My dad, at 61, has been almost continually high for the the last 30 years and is still one of the sharpest guys I know (and I know a lot of smart people). Despite a debilitating injury which now makes his marijauna use medicinal, he lifts and runs three times a week. Someone I'd be proud to have with me in an argument or a fight.
So "pot makes you lazy and stupid" isn't a foregone conclusion. I hold that if you're lazy and stupid already you're more prone to smoke pot (certainly not that all pot smokers are that way, see above) which makes it appear to those who don't investigate with due diligence before coming to conclusions, that all pot smokers are stupid.
Myself, I used to smoke, but found it boring, so I stopped. I think this is true of many bright people, which is why smart people tend not to be stoners. Once again, no insult to stoners, there are many smart ones out there, but I think they're a minority of pot users.
So this is my premise (to hammer it home one more time) using pot doesn't make you stupid (well, it does temporarily) being stupid makes you more prone to use pot (or more accurately keep using it).
Additionally, I don't see why pot is illegal. Alcohol is a much more damaging drug (long term overuse has serious PROVEN detrimental health effects, it can KILL you) and it's legal. Alcohol is also inherently violent and leads you to make bad decisions (oh yeah, I'm fine, I can drive...). Has anyone seen that add where they're giving the girl a pregnancy test because she was high and got knocked up? C'mon, how many more girls have gotten knocked up while drunk? And think of the last time you saw two guys who were high getting in a fight. If they were high they'd be much more likely to sit down, eat a twinkie and watch Spongebob Squarepants.
Not that I think drinking should be illegal, we had prohibition, and see what that got us. Nearly everyone enjoys a little drink every now and then and they should also be able to enjoy a little smoke every now and then to if they want. To sum up... Abuse of any drug is bad, be it a legal one or an illegal one. But there's no reason that marijuana is any more dangerous than alcohol. (Don't give me any crap about it being a gateway drug, that's been repeatedly disproved.) The damage that criminalizing a near harmless drug is doing to our society is much much more than letting people be free (and I mean that in a civil liberties sense as well as a "let them out of jail" sense).
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