LANSING, MI

-- If online commenters are any indicator, there is a growing wave of support for decriminalizing or even legalizing marijuana.

Readers responded strongly to

posted over the weekend as well as an online database that shows county-by-county data on marijuana related arrests in 2012. (The database can be accessed at the bottom of this post.)

Decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana is a hot topic nationwide. Marijuana is now legal in Colorado and Washington state, and Michigan cities including Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Ypsilanti, Jackson and Ferndale has decriminalized marijuana in the past two years.

A majority of the commenters offered their support for decriminalizing or legalizing the drug.

Wrote a commenter with the handle

"

Wasted days and wasted nights. When will the American bigots realize this drug is a cash cow for the police. How aboot a follow up story on how much marijuana was confiscated and how all the arrested possessions were confiscated."

"'Is enforcing marijuana laws a good use of public resources?' No," posted

argues that legalizing pot would help keep it away from children: "It doesn't take the intellect of a genius to understand that stores card kids for I.D.. Thugs and gang members do not. They also push the real hard drugs on children. Stores do not. Marijuana legalization will make it harder for children to obtain it."

described himself as "a lifelong conservative," but said: "You cannot have invalid laws in a just society. You cannot make a medical/nontoxic/nonaddictive herb illegal while allowing people to drink alcohol, smoke cigs, eat fast food, pop over the counter pills, or consume any of the hundreds of other legal substances that are far more harmful than marijuana. That makes a mockery out of justice."

Retorted

: "

You want the educational achievement gap to widen? Legalize Marijuana."

Added

: "Geeze Louise --- the dopesters are out in force attempting to rationalize through their smokey haze why dope is good and clear minds are bad. ... The reason it's called 'DOPE' is because it was named after the people who use it."

RELATED STORY: Is enforcing marijuana laws a good use of public resources?

What do you think?

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7786681/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Should Michigan legalize marijuana?&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Marijuana arrest database

Below is a database for the 36 Michigan counties with a population of 50,000 or more. The arrest statistics provided are for 2012, as reported to the Michigan State Police by local police agencies and as for arrests in that county.

To create a top-to-bottom ranking of the different counties, click on "all counties" and then click on top of the appropriate column to look at the ranking for that column.

If you have questions or comments about the database, post a comment below or contact Julie Mack at 269-350-0277 or email jmack1@mlive.com.

to load this Caspio

.

Retorted

: "Geeze Louise --- the dopesters are out in force attempting to rationalize through their smokey haze why dope is good and clear minds are bad. ... The reason it's called 'DOPE' is because it was named after the people who use it."