re: Why make it worse?
Not "hard" drugs like cocaine, heroin, meth, etc. - just the legalization of marijuana specifically - it will greatly reduce our prison population and if taxed, could generate quite a bit of revenue.
It is crazy that people who commit physical violence against other people (or get DUI's - putting the general public at risk) are oftentimes sentenced to less prison time then those people who were say caught growing a few marijuana plants. I mean come on...
Furthermore, marijuana/cannabis/hemp has numerous other uses/benefits i.e. hemp rope, paper, canvas (which actually comes from the word cannabis), oil from the seeds, etc. People need to unlearn their bias against this plant.
I agree with your comments about the border.
Regards, Vince