Grow Your Own, Ctd

A reader writes:

As a student ready to graduate with a 4.0 and getting accepted to some top PhD programs in political science despite my 'handicap' of smoking pot, I sympathize with the sentiment of some forms of legalization. However, grow your own is not a solution at all.

Experiments like this have been tried in places like Mendocino County in California. (If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend CNBC's Marijuana Inc program on hulu.) From what I understand, it's legal to grow up to 25 plants for private consumption. All this overwhelms local law enforcement trying to weed out (pun not intended) the good growers from the bad and a large increase in violence. Familes are being forced to move as their neighbors' houses become too dangerous to live next to because they burn down. Criminals break into law abiding citizens' homes who are growing weed to steal plants. Neighborhoods have become completely transformed and turned into the wild wild west

We need a new system, but I'm not sure this is the best solution. There is a lot of pressure to get this right the first time, since there will probably only be one shot at it. If it fails miserably, only entrenching current prejudices about marijuana, there likely won't be a new opportunity for legalization in a long time.