Cigarettes are legal because there is a longer history of using tobacco and it is used by a much greater portion of society than marijuana. The reason to keep marijuana illegal is to discourage its use so that it does not become as big of a scourge on society as tobacco already is. *********** Evan024 wrote, "Responsible adult marijuana smokers are not and will never become a 'scourge on society'." You know, the same could be said of alcohol. However, how many people are injured, maimed, or killed every year because adults don't us alcohol responsibly? It is a major problem world wide. You can talk about prohibition not working, but I remember something that my grandmother used to tell me. She had been an emergency room nurse during the 1920's and 30's. She told me that she saw a dramatic increase in the number of alcohol related injuries after the repeal of Prohibition over what she saw during the time alcohol was illegal. So, in her community at least, making alcohol illegal did cut down on its irresponsible use. I have no reason to believe that it would be any different for marijuana.

I found the following on www.familydoctor.org/485.xml?printxml Anything in paratheses is my own words. What are the common side effects of marijuana use? The following are some of the common side effects of using marijuana: * Trouble remembering things * Sleepiness * Anxiety * Paranoia (feeling that people are â??out to get youâ??) * Altered time perception Using marijuana for a long time makes some people lose interest in school, work, relationships and other activities. It may also cause legal problems. Using marijuana can be especially dangerous in certain situations, such as when you are driving. How can marijuana affect me physically? The following are some of the common physical effects of marijuana: * Tremors (shaking) * Nausea * Headache * Coordination becoming worse * Breathing problems * Increased appetite * Reduced blood flow to the brain * Changes in the reproductive organs (marijuana can cause men to grow breasts. I kid you not.) Like tobacco, marijuana contains many chemicals that can hurt the lungs and cause cancer. One marijuana cigarette can cause more damage to the lungs than many tobacco cigarettes because marijuana has more tar in it and is usually smoked without filters. (Plus you usually hold in the smoke longer so it does more damage) P.S. I am a honor roll student at my college. However, I do have a lot of problems with spelling. Lack of spelling skills does not equal lack of intelligence. Especially if someone has a learning disability. I really think people need to lay off critizing other people's spelling and grammar.

marijuana is bad for u...i am 26 and all of my friends started out smoking marijuana now ALL of them are on harder drugs because they have smoked so long they can't get that same high they felt at first. I have tried it ONCE, and I will never do it again, iwas forgetting to breath and i did start to hallucinate. Why would any one want to feel like that? Take it from someone who has been around it.....it is bad!!!!

MONEY. The tobbacco companies make more money by keeping cigarettes legal. Cigarrette smoking is good for the medical industry. Both these industries lobby our politicians who justify the continued legalizatio of tobbacco by saying stuff like 'it's freeeeedom' to smoke in America because it's you're choice and we're a 'freeeeee' country. I love the Philip Morris 'Helping you teach your kids not to smoke' websites. Why don't they just stop making cigarettes and start making textbooks. Oh year, because we're "freeeeee". Marijuana is illegal to protect the marijuana trade which the government is complicit with. Yes, folks, the same people who enforce the law, create the crime. (I don't mean the local town cop, the collusion happens at higher levels). Whoever controls the marijuana trade makes more money by keeping marijuana illegal and these big time dealers are working in cahoots with the government.

Two reasons. When the illegalization of marijuana bill was being passed, many Christian organizations used false information to make pot seem more harmful than it is. And also because of the fact that many of the high powers in politics own pot farms and profit

One word: lobbyists Cigarretes kill 1200 Americans a day. That's a World Trade Center every weekend.

cigarettes are legal & always have been because the tobacco company's & governments can make vast profitable taxes from their franchise, but for instance, if you take amsterdam for example, where cannabis/marijuana have been legal since 1973, the dutch authourities have stated that dude to the taxation of the drug & decriminalization, the effects of "dope smoking" are now a health issue & not crime based, but also at the same time the government get their cut of the profits. if other nations were to follow up this process we could certainly learn a thing or two from the dutch.

cigarettes are legal becuse the gov't makes millions of dollars in tax money from it! marijuana o the other hand is illegal because they have no way of taxing it (because it can be home grown)

Cigarettes have always been made in America, because tobacco can be grown in America. However, although marijuana can be homegrown, most of it is imported. When the act that illegalized marijuana was passed, it was during a time when Mexican immigrants were being discriminated against in America. Marijuana was seen as a Mexican drug, that immigrants smoked when they were working, which made them lazy. So marijuana was originally made illegal is a discriminating act against Mexicans.

Because cigarette manufacturers have more and better lobbyists.lol And the Conservatives believe toking on a joint will lead you to stronger drugs like heroin.

Seriously I don't know. I hate cigarettes because they don't do anything for you. It's fun to get stoned and no one experiences any harm from it except for a little tar which is negligible compared to the massive amounts of tar one ingests from the massive amounts of cigarettes that a cig smoker inhales.

Cigarettes kill hundreds of people each day and hundreds of thousands of people each year and are legal, while marijuana has killed no one and is used medically and is illegal. According to a 2006 CDC report, tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 438,000 deaths each year, or about 1 of every 5 deaths. More deaths are caused each year from tobacco, than all deaths combined from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders. Marijuana has killed 0 people and is used medically and religiously but still illegal.There is no evidence of anyone ever overdosing or dieing from marijuana, in fact, most users of marijuana use it to help there already existing health problems, so why is marijuana illicit and cigarettes not, when cigarettes, as stated on the governments website, kill more people every year then HIV/aids, illegal drug use, alcohol use, car accidents, suicides and murders combined! The only effects researches reported from long term marijuana use are depression, anxiety problems, and short term memory, far less severe and serious than lung cancer and heart disease! Why would the government post statistics on there website saying cigarettes kill more people in the United States than anything else and still not make them illegal, because cigarettes brings in large sum of tax money for them and it plays a key role in the population elimination. 1 in 4 Americans smoke cigarettes. Cigarette smoking kills an estimated 259,500 men and 178,000 women in the United States each year! An estimated 25 million Americans who are alive today will die prematurely from smoking-related illnesses, including 5 million younger than the age of 18. Cigarettes not only bring in a large amount of tax money for our government, but they also keep the population exceeding earths capacity and the growing to large, and the government, instead of trying to better the world, does nothing to prevent our loved ones from dieing due to tobacco use. *Source- Center for Disease and Control, 2006, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/marijuana.html

because tobacco and alcohol companies felt threatened by marijuana in the 50's. They made smear campaigns and got legislation passed to have marijuana classified as a class 1 drug. Everyone knows cigs and alcohol and pharmacueticals are just as bad if not worse than marijuana but it boils down to money and it never got changed because the War on Drugs is a multi-million dollar industry. The government is making money seizing drugs and making busts and taking possession of homes and cars and money of dealers and then turn around and use this money to finance their stings and buy equipment and build bigger prisons and pay cops and judges. Then the drugs they seize the put back out on the streets, they make money off that and then they go out and bust some more people. IT is a money making ctcle where the government is ensuring the war on drugs will never be won and will continually generate revenue. But don't fear cigs will be illegal soon enough....then I wonder who they are gonna go after?!

because "blacks and mexicans are smoking it and raping white women" that's the line that originally made it illegal because they were doing the transition from paper to hemp and a guy stood to lose 30 million. he was in a shitty situation lied and made a shitty situation for future generations. the reason it is still illegal is the government cannot tax it.