text: rationally, why is pot illegal and alcohol not? the govt. knows that alcohol is addictive, it destroys your liver, kills thousands of americans every year, and causes normally peaceful people to react violently. it can simply ruin your life, and the lives of your family.  don't misunderstand me. i like a few beers or a shot or two. i also smoke. likewise, the govt. knows tobacco is addictive, causes lung cancer, and like alcohol, causes birth defects. pot, to me, is on the bottom teir of illegal drugs. although it may be habitual, it's not physically addictive. i've seen no evidence suggesting any internal damage to the body, other than the smoke from smoking it. it's natural, not processed. i've never known it to cause violent actions.  i just don't understand the justification for locking up non-violent users of pot. in my opinion, it's a lesser evil than alcohol. is it simply because the govt. can't figure out a way to tax it like the others? i think pot should be legal. that'd cut the legs off the illegal drug trade from mexico as far, as marijuana is concerned, and let the dea chase down the crack dealers. crack is pure evil, so is meth. even better yet would be pot-pops, where they do like with the nicotine candies they were working on before the fda jumped up and down on em and put the active ingredient as a component in something else that won't kill you.   the moral of the story is that prohibition just creates more law enforcement jobs....