Should California Legalize Marijuana?
“Californians will have to decide how much weight to give to respect for adult liberty, protection of minors, fiscal considerations, and protection of marijuana users’ health.”
“If we are to believe the referendum’s supporters, all Californians will be winners. The change will legitimize marijuana’s de facto legal status since passage of Proposition 215 in 1996. It will thus reduce state expenditure on enforcing a widely violated law; remove marijuana growing and selling from the black market; enable any adult who wishes to use marijuana to do so; and introduce a tax on legal marijuana sales that will fill state coffers with revenue that formerly went to illegal growers (so long as there is no large-scale tax evasion). By contrast, opponents predict that the change will increase rates of marijuana use, and thus magnify the harm arising from that use.”
