It was only made illegal because of greed and racism, and keeping it illegal keeps the U.S. as the developed country with the highest percentage of incarcerated individuals, many of whom are imprisoned because of non-violent drug charges like possession. If you think about it, an incarcerated person is worse for the country/government/economy than a dead person. The thousands who die from cancer caused by cigarettes or in auto accidents caused by alcohol are DEAD and they don't cost the government anything more than their lost worker productivity. The incarcerated have that cost too PLUS the cost of feeding, clothing, sheltering and guarding them.

There's also the cost of maintaining the drug war. Some studies suggest that cost has reached a trillion dollars now. A trillion dollars! If we'd invested that money in Social Security, then Social Security would be solvent now. Basically, it appears as if we traded the ability to keep our elderly healthy for the ability to imprison more of our young. Nice trade! And what do we have to show for the drug war, anyway? Not much. It's easier to get pot (and most all other drugs too) now than it was when the drug war began. We DO have a ton of people imprisoned now, and that is pretty much all our trillion dollars has bought us. I suppose if you work in the prison security field then the drug war has been a boon, but otherwise...

Cannabis should be treated as alcohol, not worse. Treating it as a Schedule I drug like heroin is simply insane.