When we say 'most crime are drug and alcohol related' we're actually saying that people take criminal action while on the stuff. Very few people get sentenced to real prison time for simple use. But I agree marijuana is fine to legalize and doubtless will be legal most places soon. It won't 'benefit the economy' much though, an addictive drug know for causing lung problems and making people lazy, as opposed to cigarettes which do the former but not the latter, yeah! Cocaine, PCP, things like that, different stories. I will never criticize the hobbies of an adult of sound mind who isn't damaging people or their property or putting them and a significantly elevated risk, but someone on certain types of narcotics can't make even a vaguely credible claim at the 'of sound mind' part. And then there are sales, no sane company is going to want to sell PCP or crack on the market, the liability issues alone would be absurd and they'd know every jury would be predisposed to dislike them. You casually make this a simple issue but while much of a our prison pop is drug-related, it is drug related the way a drunken beating is alcohol related. It wasn't simple consumption that got them do serious time. Consumption virtually never gets you arrested, it is doing something while under the influence that does. Like reckless driving, assault, etc and the members of our population who do consume this or that narcotic, legal or not, at home or semi-responsibly, rarely get into trouble. You just don't get arrested - barring anomalies - for smoking a joint at home, and you certainly don't get serious prison time. Our prisons aren't over-crowded from the people doing 3 days in the county jail and fine/community-service, it would take hundreds of such sentences to equal the standard major felony imprisonment.