Here's the the answer to why alcohol and tobacco is legal, yet Pot isn't:

Clearly, alcohol and tobacco can be quite harmful. They have a major impact on morbidity and mortality in the United States. Alcohol is a cause or contributing factor in most traffic deaths and nearly half of all murders, sexual assaults, robberies and other violent crimes. More than 40,000 babies are born at risk each year because their mothers drank alcohol during pregnancy.

Similarly, tobacco kills over 400,000 people each year in the United States, and the British medical journal, Lancet, estimates that tobacco is the cause of death for 20 percent of the people in the developed world.

Nevertheless, a given dose of cocaine or crack is far more dangerous than a drink of alcohol. Alcohol has an addiction rate of 10 percent, whereas cocaine has an addiction rate as high as 75 percent.[13]

And when cocaine is combined with marijuana, it can be deadly. According to a study in Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, an increase in heart rate due to cocaine was markedly enhanced if preceded by smoking marijuana.

By itself, marijuana is a dangerous drug as well. A joint of marijuana is far more carcinogenic than a cigarette. Microbiologist Tom Klein of the University of South Florida reports, "We've tried working with [marijuana smoke], and it's so toxic, you just get it near the immune system and it [the immune system] dies." Klein found that THC [tetrahydrocannabinol -- the active ingredient in marijuana] suppresses some immune system responses and enhances others.

A study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that marijuana smoke is often contaminated by the fungus, Aspergillus.[17] Another study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that cases of allergic sinus infection with the same fungus came from recreational use of contaminated marijuana.[18]

A study in Drug and Alcohol Dependence found that cannabis [marijuana] users react very slowly in performing motor tasks and suffer disability in personal, social and vocational areas. They also indicate a higher score for neurotic and psychotic behavior.[19]

A study in American Review of Respiratory Diseases found that marijuana smoke is as irritating as tobacco smoke; when used together, marijuana and tobacco cause the small oxygen-exchanging parts of the lung to shed cells that first become inflamed.[20]

A 1995 study in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that illicit drugs such as marijuana and cocaine can interfere with male sperm production.[21] A study in Cancer found that the children of women who smoke marijuana are 11 times more likely to contract leukemia.[22]

Mothers who smoke marijuana also contribute to low birth weight and developmental problems for their children and increase the risk of abnormalities similar to those caused by fetal alcohol syndrome by as much as 500 percent.[23]

Kasi Sridhar, a professor at the University of Miami's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Research Center, reports finding large numbers of marijuana smokers among younger cancer patients. While only 17 percent of the patients in his study were marijuana smokers, two-thirds of the patients younger than 45 smoked cannabis.[24]

Since the 1970s there have been more than 10,500 scientific studies which demonstrate the adverse consequences of marijuana use.[25] Many of these studies draw upon data collected when most of the marijuana available in the U.S. was far less potent than that available today. Indeed, drug czar Lee Brown says that marijuana on the streets today is up to 10 times more potent than a generation ago. This fact contributes to its addictive nature.[26]
beachguy in thongs Reviewed by beachguy in thongs on . C'mon, I need some help disspelling these rumors... Smoked Marijuana: is Mutogenic, Fetotoxic and Carcinogenic - can Impair the Immune System, break down the Male Genetic Code and Injure or Destroy the Eggs in the Ovaries - can cause Bipolar Psychosis, can trigger Schizophrenia, can Slowdown the Brain's Energy and can be a co-factor in producing full blown AIDS in HIV patients. Would you call that Medicine? I wouldn't -http://www.sarnia.com/groups/antidrug/ "If marijuana is medicine, Dr. Kevorkian wrote the prescription!" Don Feder, Rating: 5