Fun fact I learned, apparently the social costs of alcohol and tobacco use (hospital, cancer, drunk driving,etc.) far outweigh the profit made from the drugs([url]http://www.greenfacts.org/en/alcohol/figtableboxes/table21b.htm[/url]) . Plus Big Marijuana( and Big Tobacco companies that wanna take control over marijuana supply), the research on marijuana's link to psychosis is in the same stage as tobacco's link to lung cancer was in 1950; not 100 percent. So drug companies marketed their drug as safe, doctors couldn't do anything, when doctors found the biological mechanism on how tobacco causes cancer, drug companies grew too strong (lobby groups), so even though there was massive education, it cost a lot to make Big Tobacco quiet down, and all of that money (if Big Tobacco didn't exist) could have gone to research and stuff. Which is why the AMA doesn't want a repeat of Big Tobacco and put leashes on Big Marijuana companies in their infancies; and I think that is a fair point. And since legalization increases weed use among teens (Dutch holds the honor of having the most teens using cannabis in Europe, which is why they are eliminating 100s of coffee shops and making strong weed illegal to sell in "coffee" shops), and how there's an significant increase in the amount of teens in Denver who smoke weed since Colorado legalized it, I (well doctors, I think their view is the best) think that education is important in any legalization initiative, because kids shouldn't be smoking cannabis daily. I don't tell people this often, but I had an older brother with schizophrenia, who committed suicide; I think the genetic studies show 20-25 percent of the population carries genes for psychosis, and (daily or consistent) use of cannabis in adolescence increases the risk of psychosis by a factor of 4-6 if you do it before 16; this is a minority, but a significant minority (thousands and thousands of people). Even if it is a small amount of people who would not become psychotic if they didn't abuse cannabis during their youth, I still think (to me) that is significant because it hurt my family so much when my brother became ill--and when he shot himself. And, in med school, the psychiatrists say the same thing; the psych inpatient units are full of kids who abuse weed--and probably wouldn't be there if they had only smoked occasionally (or not at all); I just want education. I don't care about legalization. Legalization or no legalization, education programs targeted at adolescents and their families. That being said, the people who say "it is the government making these education programs to make the herb look bad" are just as stupid as the people who started the war on drugs; doctors are spending a lot of time on these education programs to cut down consistent cannabis use among teens. And that is my view on this subject. And I respect yours (and Mulder's) just as much.

And I, similarly, respect yours, if only because you've phrased your argument better than these flamers and D.A.R.E. kiddies have. And let me say, genuinely, that I'm deeply sorry for your loss.