As long as marijuana is illegal (for adults) it creates an illegal market that is controlled by gangsters. That increases the price and draws more and more people into the illegal trade because of the high profits. Illegal drug prices can’t compete with legal regulated market prices, that’s why you don’t see much illegal alcohol being made today for the purpose of making a profit. Compare it to alcohol prohibition and you'll see the similarities. Alcohol and marijuana prohibition both gave rise to a violent crime organization that can not exist when legal regulation replaces prohibition. Just like with legal beer and wine making, adults should be allowed to grow small amounts of marijuana for their own use. Most people will buy their marijuana and pay tax on it just like they do with beer and wine even though it’s perfectly legal for them to make their own. The idea is to get the criminals out of the trade and thereby end the illegal TRADE crime and violence problems caused by prohibition. Focus on the real problems (if there are any) like we have done with alcohol. With alcohol drunk driving became a problem so we put laws on the books to better deal with the real problem. When a person has an alcohol addiction problem we don't throw them in jail, we provide medical help. Marijuana needs to be rationally regulated. The first step is to understand that marijuana never was a serious threat to society, families or individuals. It was demonized by a few powerful people that saw it as a threat to their profits. Products like pharmaceuticals, alcohol, tobacco, timber, cotton, chemicals, petroleum and many others contribute huge amounts of money toward marijuana prohibition because they fear competition from superior products made from marijuana. If you noticed in my original post I said 99% of the problems stem marijuana PROHIBITION not from marijuana itself. Any time you have illegal profits at stake the criminals can't solve their problems over who is going to control the trade in normal legal ways, so they often end up shooting it out just like the alcohol gangsters did when alcohol was prohibited. Al Capone didn't kill people because he was drunk. He killed them because they got between him and his illegal drug money, just like the marijuana gangsters often do today. End the marijuana prohibition and you end 50% of our nation's drug related crime and violence because marijuana accounts for 50% of our nation's illegal drug use. Alcohol is proven to bring on violent aggressive behavior, marijuana does not, so legalizing marijuana for all adults put the violent people out of the marijuana business and once that’s done 99% of the problems attributed to marijuana will end. What do you always see when there is a big marijuana bust? A story with a stack of marijuana, guns and money. Prohibition has failed. Rationally regulate legal marijuana for all adults. Anyone that wants it is already getting it. One of the problems is, it’s not taxed and the profits are going to gangsters and terrorists instead of legitimate business people. Regulation equals control, prohibition equals crime, violence and corruption.