Hemp/Cannabis IS illegal to grow in the USA, but it is not in many other countries, and I believe Hemp products, such as clothing is legal to buy/sell in the USA as it doesn't contain THC and is no longer in the form of the Hemp/Cannabis plant.
Of course Hemp is still hazardous to your health, as is any burning plant. THC, on the other hand, poses very few health risks itself, aside from some links to mental illness, which is more down to the high, and 'mind expansion' and resulting paranoia and all that jazz. In all cases of Cannabis induced psychosis that I have seen/experienced it has followed HEAVY abuse of Cannabis and in most all cases would clear up within 1-2 weeks of stopping use.
Now, health has nothing to do with whether or not something should be legal/illegal. If this were true then Trans Fats should certainly be illegal (along with McDonalds and all forms of 'fast food'), Tobacco and Alcohol should be illegal, etc. Health has nothing to do with drug reform.
Drug reform is about smart drug policy for SOCIETY, not necessarily what we would like to see individual drug users doing (IE given up the habit for their health/safety/future). Yes, even Heroin and Meth I believe should be legal, but of course, Cannabis should be first, as (another) experiment of legalisation. Remember, legalising Alcohol took so much money from the armed gangs trafficking it, and also eliminated all Methanol deaths, etc. All drug legalisation will be positive overall because it takes money away from gangs and puts it in the hands of governments.
Its also about personal freedoms. The BIGGEST drug user you have ever seen is doing NOTHING to deserve imprisonment. Well, nothing directly related to the posession and consumption of drugs. How he gets the money for drugs, that may be deserving of imprisonment, but put one in prison for that, not for a guilty pleasure, addiction, habit or whatever that he happens to have. He needs help, not prison.
With legal drugs, being a black market drug dealer would still be illegal. So the scum currently pushing drugs in school grounds and in the streets would still be put behind bars. Naturally a black market will open up, with either stolen product from government dispensaries or imported product, made at a cheaper price, thus drawing in consumers. But selling drugs without a government license will still be illegal and one will go to prison for it. Selling to children will become illegal, and stores/dealers who do this will be met with harsh punishment.
Yes, legal drugs make perfect sense in every aspect EXCEPT health. But the catch is that if health were the reason to make drugs illegal, well there are 2 drugs that are currently putting a major stain on that policy (Alcohol and Tobacco). Also there are many products/foods that are contradictory to this policy. If the government can interefere in our lives then as Ron Paul said in 1988, "Maybe the government should put you on a diet, you're a bit over weight"
You have a good point though, and yes pot most certainly does stimulate the appetite. As a matter of fact it literally saved my ex-girlfriend's life. She was severely anorexic before I met her, and at one point weighed all of 75 pounds. Then one day at the hospital, one of her fellow patients invited her outside to smoke a joint.
