Public to Obama -- Legalize!

From Slashdot comes news of a bold new online public consultation forum rolled out by the White House.

Brainstorming was conducted in an effort to identify ways to 'strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.'

And what is on the minds of Americans in a time of economic cataclysm and war? Issue number two is legalized marijuana as a source of savings and enhanced revenues. One example

to legalize marijuana would mean an end to the billions of wasted dollars fighting this "war on drugs". A war, that anyone who grew up in America and went to public schools, saw first hand was lost. Imagine taxation on an herb that has many positive potentials. It can be used to make food, clothes, rope, and hell, even money. To make it illegal costs far more money and it cuts out many potential benefits from it's legalization. Even dependency on cotton would be a thing of the past. So we should vote to end this prohibition, and give people their freedom back, a freedom removed roughly 90 years ago now. We could tax and control it much in the same way Alcohol is controlled. The mobsters lost their power in the 1930's when alcohol was legalized, so let's do the same to the Mexican cartels, the modern mobsters.

Number three is legalized marijuana as a source of tax revenue and recognition of marijuana as a medically useful drug. From another response on the White House site

Please understand that this is not a call to legalize marijuana for recreational use (although that is a debate that should be had), but simply a call to recognize the laws that are written and to follow those laws based on current science and medical expertise. In no way should the Federal Governemt decide what medical treatment is best for a person, this is something that should be decided on between the doctor and the patient. With the way things currently stand, citizens in 13 states are currently at risk of Federal prosecution for possessing a "drug" that their doctor recommended. Why should we continue to treat these suffering people as criminals?