I agree that pot should be legalized for various reasons, including the amount of government money saved and better used by spending it on education rather than prisons. There is also the hypocrisy of keeping alcohol and tobaco legal while pot isn’t. As for any negative consequences from smoking pot, I think that they result from irresponsible use of it, just as negative consequences result from irresponsible use of various other substances as well as “privileges” such as driving a car or owning a weapon. I also agree that the issue of legalizing pot should be a national conversation and it need not take away from other conversations such as the environment, global justice, etc. They can all be happenning simultaneously.