Originally Posted by levite

OMG, I will support this initiative to my dying breath....

1. It's entirely irrational that weed is illegal: it is less harmful than either alcohol or tobacco, and those are both legal. There is really no evidence to support that smoking pot leads to heroin or other "hard drug" addiction. I know that I, for one, have smoked many a bowl in my time, and never once had a splinter of a grain of interest in heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, or other such drugs.
2. It was originally made illegal for racist, classist, and economically oppressive reasons. It would be a restoration of justice to make it legal again.
3. Legalizing recreational marijuana would undoubtedly lead to the legalization of industrial hemp farming, which could make California a leading producer of environmentally friendly paper pulp, hemp textile production, hemp oil production, hemp plastics, and many other quality, sustainably produced materials. This would create jobs, attract investment monies to the state, and produce considerable business/industrial tax revenues.
4. Savings from not wasting police/corrections resources on arresting, trying, and locking up decent people who take a toke instead of having a martini or a shot of whiskey would save billions, and help unclog the court system, and help relieve prison overcrowding.
5. The world's fourth or fifth largest economy is in monumental fiscal crisis. Tax revenues from regulated pot sales would be huge. It would be insane not to take advantage of this previously untapped financial resource.
6. Weed kicks ass! 420, yo!