“If we take that step to legalize and regulate, then we're no longer treating people who are struggling with substance addiction and abuse as criminals and instead getting them the help that they need,”
If this is a statement regarding legalizing and regulating for *everyone*, it's so illogical and devoid of science that it's worthy of AOC.
I know someone very elderly and ill, who has a 'medical marijuana' prescription. Never having experienced marijuana myself, I can't judge how it may be helping him; he's anxious to die, and I suspect he probably wants a way to distance himself from pain, and escape rational thought. (Another friend used it during chemo, and said it did NOTHING for him. He wanted to LIVE.)
However, there's plenty of evidence that marijuana is Not Good for young people, or for those who tend toward various mental illnesses:
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/marijuana-mental-illness-violence
(And as others have noted, there would still be a thriving black market.)