Mark Kleiman sees legalized cannabis in California as an improvement on the status quo. But he isn't blind to the downsides:
Under repeal, California could easily supplant Mexico as the primary source of marijuana for North America, leading to a price collapse and a surge in cannabis use nationwide. We couldn’t expect Washington to just stand back and let cheap California marijuana flood the national market. As California police stepped back, we’d probably see a surge in federal enforcement. With volume and sales rising, it’s likely that some of the resulting conflicts among growers and dealers, and between them and the law, would be violent; that’s the nature of large-scale criminal enterprise.
Reihan re-forms Kleiman's argument:
As I understand it, Kleiman is embracing the stance of some of my friends and colleagues, namely that the repeal of criminal laws against cannabis in California could create an intergovernmental crisis — and that this is a good thing insofar as it forces us to reexamine federal drug laws and out international treaty commitments.
(Photo of "Private Reserve Lamb's Bread, Sativa" by Dank Depot. More pot porn here.)
The Dish 