Airforce said:
Very heavy fines, with similar punishments that DWI covers because of the sole fact that someone that has smoked it could be driving,
Just like someone who is drinking alcohol could end up driving... High people are better drivers than drunk people. Both drunk people and potheads have impaired reaction times, but stoned people generally drive very slowly and drunk people drive very fast.
Anyway, with all the health risks people are talking about - carcinogens, etc. Weed isn't like cigarettes. Cigarette smokers smoke 10, 20, 40 cigarettes in one day! The average pot smoker smokes probably once a week. Let's say pot smoke is 7x worse for you. A pack a day smoker smokes 140 cigarettes in a week - that is equal to smoking marijuana 20 times a week or about 3 time s a day.
This also discounts the fact that there are vaporizers and pot brownies - you don't have to inhale any smoke with those.
Pot can be emotionally addicting (just like video games or the internet can be), but in all cases this addiction is usually a result of a person falling into depression and not a cause. Cigarettes are physically addicting and it's very easy to slip into a situation where you crave a pack a day.
As far as paranoia or other dangerous side effects go, people who smoke pot generally get a similar high each time. Some people get paranoid and some don't. Most variations in highs are a result in poor quality marijuana, something that could controlled were it legalized. The people who don't get a good high will try it a few times then realize that it doesn't work for them.