“I neither said nor implied anything about a benefit to the Republic”
Maybe the time is now?
Marijuana criminalization has failed to keep that drug away from young people; they have been reporting since well before any state had legalized that they could get marijuana almost as easily as cigarettes or beer, although the latter two are much more widespread among adults. The available evidence indicates that the best way of keeping a drug away from young people is to legalize it for adults - which gives its sellers an economic incentive to confine their sales to adults, namely the risk of losing their legal adult market.
Another benefit to the Republic of legalizing marijuana, as I alluded to in post #78, is diverting money from criminal hands.