If marijuana is so dangerous, what's going to happen in Colorado and Washington?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Just asking to the opponents of legalization. Imagine Colorado and Washington ten years from now. Assuming no other states legalize in the meantime, what type of negative effects are going to hit those states that aren't present anywhere else and what type of difficult and terrible things will the residents of those states have to deal with?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Just asking to the opponents of legalization.

Who actually opposes marijuana legalization on this forum?

I am somewhat opposed, because I don't see the benefit of making a recreational drug legal to the general population. I'm not an expert on how people get addicted to drugs, but it is plausible that people who start out using marijuana move on to harder drugs in order to get more satisfaction. On the other hand, when it is used medically, marijuana surely can't be any worse than the painkilling drugs that people often receive in hospitals, and people do get addicted to prescription drugs as well.

Well duh. If you buy drugs illegally, then odds are you will be more likely to come around more illegal drugs. If it can be bought legally, it's not an issue. No one is going to buy marijuana at a legal pot store, get bored with it, and then decide to seek out a meth dealer as a result.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

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 spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I support legalising, but if I was going to take a devil's advocate position then:

- High taxes mean the black market for marijuana still is rampant, but now demand is higher and the drug is hard to control.

- Their is still no fantastic way to test for THC use for drivers.

- Federal laws mean cannabis businesses need to use hard cash, because they can't use banks - this means they are targets for robbery.

- Demand rises. We don't know what effects more people smoking marijuana will have on society.

As I said, I'm in favour and think most of these arguments are kind of bogus (although I think many legalisation proponents ludicrously overemphasize its importance), but you never know what crazy things can happen, until you do it.

Let me just point out the third is already moot, the DOJ has basically said banks will be allowed to deal with legal marijuana businesses.