Look at cigarettes. They are legal yet becoming more and more unpopular. I think that if we legalized marijuana use would go up some at first, but after the novelty wore off could use go down just like cigarette use is going down? I honestly do not believe the law keeps many people who want to smoke pot from smoking it. I don't think there are hoards of people out there just wishing pot would become legal so they could finally smoke it. If they want to smoke it, they probably do. Most don't want to smoke it though, because of all the really good reasons for not smoking pot aside from its legal status.
In some states it's decriminalized and if you get caught with it all you get really is a ticket and no criminal record. In other states it's crime for which you can go to jail, be forced to pay big fines, lose your drivers license, etc., but per capita use is about the same as it is in states where they've decriminalized. In Holland they allow people to possess small amounts of marijuana and allow licensed shops to sell it, yet somehow or another a lower percentage of the Dutch than Americans have even tried marijuana. Why are Dutch children less likely to smoke marijuana than America children? I understand how you would think our laws must be stopping a lot of people who want to smoke marijuana from smoking it. I just don't see any proof whatsoever that that is actually happening. It doesn't appear to me that the laws or enforcement of same have much if any affect on per capita marijuana use. It's popular in some places, not so much in others, regardless of the respective laws. Nowhere does a much greater percentage of the people smoke it than here in the United States, which tells me there is a natural limit on the number of people who will use marijuana.
move to Holland