I have no problem with legalizing marijuana. Make it just like hard alcohol. Tax the crap out of it. Regulate the crap out of the manufacture, sale and distribution of it. You want to grow marijuana? You need to get a permit for it, and submit to all the existing federal regulations relating to safety of drugs, testing, clinical trials, labeling, weights and measures, etc..

Taking things further, we need to get rid of laws that allow employers to fire people who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. There is absolutely no need to for employers to be able to restrict which drugs their employees choose to use. If people can get government benefits without taking a drug test, workers should have the same right not to submit to a drug test to work.

Let freedom ring indeed.

Colorado seems to be on top of the regulation angle. I found this article that describes the contrast between Colorado’s and California’s approach.

“So in Colorado, the medical marijuana growers have to have 24-hour video of their operations, and that video is accessible by the state at any time — they can tap into it. And they all have these badges, and they had to go through background checks to get these badges. So there’s an attempt to keep black market money out of it … in Colorado, you’re unlikely to see a situation where a dispensary is, in fact, just a front for a Mexican cartel. And then they had this additional rule, which is pretty revolutionary — it’s called a 70-30 rule, where 70 percent of all the marijuana that each store sells, they have to grow themselves. … That goes a long way to eliminating the introduction of black market weed. … Stores aren’t just buying all their weed from Mexican cartels and marking it up. …

Contrasted with California:

“That’s a huge reason why the feds have focused on California. California doesn’t have tight regulations on who grows marijuana, where it comes from. So the feds move in, and what they claim is that these med marijuana businesses are fronts for what are in fact just old-school black market drug dealers. And they’re not growing medical marijuana in small batches for patients. They’re growing it in Mexico, or they’re growing it in the hills, and they’re just bringing it in, and it suddenly, magically becomes legal once it gets in the store. But in fact, it’s based on illegality. Colorado doesn’t have that.”