Turn on a television show or open a magazine in the United
States today and you're bound to see someone with a drink in
hand -- something unthinkable nearly a century ago. Advocates of
marijuana hope that someday that drug will emerge from its
current "prohibition" period, the same way alcohol did, and
become not only legal but as socially acceptable as having a
drink. Could that happen? Depends who you ask. Advocates point
to the November ballot in Colorado and Washington, where voters
approved legal pot for everyone, not just for those who have a
medical reason. Detractors of marijuana legalization say there
are serious health consequences, and argue the drug is often a
gateway to more harmful, addictive substances. However pot's
future is going to play out in this country, its recent path to
limited legalization has interesting parallels to alcohol, which
was banned by the federal government in the 1920s and early
1930s. The Prohibition era gave rise to an underground market
for booze, produced by unregula