You are mixing apples with oranges.
If politics is the art of what is possible, we have to look at what is realistically possible. If we can't control drugs in prisons, how are we going to control drugs in a free society? We have tried for for the last 70 years, it's cost us billions and it hasn't worked. We lost "the war on drugs" a long time ago, but refuse to admit it.
Our California prisons now are so overcrowded, that violent criminals are being released just to keep pot smokers in jail. We no longer have enough money to build new prisons.
So if there is just "one jail cell" to protect society from evil, who do you want in it? A child molester/rapist? Or a pot smoker who never harmed anyone? Because that is precisely the choice we are currently faced with, and I know without a shadow of a doubt where my choice is!
While I agree 100% with what you said, I’m afraid the response will some up exactly why the Reefer Madness types prefer to maintain the status quo regarding Marijuana.
They simply don’t see a difference between the pot smoker and the axe murderer/child molester/rapist.
I hope like hell I’m wrong about that, but I fear that I’m not.
I'll call your bluff. Produce your source for that assertion.
[crickets]
It is not that we can't, we just don't.