Denise has a point about saddling young people with a criminal record. If stopping that was part of the motive for legalization, it doesn't make sense for criminal penalties to remain. By comparison, underage drinking only nets you a ticket, even if they catch you with fifty beers.

As for the public health angle… can we just forget about the **** children for once? Underage kids who want weed can already get it: I don't see legalization making a big difference to accessibility.

And those of legal age are adults who should be responsible for their own actions. Give them the facts, then let them decide. We should resist this contemporary political trend to infantilize young adults. There are many ways to mess up with poor life choices, but once you set a precedent for state intervention, there's inevitably more pressure to ratchet it upward to cover other "addictive" behaviour in the general population.