Drug Interdiction and Why Marijuana Should Not Be Illegal

This method revolves around the concept that the drugs on the schedules (the lists of illegal drugs) are dangerous enough for the common person to not be able to control themselves when given access to it, or that people who have taken the drug pose a risk to those around them. Therefore under that assumption: it must be made illegal for the production/distribution/purchase/consumption of the drug in question.
They enforce this policy by arresting anyone having anything to do with the illegal drug. Usually involves routine arresting of low level users, people who are not involved in the distribution or manufacturing of said drug and incarcerate them rather then rehabilitating them to be able to deal with any addiction/dependency problem they could have.

What are the repercussions of this?
To the portion of society who has not researched this topic extensively, this stance appears to be "Hard" on drugs and thus most assume this kind of policy will cause a decrease in the use of the drug.

What do we know about Drug Interdiction?
We know that it doesn't work.

Prohibition of Alcohol
Prohibition is the perfect example. When the government made alcohol illegal for a brief period of time, the entire alcohol industry was taken out of the hands of law-abiding, tax-paying, educated workers and instead put into the hands of black market thugs/mobsters. These black market entrepreneurs were then able to capitalize on their monopoly on the alcohol market and made an enormous amount of money. At the same time, these black market entrepreneurs, feeling their illegal industry was vulnerable to other black market entrepreneurs, started fighting over their right to sell to designated areas or underground bars (known as "Speak Easy's). Alcohol use did not go down because of prohibition. Instead what happen was the government lost out on millions in taxes that would have been paid on all the booze. The professionals and law abiding citizens that once made alcohol were put out of work. The black market entrepreneurs who picked up the economic slack (and people always will, whenever there is a niche where money can be made- someone will find a way to fill that niche) began making the streets less and less safe.

The Elasticity of the purchase ability of a Crack addict
When a crack dealer gets busted, due to the lost supply of that dealer - yet the same amount of demand - the average price of 1 unit of crack will increase. Lets say from 10$ to 15$. What we know is that Crack addicts will continue to pay the price no matter how much it fluctuates; their demand will stay relatively the same. What this means is that crack addicts will continue to be crack addicts as long as crack can be found. Crack will always be able to be found because it is a niche market and individuals in the black market choose to use it as their vehicle to wealth because unlike law abiding industries, those in the narcotic industry don't pay taxes when they buy their product and don't pay income tax because their income is unregulated.

What then is the answer to successfully handling the drug problem?
We should legalize them. No, not all drugs, at least not at first. I believe we should legalize marijuana first. Tax it. Make it an official, legal industry that is federally regulated. This would take this method of generating cash out of the black market. Imagine all the hours' police officers spend on marijuana cases- they could use that time for one of the real law enforcement strategies that actually work. Think of all the tax dollars spent on taking these nonviolent "offenders" to trial and jail. With all the money that the government would get in taxes (and we're talking billions, Marijuana is one of the top 10 cash crops in many states) they could start programs to rehabilitate people who cannot sufficiently control themselves with marijuana. Also, because marijuana is legal, it can be regulated. They could make it so you have to be 18 to buy marijuana. This would make it more difficult for younger people to get marijuana then it currently is. Also, because marijuana would be federally regulated, it will be tested and made sure it's not laced with another-more dangerous drug (which is the primary concern when dealing with pot usage currently).

I didn't hope to change the world with this, but I did hope to turn on light bulbs in a few peoples heads and get them thinking.