>>15456437If you could get drugs from a reputable seller, you'd significantly reduce the black market, which otherwise, is going to control 100% of the share. Meaning that something that is never going to go away--demand for drugs--is going to be controlled through criminal means: violence and extortion.
Then, when you're imprisoning people for possession, you're breaking apart families for potentially decades over non-violent crime. You end up creating a vicious cycle where a bunch of poor kids don't have father figures, and their communities are full of violent gangs killing each other for control of black markets. Which then leads to greater policing and friction in the community. And then, all the people who have been busted for possession, whether they were going to sell it now or not, have become criminals and their lives are effectively ruined, severely limiting any future opportunities.
Prohibition did this exact same thing, to the point where heretofore unseen levels of gang violence were being committed to control the bootlegging operations.
