Proposition 19

How many people smoke weed today? How many people smoked weed 40 years ago? How many people smoked weed hundreds of years ago?

People with a will - will find a way. At least the government could tax it and stop wasting money trying to police it - killing a black market - reducing crime - and channel the profits into schools and health care etc, rather then lining the pockets of criminals.

The US will still be getting high while we (Mexico) fight a war we aren't winning against drug cartels. :/ I don't think it's a good idea to legalize marihuana in our current siuation.

These drug dealers are making money off of drugs because of the fact they are illegal. The dealers would go out of business if the government distributed it.

I think it should be legalized and taxed just like we did with alcohol. The government will make money and so will the local economy. With it decriminalized, our police offers can focus their attention on more important crimes, and our justice system and jails will free up that time, space and resources for other things, which frankly are more important anyway.

I also think this will help our border situation. A lot of the illegal crossings are for drugs. Sure this isn't the only way drugs come into our country but it is one of them. With Marijuana legal, that's less traffic, which means the border agents can focus on the those crossing for other purposes.

Granted I just gave a brief synopsis and I realize the above not the answer to everything but I do believe it's part of the solution.

It's still far cheaper to brew alcohol yourself, grow tobacco yourself, etc than it is to buy it with all the markup. It's just more trouble. I could brew 4 cartons for $40 AUD total (which is currently roughly $40 USD), collecting the empty bottles from bars and sell them for $30 a carton. The problem is, I'd become a sitting duck for anyone who wanted to claim a bounty. The equipment must be in a sanitary location where the temperature is easy to control, so unlike pot I can't just cultivate yeast anywhere. For this reason pot shouldn't be compared to alcohol (instead, perhaps salvia divinorum or tobacco?), however I do agree with Sozo and a few other opinions here.

The idea shouldn't be to bankrupt the dealers. The way to do this would be to recognise that growers have their business and experience anyway -- employ them! Employ the dealers, too. Every single one of them. Send dealers out to pick it up, deliver it and take a little bit for tax, pay the farmers their worth just like other produce. Take the distribution burden off the growers hands. Usually all they want is to grow a bit for personal & social use and pay bills. The growers will be doing what they want to do, the dealers will be doing what they want to do and the smokers will get home-delivered or shop-bought pot ;)