Essay outline: Why marijuana should be legal?

Introduction:

We have been fighting an unnecessary war against the use of marijuana since centuries yet we have not been able to stop its use. Instead its use has increase and the used has transformed to a misuse due to the undue critical response to its use.
I would say why not legalize the use of Marijuana? Why not legalize it just like cigarettes, and other legal drugs?

The authorities are using its valuable resources on eradicating on marijuana crops. Still there has been no success.
There is evidence that it is grown at more unpredictable places around Tennesse, Kentucky, Hawaii and some other states.
It is estimated that these states produced around 22.3 million pounds of marijuana in the year 2006 alone.
If the authorities failed to stop a growth of the crop at this level then what about the resources and the finances that have been put in to the effort to stop the growth?
Marijuana has been used around the world for centuries as a medicine.
It is not as bad as alcohol or cigarettes.
In fact the safe use of Marijuana can help us in many ways including it improves the appetite, AIDS patients can use it to stop reducing weight and it is good in pain relief.

I believe that marijuana should be legalized.
There can be restriction on the amount of its usage and the purpose that it has been used for. This way we will be able to stop its illegal smuggling and misuse.
We will be able to save our valuable resources that are spent on its eradication.
There is also another angle to the legalization aspect, marijuana will be available to the people who really can benefit from its medicinal properties.
We might find out that, after all marijuana is not so bad. We need to develop a new perspective on marijuana, a perspective that can see both negative and positive sides of marijuana instead on focusing on one side.