Legalisation tends to mean:
- Lots more more money for the government through taxation (which can be spent on drug awareness and education if desired)
- Lower incidences of the drug's use as demonstrated by multiple states where it has been legalised or decriminalised
- Far lower law enforcement costs, as victimless crimes such as smoking a joint no longer use up law enforcement resources such as court time, officer time, or gaol space
- The elimination of the black market, and hence stricter quality control and monitoring of the drug
- And last but not least, no longer treating ordinary citizens like criminals
This is true for alcohol as well, don't forget. Even at the age of 16, it (alcohol) does pretty potent (and not desirable) changes to gene regulation in the brain (on the same order as marijuana).
Neither alcohol nor marijuana should rightly be consumed by somebody whose brain is still developing (it stops at what, age 20)?
This marijauna bill sets a consumption age of 21, which makes sense.