I don't really see a strong parrellel between the two. Legalizing marijuana may lead to a moderate slippery-slope effect, but cocaine is at the absolute bottom of the hill. Use the most commonly available carcogenic substances available today as a benchmark: cigarettes. If a new drug is going to be less addictive and less harmful than cigarettes, I have no problem with its legalization. The science seems to indicate that this is the case: that pot is less addictive and less toxic than cigarettes. Although there's so much propaganda on both sides of the debate that it's difficult to determine scientific fact.
Speaking of cigarettes, I'd be very interested to know where big tobacco stands on the debate. Do they see the possibility of legalized marijuana as a dangerous new competitor, or do they see it as a potential new product that they can co-opt? It would be pretty easy for them to come up with a nicotine-marijuana hybrid product that would have all the dubious sex appeal of pot but the addictive qualities of cigarettes. Right now, marijuana is viewed as this quaint little hippie cottage industry by its proponents, but it won't stay that way once it becomes legal.
|