Sorry after reading the responses PKM got I will get fall in line.
YOU INGORAMOUS PKM!! How dare you even think that weed smoking will increase under leaglization! Who do you think you are? Mother Theresa? You should be ashamed of yourself.
I believe (correct me if im wrong pkm) pkm said that usage among teenagers would increase...
I think it is actually the opposite.... When i was a teenager it was quite difficult for me to get alcohol because the only place to get it was at a store (where you need ID) or from someones parents, or stand outside a store and beg people of age to buy it for you.
Now if you got it from someones parents then there was a chance that they would be pissed and kick thier childs ***, so that was a bit risky.....Waiting outside a store for some stranger to buy it for you never worked... sometimes we would just go into a gas station and grab a case and run like hell, but that was risky as well.
As for marijuana, All i had to do was go to school and i could get it from a whole bunch of different people.... Weed was WAY easier for me to aquire than alcohol.
I think if you legalize it, then it will be harder for kids to aquire it.
Also i think that if you legalize it then there will be less people doing meth, cocaine, crack, heroin etc etc... I do think marijuana is a gateway drug, but i think it is BECAUSE it is illegal.
To get marijuan you must go to a drug dealer.... well alot of drug dealers can sell you some harder drugs, so i might be just wanting some weed and find out that my dealer also has some cocaine and i figure what the hell, im already breaking the law by smokin pot so i might as well try some cocaine too.
If you legalize weed then you would be buying it from a dispensary and the dispensary would not have cocaine, heroin, crack etc etc. Plus you would not be crossing that line into illegal territory by just smoking pot so you might be reluctant to try something that is illegal (harder drugs)
So for me i believe that legalization means less kids doing drugs, less people in general doing harder drugs, more money for government to use towards things like education/health care, less people in jail and court. Plus the cartels in mexico would lose some of thier power because we wouldn't need them anymore for production.