I don't wish to sound like a lolbertarian here, but what kind of "legalization" are we talking about when it's a "criminal enterprise" to grow it without government permission? The outcome of trying to legalize possession for individual use but having government enforcement of a legal cartel was entirely predictable. Everyone ought to have known that the promises of huge revenue from "legalizing and taxing it" were overblown. Think of it: you have an industry with a well-developed black market, then you implement a much more expensive and highly taxed legal market, but decrease the penalties for operating in the gray market. What better recipe would there be for having huge illegal growing operations?
I don't wish to sound like a lolbertarian here, but what kind of "legalization" are we talking about when it's a "criminal enterprise" to grow it without government permission? The outcome of trying to legalize possession for individual use but having government enforcement of a legal cartel was entirely predictable. Everyone ought to have known that the promises of huge revenue from "legalizing and taxing it" were overblown. Think of it: you have an industry with a well-developed black market, then you implement a much more expensive and highly taxed legal market, but decrease the penalties for operating in the gray market. What better recipe would there be for having huge illegal growing operations?