Keith Humphreys claims that legal cannabis "would [be] seen as a product to be marketed and sold just as is tobacco." Paul Waldman replies that the cultural meaning of the drug won't change, which will limit its reach. Adam Serwer counters that notion:
The Temperance movement was mostly made up of Protestant denominations, whose opposition to alcohol consumption was laden with racist, anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant stereotypes. A hundred years later, alcohol consumption is no longer associated with unruly Negroes and their white ethnic enablers. Alcohol is entirely respectable, even as the industry still exploits a sense of youthful rebellion still associated with consumption. The president can hold a "beer summit." The former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command drinks Bud Light Lime.
Humphreys sides with Serwer.
The Dish 