“I don’t want it taxed. I want it stigmatized like alcohol and drunk driving.”
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Got any ideas for stigmatizing it if you make it legal with no taxes, penalties, repercussions, or any legal disadvantages at all?
How about ideas for solving the millions of new problmes that millions of new users will bring to the table with legal marijuana?
You speak of “hundreds of thousands of dangerous drug runners”. How about the hundreds of MILLIONS of new drug users?
That’s the fundamental flaw with legalization. For every problem you solve, a million more crop up.
We apparently have tens of millions of users already.
There are only somewhat over 300M Americans total. So usage rates seem to be in the 10% range.
Stigmatization should be a social phenomenon:
“He’s a drunkard” is pretty stiff social stigmatization.
“He’s a doper” is what I mean.
Driving while texting, stoned, or drunk should all carry the same penalties.
Is there any evidence that the cost of legalization is higher than the cost of maintaining prohibition? I would hazard a guess that they are approximately a wash. Billions down the tubes on prohibition. Billions down the tubes upon legalization. I don’t know of a mathematic comparison that shows one side is stronger than the other.