[geebee]

Thanks for posting your comment, this is an important issue to me.

I would have thought, originally, that legalization would do a better job suppressing illegal grow operations than decriminalization. Decriminalization can create a murky semi-legal area where sanctioned, fully above board businesses can't enter the market, which might empower illegal operations to operate with greater impunity (and to be clear, the "illegal" thing I fear and despise isn't some small time grower with a few plants in a closet or small backyard greenhouse, it's the wildly environmentally destructive and violent organized crime you're describing here).

Maybe the problem is that legalization turned out to be so restrictive that a large scale illegal market has persisted. When you legalize, you really need to legalize. This, people have trouble with - like, would people tolerate cannabis at a farmer's market stall? That may be what it takes.

Another thing is that people see the legalization day to day, whereas the don't really see and experience the harm of what you describe on a regular basis.