I'll comment. The laws concerning marijuana use are worse than prohibition during the 20s. Drug wars continue to escalate, and drug dealers don't care who gets hurt. It was put into place, despite the report Nixon received recommending its legalization and taxation. He did it to control the hippies and Blacks. The Mexicans were a bonus not in his sites.
By the time of the bicentennial, talk of decriminalizing it was common. About on par with a traffic ticket. Heck, half the time, the cops didn't care. I was frisked with a half ounce of Mexican Creepy Weed in my front pocket and the cops never asked me to turn my pockets out.
Ronald Reagan decided to escalate the war on drugs, while at the same time, plans were already afoot to privatize our prison system. By the time Clinton signed the Get Tough On Crime bill into law, the private prisons were well established and pot was an easy bust.
Two real life labs need to be looked at to see how legalization works.
In Colorado, where it's been legal for several years, the crime rate dropped while the tax revenue increased. The University of Colorado is now free to research any potential beneficial uses in the field of medicine.
Portugal has gone one step further: they legalized it all. The number of drug dealers dwindled fast. They couldn't compete with government sanctioned drugs. Instead of incarceration, they stress rehabilitation. The recidivism rate for people that choose rehab is much lower than it is here in the US under our current system.
I've done a few articles on this. So far, the pluses far outweigh the minuses.
Caption this Meme 
