750,000 people arrested last year on marijuana. Apparently, not everyone is smoking at home. Besides, smoking at home is not the issue. The issue is legalization, and legalization would harm society. Use would double if not triple, especially among teens.
Currently, 20% of marijuana smokers are underage. That happens to be quite a bit, by the way -- only 6% of smokers and 6% of alcohol users are underage. With legalization, that 20% could grow to 30-40%.
So, we'd end up with a legal product with close to half the users remaining illegal! Plenty of customers for the gangs and plenty of work for the criminal justice system. There go the savings.
If marijuana was legal in the US (and remaining illegal in the rest of the world), why wouldn't the gangs turn from illegal imports to illegal exports? Grow their own legal marijuana and smuggle it out. Proving in court that they're doing that would require a lot of manpower. Oops. More savings lost.
"You either have to do it in a place with the proper liquor license or in your own home."
I understand that. I'm trying to envision the world YOU want, with laws limited to activities that harm others. In YOUR world, public drinking, public urination, and public intoxication would be legal. Get drunk, run around naked, yell and scream, puke your guts out, hurl insults -- all legal. Ain't freedom great? For the drinkers, that is.
Did you ever stop and think that maybe that number is so high because of the "forbidden fruit" aspect of marijuana? After all there are many other drugs such as Salvia divinorum that will get you high and can be purchased off the internet legally, yet 20% of the teen population is not on salvia.
I understand that. I'm trying to envision the world YOU want, with laws limited to activities that harm others. In YOUR world, public drinking, public urination, and public intoxication would be legal. Get drunk, run around naked, yell and scream, puke your guts out, hurl insults -- all legal. Ain't freedom great? For the drinkers, that is.
That is a perfect example of a strawman argument. Besides, how can you say those activities you listed above do not harm people? Yes, I know they may not be harmful physically but they can harm others mentally. That is why sexual harassment can include simply making obscene remarks to a person. I accept the fact that the government can regulate that kind of behavior in public, but when the government tells people they can't drink or smoke in their own home that is unacceptable.