FWIW, Arizona will spend over $1.5 Billion for police/prosecutors/defenders/judges/jails/prisons directly related to the enforcement of laws outlawing Marijuana over the next 10 years. $1.5 Billion to enforce a law prohibiting a behavior that the majority view as a petty crime, at worst. In a state where the legislature is unable to fund school districts at levels DEMANDED by voters.

Does Arizona possess the financial freedom and luxury of continuing to invest that level of resources simply to achieve the outcome of a larger prison population when there are so many more urgent and necessary priorities? I'm not talking about going all CO/WA and selling it on every street corner, but we could save a lot of money by simply deciding to not enforce that federal law anymore. God knows, biting the federal hand that feeds us hasn't been a problem for Arizonans before.


Some of the financial breakdowns from the Cato Institute's report on the cost of the drug war related to Arizona from 2008:

State-Level Expenditures Attributable to Prohibition, All Drugs: $577.9M
State-Level Expenditures Attributable to Prohibition, Marijuana: $128.3M
State-Level Tax Revenues from Legalization, All Drugs: $333.1M
State-Level Tax Revenues from Legalization, Marijuana: $62.2M


Applying a Historical Average Inflation Rates factor yields the following figures for 2014:

State-Level Expenditures Attributable to Prohibition, All Drugs: $636.5M
State-Level Expenditures Attributable to Prohibition, Marijuana: $141.2M
State-Level Tax Revenues from Legalization, All Drugs: $366.9M
State-Level Tax Revenues from Legalization, Marijuana: $68.5M


Applying the an inflation factor equal to the rolling 10-yr average yields the following figures for 2015-2024:

State-Level Expenditures Attributable to Prohibition, All Drugs: $7.06 Billion
State-Level Expenditures Attributable to Prohibition, Marijuana: $1.57 Billion
State-Level Tax Revenues from Legalization, All Drugs: $4.07 Billion
State-Level Tax Revenues from Legalization, Marijuana: $760.1M


And the Net Fiscal Gain over the 2015-2024 period if Legalized and State avoids enforcement costs while collecting Tax Revenues:

All Drugs: $11.13 Billion
Marijuana: $2.33 Billion


While those estimates may not be dead-on accurate and there are debates to the extent to which drugs should be legal, what isn't up for debate is the fact that there is a significant fiscal incentive to replacing the existing zero-tolerance approach with a more empirical, compassionate, and cost-friendly approach to how the state responds to substance abuse.

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What can we say about the Diamondbacks Franchise that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan?

The federal government needs to make things right and fully legalize it. There is no good reason for the current policy

But conversely what are the "good" reasons for legalizing it?

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There's no success like failure
And failure's no success at all

The big problem is we're going to have a lot of people behind bars in some states for the same behavior that others are legally entitled to. The public outcry over the inconsistency will only grow louder and eventually compel the Feds to act.

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What can we say about the Diamondbacks Franchise that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan?

And could you explain the "good" reasons for alcohol, tobacco, and firearms???

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What can we say about the Diamondbacks Franchise that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan?

That wasn't the question, but I can't think of even one for tobacco.

_________________
There's no success like failure
And failure's no success at all

Without even touching on the ideas of personal freedom, there are all the financial reasons the dirtygary listed in the OP. It's a drain on resources.

I can - I like cigarettes. And for the others, I like beer and I like guns.

But you'd think that if anything, the alcohol/tobacco/firearms would be viewed as a much greater threat to the public than marijuana and would warrant more scrutiny.

Cigarrettes? The second-hand smoke health risks have been proven and resulted in numerous bans in public and private locations.

Alcohol? How many drunk drivers have gotten behind the wheel and put the public at risk? How many domestic violence incidents involve alcohol?

Firearms? Do we even need to get into how many homicides and accidental shootings occur every single year?

Marijuana is easily the least dangerous of the group, and the only reason it's still illegal is because of big pharma and the alcohol/tobacco producers. The false narrative of "gateway drug" is a farce - the real gateway is alcohol and it always has been.

As for the "good" reasons? THIS. If there is a chemical that can help children suffering from 300 weekly gran mal seizures, who are we to say no?

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What can we say about the Diamondbacks Franchise that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan?

I used to like cigarettes, after 30+ years of not smoking I still have scar tissue in one lung and multiple dental problems as mementos.
Recreational smoking, not medical use, which for the most part doesn't involve smoking is a problem, and it will get bigger if legalized. As for accidents, legalize it and we'll have some interesting statistics to mull over after many of us are dead. Some may be able to use it without apparent damage, but that doesn't justify making guinea pigs out out of the next generation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/af ... -high.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... marijuana/
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/arc ... ed/375966/

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There's no success like failure
And failure's no success at all

Well, I'm not looking forward to the consequences of smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol and the points made in those articles are certainly important to consider, but the hypocrisy and inconsistency of the prohibitionists are also worth consideration. I'm much more concerned by the health impacts from the legal substances than cannabis. Over 400,000 people die every year from smoking cigarettes and alcohol is linked to 75,000 more deaths each year. That's almost half a million people every single year that are dying from alcohol/tobacco. Where is the public crusade to outlaw those substances as a severe health risk to the individual and the public?

To me, if health is going to be the default justification for banning one substance, it should be applied to all of them. We may not like the dopey demeanor of the potheads, but that's no reason for banning that substance while continuing to allow and profit from the use of other, far more dangerous, substances.

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What can we say about the Diamondbacks Franchise that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan?