1. Marijuana is not physically addictive, though it can be mentally addictive like literally everything else in the world
2. Do you know many teenagers? Have you been near a high school? They are able to get access to it now, if it's regulated at worst it won't increase because those who sell it will only be breaking the law if they sell to minors rather than by selling it at all.
3. The health costs of smoking marijuana are much lower than those of smoking commercial tobacco products, by legalizing and learning from the mistakes of allowing the tobacco industry to add whatever they want, we can continue to minimize those risks. There are also many marijuana users who do not smoke it, they only eat it in baked goods.
While these certainly don't refute many of the points you're making, I think they show that the risks involved are lower than it would first appear.
It will be interesting to watch how things turn out in Washington (the state) and Colorado. Time has an interesting article about their progress: http://nation.time.com/2013/10/19/new-laws-chart-course-for-marijuana-legalization/
biochem wrote:It's not just a matter of changing the law legalize it and everything will be great. There are significant societal problems that need to be addressed.
1. Increased availability will lead to more users. A small percent of those users will become addicted so we would need more drug treatment centers (we are already underserved now). Also Marijuana makes users not care and those who are heavy users/addicts do not care enough to find a job, go to school so an increased number would lead to more pressure on social services, homeless shelters etc.
2. Increased availability and ease of access will enable minors to get easier access. Teenagers aren't dumb they will use the same tricks they use to get alcohol to get marijuana and while they already do get some increasing the availability will make it much easier for them.
3. The smoke (from the cigarette form) will lead to increased lung cancer, emphysema etc adding to our overburdened Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The positive of putting criminal marijuana drug dealers (and their associated violence) out of business may outweight the above negatives. But only if implementation is very carefully thought out. Of course rather than go bankrupt, the dealers may switch to crystal meth, then we'll all wish for the good old days when they were only dealing marijuana.