. . . It is ridiculous to label weed 'bad' and alcohol 'okay' based on anything but the most arbitrary of reasons. But that is what the laws currently DO.
As Bill Maher pointed out, the current drug laws are nothing more than an attempt to legislate taste.
I think it has more to do with our nation's history of a dominance of Christian values. Although there's nothing directly obvious about "alcohol's ok, drugs aren't" in Christian theology, it
does track historically that alcohol use has always been considered more socially acceptable in religious ideology than recreational drug use. Honestly it probably has to do with the fact that alcohol traces its roots back to very early western civ and has been available and popular in Judeo-Christian societies for ages. Things like pot, hash, peyote, etc; the naturally grown narcotics, HAVE been around just as long or longer, but historically were always much more embraced by Pagan cultures than Christian ones. I'm not like a western civ expert but I'm betting that definitely has something to do with the evolution of the perception of recreational drug use in the western world as taboo.
Well, then apply limitations and penalties to it's use similar to those applied to alcohol. Drunk driving is a crime. Stoned driving could be a crime also...without making weed itself illegal. In fact, you don't even need to call it 'drunk driving' or 'stoned driving'. You could simply call it 'chemically impaired driving', and apply the exact same penalties.
It already is, at least in Missouri. They just package it under "driving under the influence".
I'm just going to make a little side comment, not that it should be taken to imply that I'm against legalization but I've seen at least a couple people claim that it's less of an impairment to drive high than to drive drunk and... maybe I'm just a little odd but I couldn't disagree more. I've probably smoked pot like 6 times in my entire life, and out of those six times I've probably tried to drive, twice. I'll just admit in order to demonstrate my point, I've probably driven under the influence... idk, 10 times. I know it's horrible, it's stupid, it's putting people at risk, yada yada, if anyone's had someone they care about hurt by a DD, I completely understand if you think I'm an asshole but that has nothing to do with my point. Any time I have tried to drive while high (twice), I have given up and had someone else drive me after about a block. The last time I did it, I think I got lost in my hometown of 17 years after a similar distance. I can't understand how anyone could possibly do it. On the other hand, and maybe this is from practice? I don't know, I'm not trying to make it sound cool, it's simply fortunate for my sake and everyone else's, but unfortunately I've managed to drive home from parties, friends' houses, etc, completely, and brutally, obliterated. Maybe I'm just really careful, don't drive like an idiot, don't try to get home fast, etc; idk. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being you black our, I've probably driven at a 7 a couple times and a 9 once. But that was kind of unavoidable bc I got thrown out of a party at 4 am out in the boonies... And I would probably say that every experience I have had attempting to drive high is 4 times harder than the WORST experience I have ever had trying to drive home intoxicated. Just my 2 cents.
