Billion dollars into the public pocketbook AND rip the guts out of the criminal drug gangs' cash flow. Right now, we put our own children in prison with violent criminals for doing something that both our current Democratic President and the recent Republican Vice Presidential candidate acknowledge having done themselves. Let's put the drug dealing criminals out of business and let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana for their own personal use.

Legalize and let people grow their own. Leave the government out of it. That way we will know what is in it and we will live in peace

You know im amazed at some of the strong oppinions expressed here. I'm a prior military vet and hold and ass. degree in applied science so don't just think I'm a "pot-head". I have ADD and have shattered both my legs. After several surgeries I'm still left in pain but can't function on pain killers. Yet I maintain a 4.0. GPA I wonder why that is? For all the people in my situation I just ask that you consider the positive impact that legalization can have on our economy and our daily lives. We regulate everything from medicine to fishing, why is this any different.

Let's be serious, legalizing marijuana will slow down the cartel. 1. Most mexican weed is considered dirt to users. 2. The government supplies all ranges of marijuana including some of the best strains available. 3. The government supplies this marijuana for cheaper then the street price and users feel safer purchasing it from a store rather than a sketchy drug dealer. Not only will it slow down the Cartel, it will also create thousands of jobs and will make lots of money. Look at California, this is a quote from TIME's article "Can Marijuana Help Rescue California's Economy?" "...pot is, after all, California's biggest cash crop, responsible for $14 billion a year in sales, dwarfing the state's second largest agricultural commodity — milk and cream — which brings in $7.3 billion a year, according to the most recent USDA statistics.." And for all the people who say anything to the effect of "..what's next, they legalized cocaine/heroin/meth ect.." you need to wake up and realize marijuana is essentially "safer" for your body then any of those drugs and is even safer then alcohol. I rest my case.

Marijuana causes birth defects. We can't allow the devil's weed to infect our bodies! Please don't legalize it. A teenager in my neighborhood apparently smoked it and got F's in school. Then he dropped out without a degree. He came by my house to ask for a job and I could see the lost, faraway look in his eyes. The devil has taken his soul.

what is so different about legalizing weed than alcohol or cigarettes. Both of those are worse for you!!! And how much money off taxes does the government already make off those! We could pay off our deficit to china by legalizing a plant that has more positive benefits than negative. (hemp seed oil, hemp paper, medicinal reasons etc. Plus, isn't this a free country??? It should be the choice of the user, not everyone who is automatically against it because they see it as a "drug".

Ok time to heir from the other side now. You guys are so woried about keeping off the streets you don't notice the potental of it. Now first off the only adicction you gan get from weed (marijuna) is one you balive you have also known as a mental adicction. Now if you were to legalize weed you could do anything you want from making it agenst the law to buy from a home dealer and charge money for growers licens.and with that in place no one is going to want risk buying a sack from some like that when you can go to 7 11 and your weed a drink and your munchies. As for people who are unmotivated you still have thousonds of people who are its somthing that could pulls our nation out of resecion and is less danges the alchihol, but somthing you can still use the laws in place for with. So realy think about it befor you say no just because you wouldn't do it.

Wow, first of all. Marijuana is grown naturally out of the ground. It is not man made such as other drugs, meth, cocain, acid and even alchohol. If god made it shouldn't we be able to smoke it. Second, no one has ever died from smoking weed. NO ONE!!! where as people die every day from drunk drivers. And what right does the government have to tell me what I can and cannot put in my lungs. If it is not hurting anyone else it should be my choice. Saying it won't help to legalize it is just crap and is said by those who don't smoke it and are blinded by the media. The government could tax it and use the money to help solve many of the nations problems from the homeless to the hungry and the deficit. Prohobition does not work. Also, My father died of cancer and I had to watch him suffer when he could have died in a more peaceful state. Not to mention, is it right to put someone in jail and ruin their lives and their loved ones lives over something god put on this earth? I don't think so. There are also many medical uses from depression, pain, anarexia, cancer and more. I am disabled and if I could get medical marijuana, maybe I could get off of these pain medications that I take (morphine, percocet and soma) on a daily basis. I could function better than on pain meds. It would not open up to other drugs, they are already there and will never go away, but we could use the money off of taxing marijuana to fight other really bad drugs instead of fighting a war on weed which is just not working. And don't forget how much it costs to house and feed someong in jail for just a joint. Did it hurt anyone in here If I smoke weed. I think NOT!!! Wake up America.

