Legally regulating the marijuana market is important because each plant can be professionally grown and inspected to make sure it's of the highest quality and following safety guidelines, like it is with medical marijuana. Besides those two states, the rest of America has a multibillion dollar industry being run by the black market, often gangs and criminals taking in the profit instead of the government that could use it to make new schools, streets and public parks. Legalizing marijuana keep the police going after the real law breakers all the while keeping an unregulated market out of their control.
While a flood of extra money and more time on law enforcer's side, the bigger concern of marijuana is its rising influence and possession in the hands of minors, especially since a third of high school seniors smoked it in the past year. Legalizing marijuana would keep minors from possessing or using it as frequently then in its current state of prohibition. With the height of the rate of seniors lighting up, it clearly states that pot prohibition is not working especially (coming from personal experience) when a bag of weed is easier to obtain than a ride to school. Most would say that it being readily available at any store would make marijuana easier to access, but pot dealers would not card a minor to ask for identification- a cashier would. The gateway drug theory also plays heavily with minors smoking marijuana, as a fear usage of pot will lead to minors wanting to crave a more intense high in harder drugs. While the amount of teens taking a smoke break is increasing, uses in other drugs and alcohol even have been decreasing the past ten years to noticeable smaller percentages. Most of the time, the dealer has marijuana in one hand with crack in the other, causing the user to have no choice but to give in and try the far more abusive substance. Lifting the long worn out prohibition on marijuana would help decrease usage in minors and swaying towards more dangerous illegal substances.