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I see this from a slightly different perspective - counseling.

A few beers does most people no harm. A few hits off a bong won't kill most people - maybe any people.

But what about the chicks that get “loose” after a hit, or when they get drunk? They will often trade sex for drugs, while guys trade drugs for sex. From my observations a long time ago, it doesn't take long to get really basic in human psychology.

The other issue I see is mixing drugs. Been going on long before fentanyl hit the streets. A night of pot use combined with drinking leads to very different outcomes than a night with a single home grown (quality controlled) joint.

When I was young PCP was the drug of choice to mix into pot, to get a stronger high. And the pot was not nearly as strong as today's stuff. Dealers mix in a stronger drug to get increased sales, or to achieve a more nefarious outcome.

Predicting the effects of pot use seems to have many more variables than predicting the effects of alcohol use. We simply do not know enough to effectively police its use.

Both alcohol and drugs have been used and misused in my family, as in virtually everyone reading this. Neither had many positive outcomes from what I could see.

“What should we do? Wait 10 or 20 years from the inevitable backlash due to drug addiction, pain and the destruction of families.”

CA has had “medical” marijuana since 1997. That’s time enough for murders to have risen, highways to become deadlier, and ODs to be skyrocketing.

None of that has happened. The murder rate from 1996-2016 went from 9.1/100K to 4.9/100K. It is still below the national average average of 5.3/100K.

CA’s highways are safer than most other states. Eyeballing the table at the link below, CA is tied for 14th safest.

CA also has the 7th lowest rate of OD deaths among the states, and had practically no increase between 2010 and 2016. (Link to CDC table below)

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http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/cacrime.htm

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/state-by-state-overview

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3665634/posts?page=80#80