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Way to go Mr. Lyons! A solid common sense argument for ending an archaic, costly, and bizarre policy. I'll respond quickly to a few of the critics.

1. We have already "waited and seen" long enough to know that prohibition is the worst possible policy when it comes to marijuana. Do you think alcohol prohibition was a good policy? If not, why would you support marijuana prohibition, which simply creates a violent, illicit marijuana market. Virtually every doomsday scenario that opponents predicted in Colorado has proven to be unfounded: crime has not increased; their tourism industry is stronger than every; overall highway traffic fatalities are below the previous ten-year average; and teen marijuana use appears to be trending downward. The regulated marijuana sector has created thousands of jobs and generated tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue. All these facts are widely known and available if you look for them.

2. Since the war on drugs began in the early 1970's, the clearance rate (i.e. the number of crimes solved) for murder and violent crime have gone down — just go look at the FBI crime statistics. There's no question that focusing on marijuana arrests has distracted law enforcement and criminal justice resources away from serious crime. The $12 million that Mr. Lyons cites as being spent in RI to enforce marijuana prohibition is from an ACLU report (https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/war-marijuana-black-and-white-report). If you disagree with the number, please explain why their methodology is flawed and provide your own estimate of how much is spent enforcing this clearly ineffective law. Even if we spent $10,000 enforcing marijuana prohibition, do you think it would be worth it?

3. Regulating marijuana has not "created a huge black market in Colorado." That's simply false, and I challenge anyone to provide evidence that that has happened. Marijuana prohibition created the black market (again, just like alcohol prohibition), and regulating marijuana is now shrinking the criminal market. If the black market has grown, how do you explain the $45 million in tax revenue that CO has brought in so far this year from legal marijuana sales? There are reports now that regulate marijuana in the US is undercutting the Mexican drug cartels (http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/12/01/367802425/legal-pot-in-the-u-s-may-be-undercutting-mexican-marijuana#). Taking control away from criminals and putting marijuana behind the counter of tightly regulated, licensed business makes us all safer.

The bottom line is that being opposed to a system of regulation for marijuana means you support criminals controlling the market. We as a country decided that wasn't the right way to go for alcohol, so why would we continue that failed policy for marijuana?