I see your point. However, if I may point out, drug dealers are already laughing at the consequences and are widespread already. There is no way for the number of weed dealers to skyrocket because the market is already saturated. It's the same with any market that already has a satisfied demand. Besides, ask your child. Anyone who has been to a school in the US for the last 30yrs know that schools are where a lot of the best drugs can be found. I can promise you there are at least 3-10 student dealers already in any school above the 7th grade. Used to be they just sold candy.....

Also, I understand that the worst your child would do is smoking some pot. As long as he doesn't get arrested then I agree that it wouldn't do too much harm. However, I feel we need to do more to focus LEO attention on the more dangerous drugs that harm everyone instead of relatively mild ones like weed.

The problem with decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana is that LEO would not have enough of a "threat" because compared to marijuana, the number of people using the more dangerous drugs are too small to justify their budgets and powers. This is why they focus so much on marijuana when there are clearly more dangerous drugs. It's a budgeting reality, a numbers game.

IMHO, we need to decriminalize/legalize just to bring the laws into reality. I also feel, however, that random school drug testing should be mandatory for all students nationally. I started smoking weed at 13 and, while I love weed, I wish I hadn't started so early. It does mess with a childs development and I do not feel it, or any drug, should be used before 18yrs old.

I know a lot of people here would disagree with mandatory school testing (my automatic knee-jerk reaction as well) and ordinarily I side with the less interference rule. However, children are children and they need to have adults do what's best for them. We're not their friends, we are their parents. Until they are old enough to make proper decisions then they should not be exposed to these potentially disrupting influences. With random testing, at least two or three a year, we can put a massive dent in gradeschool drug use. College and adult use should be entirely seperated from underage useage.

It's hard enough to be a child. No reason I see to dump more on them.