Cigarettes are completely legal, and yet there is a massive market for them. All you'd be doing is making it more available for criminals to get their hands on...they just won't have to smuggle it anymore.
And that's kind of the point, isn't it? Explain how the gangs, thugs, and mob capitalize on cigarettes and hooch
now. Prohibition brought in bootlegging, and the mob-owned rings of underground speakeasies. Maybe the mob 'insures' bars now, but they do the same for dry cleaners.
Not true. Compare to guns. Most of us here will not try to obtain an illegal class III weapon, but if you took the restrictions away and made them available at 7-11, you will have a massive market for them.
Well, I didn't say to make sale unconditional. You'd still need to be of age, and i still think background checks are a good idea. Besides you are right in that most of us pass up the NFA and full-auto stuff, but how many of us do you think would go kill someone or accidentally put a hole through the wall with an M16 that wouldn't with their Remington?
There are many people out there who don't do drugs because of the legality of it...you make it legal and you'll have a lot more users, and the current users will be doing more since the access is greater.
True, but the same holds true for drinkers.
The people that don't smoke pot because of the legality are, in general--and it pains me to say this, because it contradicts my views of humanity as a whole--smart people. If they wouldn't do it because it's illegal, what are the chances that they would get stoned out of their gourd, then go and end up rear-ending someone at McDonald's to feed their munchies?
No, addicts smoke despite it being illegal, drunks drink and drive despite the legality and stupidity, and junkies are still junkies. People that don't smoke pot right now because of the legality generally don't drink and drive, and I for one think that means they won't smoke and drive or otherwise use it irresponsibly.
As for the harder drugs, keep those punishments the same, or require rehab the first time, then a harsh punishment after that. Those are still harmful, and will as such always require the criminal element to acquire them. At least the addictive qualities of marijuana are almost purely mental, and it causes only a small percentage of the damage to your body that cigarettes do.
And I've known a few throughout my school days--you can tell a pothead even when they're sober and often before they even start the stuff.