text: Marijuana is an extremely useful plant that should be cultivated legally. The drug aspect of it should be decriminalized and treated as cigarettes and  alcohol are, with age limits and extreme taxation. We could pull this country half way out of debt simply by taxing the marijuana market. The effects of the drug are no more imparing than that of alcohol and the idea that this is a gateway to harsher drugs is ridiculous. If it were as legal as alcohol and cigarettes, it would be no more a "gateway" to smoking or injesting illegal things than they are also. Our tax dollars are better spent enforcing and punishing violent crimes and not looking for a college kids smoking a joint.