“They’ll sell to the under-aged.”
Ooops, almost missed this gem.
Yah, that’s why we have this current rash of street liquor dealers - man I can’t believe they charge $100 for a bottle of Chivas.
Really.
There's an existing network of drug traffickers, wholesalers, and drug dealers already in place. Taking away one of their drugs won't change anything.
If we legalized only wine during Prohibition, would that have affected organized crime?
Currently, 20% of marijuana users are teens. That percentage would grow with legalization. With close to half the marijuana market being underaged, someone will sell to them. Why not the existing dealers who sell everything else?
I assume that if pot was given the same legal status as booze (and it should be for consistency), then the ‘under-aged’ would acquire pot the same way they now acquire booze.
They would just get their older siblings or friends to buy it legally and then transfer it illegally to them. It happens thousands of times each day in America.
One difference is purely physical. Booze is bulkier and somewhat less likely to be carried in a school kid’s pocket. A gram-size joint of good dope can get a car load of kids stoned. The same mass of even pure alcohol is barely enough to make a toast.
Both are detectable on your person and in your bloodstream when necessary.
Studies of both drugs show neither is without potential health risks when abused and neither is without potential benefits when consumed responsibly.
Of the two, alcohol is unquestionably more immediately dangerous and arguably more unhealthy in the long run.