I am all in favor of the legalization of Marijuana, but I admit I wish some people would just be honest and admit they want to get stoned without fear of arrest, rather then a lot of widly inflated claims about the virtues of Marijuana for things other then a high.
Lots of us do. In fact most fellow-pot smokers, my parents and neighbours included, want it to be legal for exactly that reason:
I would prefer to live in a world where I could continue to get high with zero risk of any legal sanction.
That being said, it is still an incredibly useful plant. I've benefitted from its anti-nausea effects from time to time even though I am primarily a recreational user (though it DOES help me do my stretches a bit better for my chronic (lol @ chronic!) lower back pain).
All those other reasons for making it legal are perfectly valid (in fact I think an AIDS patient has a bit more strength behind their claims than I do) but I don't really see too many people who want it to be legalized who don't also freely admit they want it legalized for their recreational use.
Maybe you've come across some cowardly people who don't say that up front and hide behind the "trojan horse" of industrial uses for hemp or medicinal use but I haven't really seen that view expressed anywhere. But, I'd also suggest that the degree to which this happens is likely contingent on the cultural stigma associate with pot use and I'd rather place the blame for people "couching" their pot claims in these other benefits of the plant on the cultural effect of prohibition use. Is it really their fault that admitting they just wanna get high can expose them to the danger of stigmatization and judgment on the part of others?
Its mostly non-users I've seen who have passed those "other" arguments around without mentioning the right to smoke it recreationally. And given all the things you can make from it from clothing to beer to wallets (and the built in market for hemp products - they have a certain cachet), the medecinal uses - it really makes its current illegality seem real dumb.
The scene in "Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox story" made that pretty clearly dumb too:
"What are you guys doing?"
"Smoking weed - you don't want no part of this Dewey!"
"Is it gonna make me wanna have sex?"
"It makes sex even better!"
"Well, can I get addicted?"
"Its not physically addictive"
"Oh, well can I overdose on it?"
"You can't OD on it! Forget it Dewey, you don't want this!"
"actually, I think DO want some!"
George Washington, the first president of the United States, grew both male and female cannabis plants and recommended that all Americans do the same. Why? Because George Washington believed the cannabis plant, commonly referred to as hemp, was the most useful and valuable plant in the world.
