I want someone who supports marijuana usage to tell me HOW adding MORE addicted/impaired people to our society is a good thing? I DARE anyone to prove that it does!
It’s always, ‘well, it’s no worse than alcohol and that’s legal’. Yes- and drinking destroys homes and lives. Numbing your brain/reflexes with alcohol is destructive. So ADDING stoned people to the ‘ok’ list makes it better for a society HOW?? ‘No worse than’ is not an improvement. I don’t see how adding stoned people to society’s ‘ok list’, in addition to the drunks, makes anything better.
In an ideal society, we allow adults to make their own decisions about their lives, not the Government. Allowing people to make their own decisions inevitably means some will make the wrong ones.
The big problem for the pro-Big Government crowd is millions of Americans of all shapes, sizes & political persuasions have & continue to smoke marijuana & the overwhelming majority experience no major problems as a result.
As a result, the pro-Big Goverment crowd feels the need to lie about the effects - Addiction! Crime! Sharknados!
I'm more worried about the effects on the Fourth Amendment, states' rights & the prison system. But, then again, I don't just say I'm for small government.
A huge number of people are likely to drop alcohol completely. This terrifies alcohol companies and revenuers. From personal experience, very few people consume large quantities of both alcohol and pot. They simply do not go well together. There are also studies that show many people substitute pot for more dangerous drugs/alcohol: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2795734/
In any case, people who want to use pot always have and always will. Have you ever met ANYONE who doesn't use pot because of laws? They might avoid bringing it through an airport checkpoint but that's about it.
This is a plant that even children can grow and people are willing to pay $40 for a GRAM. It is literally easier than growing gold on trees. It is so easy to get and there is not a single person out there who doesn't use pot because of laws. The only reason people don't use it is personal preference so legalization will have almost no effect on actual use.
The profit will ALWAYS be there so taxpayers might as well benefit instead of giving it all to the underground. Right now 100% of the profit goes to criminals who use violence to do business. Prohibition ensures that no legitimate business or taxpayer will ever benefit. Instead of making dealers filthy rich, we can use the resources to improve society. You will also have ID checks and real established businesses that actually care about not selling to minors.