marijuana should it be legal?

i remember very little about the hippie generation since i was only around 7 at the time.all i remember is driving down main street in Webster mass.some hippies were crossing the street, my father rolled down his window and yelled out "hey Jesus Christ and the apostles why don't get a hair cut"unfortunately i was unable to crawl under the front seat at the time.(you know thirty years from now when I'm in the nursing home the psychiatrist will look at me and say Linda lets talk a little about this obsessive need you have to crawl under your chair every time you room mate combs her hair,now theres an ativan moment,thanks dad.)
back in the days of the hippies illicit drugs were used to enlighten and expand the mind they said it allowed them to see things more clearly and understand the real purpose of the world.
10 years after this generation came my group we were looking for fun disco and drugs we were not using drugs to enlighten the mind but to blow it.cocaine not heroin were the big drugs everything was for partying.when i was in high school i remember kids smoking dope in the bathrooms,across the hall from the class rooms and the teachers not doing anything about it.
now California has legalized the use of dope,marijuana,for use by sick people,which i don't have a problem with i deal with narcotics on a daily basis and see the positive use of drugs on pain.unfortunately being California they have gotten bad prscriptions from doctors who don't care who wants it.this then becomes abuse of the system.
my husband, who is 12 years older then me, belonged to the generation who saw drugs has enlightenment he feels we should legalize marijuana that people should not be put in jail for using dope but for selling the stuff,since it fills the jails up for the wrong reason. i on the other hand have known people who have become addicted to drugs and became a drain on society not to mention it is illegal.people using the stuff and get caught need to be punished in some way,you did break a law.
to me marijuana should be used has a legal drug and regulated just like any other narcotic.a law is a law and until we make it legal it illegal