Well the same thing could occur with alcohol without pot being legal. Actually the same statistics that show that marijuana is a "gateway drug" would show the same with alcohol. How many hard drug users tried alcohol before that?
I see what you're saying. Personally, I don't think alcohol benefits society either, but that's a different story. Recreational drugs just seem like a slippery slope.
And alcohol isn't a recreational drug? Or cigarettes aren't?
In reality, marijuana's cumulative impact on welfare is probably similar to alcohol per capita of use. That being said, its extremely unfair to ban one of them without the other one and to ban anyone of them is more costly than the benefits of prohibition.
