If it were ONLY pot, violent trouble would be unlikely. A question would immediately arise whether other forbidden items were being consumed too, some of which really can temporarily turn a person into a violent monster. And that still doesn’t answer the public health question.
I agree that coke and meth and heroin should remain controlled. But there are a lot of people who only use pot and nothing stronger, it’s stupid to target them.
I see where you are coming from, certainly most reasonable people can see that drugs like meth and PCP aren’t fit for human consumption and can turn a person into a raving lunatic. However, we’ve outlawed these substances and many others, and pursued enforcement so aggressively that we have sometimes sidestepped civil liberties in the name of ending this “menace”. Perhaps if those measures actually did get the job done and stamped out use of these drugs, they might be justifiable. As it stands though, it doesn’t seem like there are any measures short of a Soviet-style police state that will really stop the folks that intend to use them from doing so.
That being said, I can’t see how it is justifiable any longer to continue to use such questionable tactics when they aren’t producing the intended results. There may be better strategies to curb these drugs that our government refuses to consider because they are locked into the “drug war” mentality, and also I’m sure we can think of better ways to use the billions of the taxpayer’s money that are poured down this black hole every year.