“So the government has become the drug pusher, oblivious to the ramifications of such a policy?”
State governments are supposed to regulate intrastate commerce per the Tenth Amendment. By your definition, the states are alcohol pushers, tobacco pushers and pushers of anything else that the states tax and regulate.
Yes you are probably correct. I have seen too many of my friends lose their lives to marijuana to support its decriminalization. It’s a different animal. What is next, cocaine, heroin? Wait, we have that in certain states with resultant body counts. Yes, the liberty bell says “spread liberty throughout the land,” but liberty does not mean licentious drug use encouraged by the state for their revenue cut. The state has become the whore, oblivious to the moral consequences.