you’re thinking from your darkside rather than your commonsense. Of course it being illegal puts all sorts of societal and legal pressures on people, especially young people, not to smoke it. And that does deter some users, alot. Plus, pot has absolutely been proven to be a gateway drug to harder and bigger escapes. So the more we can diminish that, the less chattered lives we will have.
You are dreaming. There is absolutely no proof to support your position. In fact, when you look at the laws in this country and throughout the Western it appears that there is precious little correlation between what laws are in effect and the percentage of people who smoke marijuana. The laws probably deter some people, but only a tiny few. Very few people who don't smoke marijuana now would take it up just because it became legal. There are too many good reasons not to smoke it that have nothing to do with the law.
“Plus, pot has absolutely been proven to be a gateway drug to harder and bigger escapes.”
There is no proof that there is something special about marijuana that makes people want to take other drugs. Most who take other drugs will use marijuana first, but they'll also use alcohol and/or cigarettes first. Go look at the statistics yourself. Look at the 2007 National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health. You can find it here: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k7NSDUH/tabs/TOC.htm Look under the “Miscellaneous Tables” and you will find all sorts of data showing that people who drink or smoke are several times more likely to use hard drugs like cocaine than those who don't.
It's not that using these other drugs causes people to want to go onto the hard stuff. The problem is that when young people hang around the “party crowd” they are much more likely to be exposed to illegal drugs. Those who are so inclined will partake. Marijuana will be the first illegal drug they use because it is so common. It's everywhere, and it is the illegal drug perceived as the least dangerous. Naturally those inclined to go that route people will take it first. The really wild ones, or the really screwed up ones, will go on and take the really hard stuff later when confronted with the opportunity to do so.
Keeping marijuana illegal greatly increases the likelihood that people who smoke it will come into contact with other drugs. More marijuana is consumed in this country than all other illegal drugs combined. It's a massive multibillion dollar business controlled largely by organized crime who in most cases also sell other drugs. Because there is so much marijuana being consumed in this country, thousands of tons a year, because it is easily available everywhere, the existing distribution networks for marijuana make perfect conduits through which to move other drugs. People are buying marijuana from people who sell other drugs. And because marijuana smokers already use one illegal drug, there is no real risk in breaking the other stuff out in front of them and offering it to them to share or to buy. They're already breaking the law. They won't tell on someone who offers them other drugs. Legalize it and sell it from licensed facilities that check ID’s and don't sell other drugs and it will make it much less likely that marijuana smokers will be offered other drugs. Teens will still get marijuana like they get beer today, but they'll be getting it the same way they get their beer today and not from drug dealers who sell other drugs. And because they won't be using an actual “illegal drug” when they smoke marijuana, people will not feel like it is so safe to break the other stuff out in front of them. Marijuana will be much less the gateway drug then.
“So the more we can diminish that, the less chattered lives we will have.”
We aren't diminishing it with the criminal laws against it. Use goes up some years and down other years, but it remains high in this country even though in most states we have fairly harsh laws compared to other Western nations. If the laws deterred so many people, use would be much higher in states that have decriminalized than in those that have not. That is not the case. If the laws were really deterring lots of people, use would be much lower in this country than it is in all those countries where they do not bother pot smokers. That is not the case. I'll go back to the Netherlands again. Like I said before, less than 20% of the Dutch have even tried marijuana compared to more than 40% of Americans even though they've permitted possession and retail sales of marijuana for more than 30 years now. There are several other countries where possession and sometimes even growing a little is allowed, yet in almost every case on a per capita basis use is higher in this country. Are we Americans so weak that we cannot handle as much freedom as people can in other countries? I just don't buy that.