[DanBC]

My gut reaction is to tell you that you're wrong and look for evidence of that, and blame the worst problems of cannabis supply on its current illegality. The illegatity pushes the price up; that high price and illegality attracts criminal gangs who use violence and human exploitation to supply the drug. Making it legal would reduce the cost of the drug and allow suppliers to market themselves as ethical ("free range" / "fair trade" / "organic" etc).

But looking at cigarretes in the UK we see criminal gangs are still involved in the production of dangerous[1] counterfeits and supply of those counterfeits or of smuggled cigarretes from lower tax areas.

[3beard]

> The illegality pushes the price up;

You make it sound as if this is a bad thing. I'm having a hard time imagining what benefit will result from making a potent and fairly addictive narcotic cheaper and more available.

[DanBC]

It's a bad thing because it leaves space for criminal gangs to make money and does nothing to tackle any harms that result from drug use.

Most people who use cannabis will experience no ill-effects. Many of the harms are reducible - use a vaporiser at the correct temperature rather than burning the plant material for example. A few people will experience ill-effects. Providing help to those people through public health measures is more effective and cheaper than targeting them through criminal justice systems.

> fairly addictive

Citation needed, unless you're misusing "addiction" to mean "habit". Cannabis is not physically addicting and the psychological addiction appears to be weak. There is some element of habit associated with it though.