It’s time to stop playing with semantics and either make it legal or not. If not, enforce the law.
I think the states that have made weed “legal” are setting their citizens up for a potentially bad experience. They are given the impression that weed is legal—until the feds show up, throw them in jail and take their house—if they feel like it.
It’s legal is so many states, and the states that mass produce it ship it to the states where it’s not legal because there’s tax-free revenue to be had.
If we legalized it across the board, a rather large new market would open, along with the jobs it brings. It would bring a lot of new jobs.
If we try to push it back into illegality, it will cost money to continue to fund the highly unpopular war on drugs. Lots of people will be jailed, again, for victimless crimes. And the people who want to smoke pot will keep smoking pot anyway like they have been doing for years.
The only downside to legalization that I can see is that you are setting a precedent for people to legalize harder drugs. As a Libertarian I think people should be able to make the basic choice of what they want in their system without the government involved; as a father I realize the dangers that creates for the next generation who is dealing with things like heroin, which can rewire your brain in a very short time.