Let's not fool ourselves. If ethyl alcohol were discovered today, it would be a class II narcotic.
I started smoking pot in high school. It was easier to get than booze. You needed to be 18 (for beer and wine) in my area.
By the time I was 22, I was a daily heroin user.
At 25, I got off the drugs but continued to drink alcohol.
At 27, I quit drinking. Today, I have been without alcohol or drugs for 29 years.
It is my experience that marijuana is a very powerful mind-altering drug. And I say this as someone who has tried every drug on (and off) the market at one time or another.
I hear a lot about legalizing marijuana. I'm all for it with respect to medical use. However, it is my firm belief that if it were totally legal and dispensed/controlled like liquor, there would be more addiction and addiction-related problems in the U.S.
There's a whole new 12-step program that has been started in Amsterdam to deal with the pot addicts trying to stay out of the coffee houses that serve it on the menu. Those meetings are as grim as they come.
As the mother of a teenager, I strongly oppose the general legalization of marijuana.
Just one person's opinion.
Cheers.