I agree with you for the most part danplantgrower, but I think you misunderstand my argument. The part of my post that you quoted was meant mostly in jest. I don't really believe that stoners only have legalization to fight for, I hope you would be smart enough to realize that. Anyways, I still think you can't just walk into a pot shop and buy weed- not in the way you make it sound. Yes, you are right medical marijuana has existed within our state for over 20 years, but something you fail to mention is that to walk into one of these shops you must first get a recommendation from a doctor- oh and might I take this time to mention that LEGAL weed also has the HIGHEST prices pretty much garunteed? You never see weed going for $400 an ounce on the street, but check out the state who is leading the charge on legal weed- highest prices in the country. So no, legal weed does no mean lower prices what so ever. To say so would be a vast oversimplification of all the things that go into pricing beyond supply and demand- namely taxes and regulation. So as for your first argument of "competition means competitive pricing", THE WEED MARKET IS ALREADY FLOODED. Prices can only get so low before growers start dropping out. As with any commodity, when demand is over met, supply drops down to match...
Takes money away from violent drug cartels? I agree, and this is good- but in all reality I don't think it belongs in the topic of whether or not weed should be legal. Regardless of how much it impacts them, the violent cartels will still be there. How they will react is not for me to say, honestly, but I think the factors that drive people into a lifestyle of crime, violence, and gangs is ultimately a lack of resource and opportunity.
moving on. "No peaceful person should lose their freedom for growing a cannabis plant." Completely agreed there, couldn't have put it better myself. However, under the Compassion Use Act, that you mentioned, no peaceful and law-abiding citizen will be. A lot of local law enforcement abide by the county regulations regarding medical marijuana so if you are compliant- then there is no worry about law enforcement. And you mentioned the FEDs- well again like you say they only go after commercial grows. This is true, has been and probably will always be so. What won't be so is if lets say it goes legal and strict regulations are put into place, say regulations that are more strict that current medicinal use regulations are- local law enforcement will then become involved. The rest of this argument I agree with pretty much. Although, some food for thought- there are people in the US still bootlegging alcohol. Why? Regulations.
As for your third argument- that argument is an argument of pushing for medicinal use. Medicinal use and recreational use are two different argument. You can not say it should be legal to the general public because there are sick people who would benefit from its use. Unless you also believe that fentanyl should also be available for recreational use because it has medicinal uses.
And as for your last argument, I couldn't agree more. Having said that... it does seem a bit silly to be pushing for legislature whether for or against legalization either way. Again, argument has little to do with the subject.
To summarize- I don't think it should be illegal, and I am not directly opposed to having it legal. To put simply, I think it will be one of those things that you can not have your cake and eat it too. I do still believe that there is too much money involved in the enforcement and punishment of weed crimes for it to just simply "go legal". If it ever does go legal, it will more than likely be heavily regulated and heavily taxed. I guess having to pay tax would be better than having to serve time. Personally I think the removal of weed crimes(complete decriminalization) would be better than legalization for one reason: complete decriminalization means a truly unregulated and open market versus legalization which is reality is regulation and taxation. Like you say, it is a plant- why do there need to be any laws regarding its cultivation and use at all? I think if you look for them you can find examples of how true decriminalization really benefits the general public versus regulation/legalization. I suppose without supporting a black market of some form- regardless of how benign it may be, I would have to vote in favor of legalization if I wanted to be able to legally purchase weed. Of course, if you just removed the fear factor from growing weed you wouldn't need to be able to buy it from a store...