It should be illegal to drive while impaired by marijuana and to sell marijuana to minors. Regulations should prohibit subjecting others to unwanted second-hand marijuana smoke. Honest, realistic, and effective drug education must be promoted, and appropriate treatment programs must be made available. One general policy option, decriminalization, involves the removal of criminal penalties for possession of marijuana for personal use. In these states, cultivation and distribution remain criminal offenses.
Decriminalization saves a tremendous amount of enforcement costs.
Studies of decriminalized states versus states with criminal sanctions for possession have confirmed that adolescents are no more likely to use marijuana in the decriminalized states. Unfortunately, decriminalization leaves many of the prohibition-related problems intact. This would virtually obsolesce the black market as it is presently known, as it would be much cheaper and easier for users to simply grow a few plants. The billions of dollars saved on criminal justice system costs could be spent on education, which would be much more credible once marijuana education is no longer perceived as prohibitionist propaganda. More money could also be spent on treatment, which would be much more palatable to marijuana abusers if the criminal stigma were removed.