Washington legalized it and since then I’ve not seen the problems that Oregon claims to have. It’s no longer a black market drug and the nefariousness of its use has been tempered. Where’s the profit for gangs if you can walk into a store and buy it cheaper legally?
Like alcohol if you want to break the law or circumvent the law by manufacturing your own you can take that risk but for the other 99.9% of the people they’ll go to the store and purchase it legally. What they do with the alcohol or pot (or gun) after purchasing it legally is where the trouble for society begins. Some people can drink socially and never have trouble, while for others the simple act of consuming one alcoholic beverage sets them on an inevitable path of destruction. Alcohol has much longer lasting affects than does pot and is far and away more destructive in all its forms than pot. Alcohol is physically addictive, pot isn’t, and alcohol is destructive to organs and tissue in ways that pot could only dream of. Alcohol has almost immediate and long lasting effects on motor skills and fine motor movements, judgement, mental acuity and perception. By using alcohol as a baseline there’s very few drugs that shouldn’t be legalized since most have less intoxicating affects than alcohol.
Blaming pot or alcohol or guns or donuts for your neighborhood problems is a lazy, ignorant way out for unthinking morons. Like I’ve asked before, does anyone really think that if alcohol was up for FDA approval today, knowing what we know about alcohol and how it affects the human body, that the FDA would approve its sale and use? I sure as hell don’t.
I don't blame products for behavior but I can also acknowledge that in 2017 the majority of habitual marijuana users are less than productive members of society and not somebody we would typically want as a neighbor. The randomness of states legalizing a product that is prohibited at the federal level is going to cause those less than productive members of society to move into that area. I don't know where you live but it could be that the area you call home is cost prohibitive to Joe Schitbag and his girlfriend. Meaning, they're moving into your state just not right on top of your particular area. I admit this is a guess.
As far as crime, I think the few states dabbling in this experiment are going to continue to see an increase. If I can manufacture widgets legally, and that widget is still illegal in 40+ other states, then guess where I'm going to set up shop and start manufacturing and distribution?
Dave
