Legalizing vs decriminalizing

A very controversial topic for decades has been the topic of legalizing marijuana. I listened to the thoughts of many stoners, of how it would be better to legalize, because marijuana isn't hurting anybody else. Most stoners would tell you to look at the prisons, and how they are all full, mainly because there are so many people in there that don't deserve to be in there (other stoners). I do look at these opinions and say "yea, these are some good points... but it doesn't seem right."

If marijuana was legalized I personally believe that while there would be more room for prisons, and less friends of mine would have to be afraid of the police... there would mainly be negative effects. I'm sure many stoners think of it in a way that if it were legalized and you could literally just go to the corner store and buy a dime bag, that would be the perfect world. But no not really, the government would tax the price of pot so high, that stoners would still just buy from their normal dealers.

Some people might come up with he false idea that after being legalized, the attraction to marijuana would go away... that is obviously a false view with the prime example of alcohol.

Just this morning I was listening to an old episode of the Adam Carolla show, in which his guest was Rob Schneider. One topic that came up was this very subject. Rob made and interesting point that legalizing pot would let any schmuck able to smoke pot without any hassle. But if it were decriminalized like in California, then the extra step of having to get a card to smoke weed would be enough hassle to weed a couple people.