[Jamestown1630]

“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.)

[NobleFree]

marijuana is Not Good for young people,

Marijuana criminalization has failed to keep that drug away from young people; they have been reporting since well before any state had legalized that they could get marijuana almost as easily as cigarettes or beer, although the latter two are much more widespread among adults. The available evidence indicates that the best way of keeping a drug away from young people is to legalize it for adults - which gives its sellers an economic incentive to confine their sales to adults, namely the risk of losing their legal adult market.

or for those who tend toward various mental illnesses

So we should ban for ALL adults whatever is bad for those susceptible to mental illness? Including alcohol?

[NorseViking]

Marijuana almost always causes depersonalization and derealization disorders. Sometimes it has lasting effect continuing in sober condition. All frequent users are demented. I can easily see a pothead.