Three Reasons for You and I to Insist on an End to Cannabis Prohibition:

1. Creating crime: Illegal California cannabis is a $14 billion dollar a year industry; much of that money goes to fuel crime. It does this because money is the problem. It has never been cannabis that caused crime, it was always money. Take the profit out of cannabis and you remove an easy source of money for bad guys. Tax the stuff like alcohol and tobacco (by any measure far more dangerous drugs) and cut the criminal out of the loop.
2. The money from cannabis fuels another group of unscrupulous and unsavory characters: lawyers. The truth is, for a long time in California catching pot growers has been about money. There’s government money for cops, for lawyers, for court time. There’s money seized from folks. There’re fines. Most often, when the cops catch a modest grower, they just take a hunk of the profits. I say, let’s just deal with the growers and leave the cops, lawyers, and other bureaucrats out of the loop.
3. The last reason is the most compelling of all: cannabis prohibition makes a mockery of our nation. It is curious that a people who claim to be born of revolution and nurtured on liberty would tolerate such a prohibition.