The arguments I've heard for keeping marijuana illegal tend to center around these two issues:

• Continued use can lead to more serious drugs and activities (the gateway argument)


• Use leads to a general lack of ambition and non-productive uses of time (the pothead stereotype)
  

I dismiss the first argument on grounds that most of the "gateway" issue is caused by rather than cause for illegality. The search for an illegal substance such as pot will introduce one to an underground community that traffics in other more serious vices. Any gateway tendencies beyond that could easily be attributed to alcohol, which is legal.

As for the second, in what way is pot worse than say reality television? I personally apply this argument in avoiding both...