Let me clarify, I'm for the current system in CA. Medical use and production are permitted with doctors recommendation. In this method, the patients control the market. With recreational, the doors would be open to corporate influence. Which would lead to standardization, gmos, pesticides, fungicides, basically what's happening with our food, tobacco, and any other product in circulation. There are benefits, cause you could go to Costco and buy a pound for a few hundred bucks, but it would not be natural cannabis. Which is what is good for you. As a consumer, yeah you want it. But as a naturalist, you fear for the integrity of the plant, and our deep spiritual connection that goes with it.

Making it legal wouldn't stop there from being a market for natural pot, the way Organic food is taking off as an industry then if anything I expect industry would in part get behind organic pot as well, some would grow it well and others won't. The bigger issue here is that having drugs illegal fuels the black market and organized crime, while simultaneously sending the lightest of offenders to jail for lengthy prison terms, all in the name of the failed war on drugs. Prohibition was a mistake the first time and it's a mistake this time too, if only we'd learned our lesson. Faced with that, no other considerations come close to being important when deciding legality. That's a very simple question to answer, yes it should be legal, period. Regulation is another matter, but even tobacco has companies that grow organically (I used to smoke their cigarettes so I know from experience), and since having pot turn into a tobacco-like corporation is what you seem to be viewing as a worst case scenario then frankly I can't see this turning out badly. You're right that people should always be allowed to grow their own, but people can grow their own tobacco (I think) and I know people can brew their own beer so again I just don't see there being a problem with legalizing it. And I agree I have no interest in buying pot from Costco, I would only ever want the good stuff grown without nasty chemicals, and I see no reason why that would be anything but easier to do if it were legalized. I'm actually looking at moving out to Colorado just so I can legally grow my own stuff, organically with no pesticides or anything (except natural ones like Diatomaceous Earth), I'm growing my own Tomato Plant indoors right now as practice because I've never grown anything before, and it looks happy and healthy without any of that nasty stuff to keep pests away (I was very liberal with my use of Diatomaceous Earth, no bugs are getting near my Tomatoes). So I agree with everything that you're saying about natural, I just fail to see how legalizing it would hurt, and it'd definitely help a lot if I could grow my own stuff without having to move across the country to not need to worry about being thrown in jail over something so insignificant.

All I said was there would be consequences, and they should be thought about. But you're entitled to your opinion. That's why we vote lol I'm just saying there has been many times the laws have been proposed, but many cannabis advocates don't agree with the wording of the law cause it takes the rights out if the patients. So when the time comes to vote, just read carefully

What rights specifically are they trying to take away from users? There's only so much I can debate this while being vague about such things, of course if the laws were so profoundly bad then there'd be ground to not have it passed, but it'd have to say some crazy shit to matter more than the lives being destroyed on a daily basis by having pot be illegal.

The right to grow, the right to sell, and the right to produce. Very important for those who are struggling financially, are already established, and wish to live sustainably. Have you heard of people being penalized for having a home garden? Or trying to live off the grid? Or trying to collect rainwater? That shit is real bro, and if we let them have cannabis, it'll end up the exact same. Those are the consequences, and they are very real. In CA, the patients control the medicine. Here in Santa Cruz, the county tried to restrict commercial growing, and our citizens organized a referendum because so much of our economy is based off legal cannabis.

I've never heard of people being penalized for any of those things no, and if anyone ever has been then that'd be really -blam!-ed up. Ultimately though with the legality issue it boils down to lives being destroyed right now on a daily basis for something that shouldn't be a crime, and the sooner that can be fixed the better. And I can't see how anyone would be able to get away with such strict restrictions on growing pot, any sensible regulation would treat it like tobacco and alcohol, and anyway regulations are things that can be debated and voted on separately from legality. If you have it illegal somewhere and a less than optimal bill is passed to legalize it but with bad regulations, then the sensible thing to do is let it be legal and try to change the regulations later once people's lives aren't being ruined anymore. And worst case scenario it stays illegal to grow it, but it already is so at least with it legal the users can stop being thrown in jail over nothing and being saddled with a criminal record for the rest of their lives.

As a healthy compromise, until legalization is in favor of the citizens and not the corporations, we can push for decriminalization of not only cannabis, but all drugs. Many European countries are having great success with treating addicts as patients rather than criminals.

I've said as much myself, all drugs should be legal just because it's the lesser of two evils, and at least within the system there's room for these people on hard drugs to get help.