You are 101% right "I am Appalled". Everything you just said is correct. What I want to know is why are the ones against pot smoking okay with the other LEGAL drugs that are so much more harmful such as the medication pills "I am Appalled" spoke of. Not just that, but why is it okay to go to a bar and get drunk then, or even better to a coffee house to use a drug called CAFFEINE? It itself is more addicting than marijuana! The thing about weed is that it makes you wake up and realize how dumb you have been, cradling in the arms of the government's brain washing arms while you fill your pointless days in American like meaningless zombies!

In high school, I was an ok student. I didn't really take interest in class, and I started to lose all faith closer to graduation. Luckily, I graduated. I wanted to go to college but I just couldnt get myself to do it. I smoked some marijuana. I got a 4.0 GPA in a dental assisting college, and I was also one of the best students, now I have a dental career. I had asthma before smoking, I no longer suffer from it. I had back problems from a work accident at an early age that had hurt me to tears, but after smoking, I no longer hurt. The friends I have are nice to me, for once. When I was younger, I had a suicidal depression, and I was admitted to a mental hospital. I no longer feel depressed, and I don't want to kill myself. Why does the government want me to suffer again? Why does everyone against it look at me, someone they don't know, and say I want her to suffer through asthma attacks and tearjerking back pain, I don't want her to become inspired and get a career for her future, I want her to be miserable, hate herself, and kill herself. People get beaten by drunks.

Because if everyone was feeling like they were awesome, people would be a hell of a lot nicer...and we can't have that! Oooh No, there shall not be happiness, and there certainly shall not be a plant that is legal that can bring this happiness! Weed is the gateway drug remember? No, the gateway drug is alcohol people, was the first drug you took weed or meth or crack, No? You know that ninety percent or more of our population first drank alcohol before anything! That is the gateway drug!

1)to the concerned teachers/parents most kids smoke pot because it is taboo and therefor cool. If they enjoy doing taboo things don't you think their decision to act rebelious might be the underlying cause of lower grades. Or maybe you think we should ban hormones because going thru puberty causes kids to act rebelious. 2)If pot is responsible for 75% of the cartels funds, and now their clients can buy it legally and safer then they will take a significant hit. Yes, they may be able to start pushing the harder drugs in the future, but the production capacity they have is for pot not Crack. It will take them time to reorganize, time our govt can use to organize against them. 3)Arizona could use the extra tax dollars right now to help come back from the housing crash 4)I suffer from PTSD The dr's had me on 9 medications, several of which were just to counteract the side effects of the other drugs they had me on. I had to take them daily. I am still on two of the drugs because my body is now dependent on them to function. Just a couple of hits off one joint stop the full body convulsions I get during an attack and prevent the following migrains. How much do you thing the differenc is between one joint that lasts me over a month or nine different perscriptions refilled monthly.

if those of you proposing legalization want to make any headway at all, you need to keep people like kris (above) from posting! All you have to do is look at the spelling, grammar, and sentence structure of his post and realize everything conservative people fear about the masses using pot!

In many case's it seems that the two major "legal" drugs highly avaliable to Americans are the highest cause of deaths in the U.S. with over 400,000 deaths all tobacoo related and 150,000 plus related with alcohol including the withdrawl from.Doctors in multiple fields have agreed to the plus and the negatives of marijuana and with 14 states already having legalized medical marijuana and even California in talks about legalizing it for recreational use as well taxing and regulating it as if it was alcohol. First you must be 21 to buy,sell, & grow the tax on it will seem to help the economy in CA. As far as the cartels are concerned, Yes it would make them a bit more weaker and I'm sure they would find some else to get their hands into, However it would decrese some operations to smaller or none at all turning to other crimes to satisfy their greed. I say yes to legalizing marijuana all around tax it and regulate it like alcohol and let the people of the nation worry no more.I myself use to help with my depresion and my back pain,and because I live in a illegal state I have been incarcerated and now fight with my depression and probation. Thank you for reading my rant.