IR readers who responded to our Question of the Week thought legalizing marijuana and/or other drugs was a good idea by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent.

The unscientific poll garnered 884 "yes" votes, and 744 readers voted "no."

Some readers who commented on the question referred to the controversy over medical marijuana, perhaps in response to a vote last week in the state Senate approving a bill to give patients better access to the drug. That bill, Senate Bill 326, has been sent to the House for consideration.

Some of those comments:

n I am against increasing the amount of marijuana for patients who use it for medical reasons. This would be a foot in the door that could eventually lead to the delegalization of the drug.

n Medical marijuana should be as available as any other drug used for medical purposes -- prescribed and overseen by a physician.

Many prescription drugs can be abused, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be available. Are you going to be the one to tell a cancer patient they can't have the substance they believe will ease their pain?

Most of the comments argued whether laws against marijuana and other drugs are effective prevention measures or a "prohibition" that does more harm than good:

n In 5,000 years of continuous global use by people for medicinal, spiritual and social purposes, not a single person ever has died from using marijuana.

n Polls show that upwards of 100 million Americans have tried it at least once. National data applied to Montana suggest that roughly 140,000 Montanans consume marijuana on a regular basis!

Yet the research I have done -- looking at statistics from the Montana Board of Crime Control -- shows that the most frequently occurring arrest in Montana is for simple, small-quantity possession of marijuana (on the order of 1,700 people per year). . .

n . . . I know the idea of legalizing drugs strikes many as overly radical (though most adults now recognize the wisdom of this approach where marijuana is concerned).

But that's mostly because the term "legalize" suggests no control or regulation at all. Our culture and government may not be ready to put a new system in place of prohibition -- but we're long past the point of needing to start talking about what kind of policies would work better.

n No drugs that are currently illegal now, should ever be made legal. In fact marijuana should never have been made legal. I believe some of the people who voted for legalizing it (under the guise of "medical reasons") were probably unaware that the benefits claimed by pot users are available by prescription in the pharmacy without the euphoric benefits. And if they would be honest, the euphoric benefits are what these users are after . . .

. . . Pot, you say, can be a controlled substance like prescription drugs, yeah, we see how well that works in controlling oxycodone, etc.

n The only possible strategy for beating drug cartels is to eliminate the profit from illegal drugs.

If we legalize and dispense drugs free to addicts under clinical conditions, it may do little to curb drug use, but it will dramatically reduce the crime addicts commit to obtain money for illegal drugs.

n Yes, legalize all drugs. didn't we learn anything from prohibition of alcohol? The major beneficiaries on the war against drug users are the drug smugglers and cops. If people want to poison themselves with drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or anything else, it should be their choice.

Education, not criminalization.