Originally Posted by SteveZ

Why have prescription drugs at all? Should they all be over-the-counter, including morphine and anything else that can affect perception and judgment? If not, then where is the bright line?

When amateur pharmacologists and chemists dabble in areas where science is considered necessary to determine all of the what-if's, that's when severe and dangerous errors occur. It's the same whenever amateurs try to make experiment in areas which contains trained and experienced professionals. It does not matter if it is lawyers making medical decisions, physicians playing lawyer, or any other similar circumstance.

The "legalize pot" bandwagon, especially when the wagon is painted and pulled by individuals with no true scientific knowledge in the subject and only see it as a toy for their recreation, lacks credence.

When a consortium of reputable medical research institutes - such as Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc. - are willing to present a viable case to the Food and Drug Administration that marijuana taken of X quality taken in Y quantum over Z time frame is tolerable to the human system to a to-be-determined criteria, then the same protection to the public that we demand of bottled ketchup and canned beer can be attained. Doesn't the public deserve that much, even those who only want to play with the stuff?