As a court employee I have to say the war on pot just clogs up the system. Furthermore in the Bronx black and Hispanic people are routinely stopped and frisked while white people are not. Stats indicate that white people actually use more illegal drugs than people of color so it infuriates me that the white college students at Fordham aren't subjected to the same stop and frisk pattern as the black and Hispanic youth are. Supposedly mayor De Blasio will reform stop and frisk so this may be less of a problem in the future.
And if you want some good news about our youth, people under 35 almost exclusively use pot, with a little illegal pills and other things. Very little heroin and cocaine use. That's mostly used by people 40+. And in three years I have yet to see a meth bust in the Bronx.
Personally I have never smoked pot, have no plans to do so unless there are medical reasons. But it definitely needs to be legalized, taxed and regulated (I.e. No smoking in public so people don't get unwanted contact highs, except over 21 marijuana bars where if you enter you understand you'll be subject to the smoke.) The savings to the criminal justice system will be great, and the tax revenue will be too.
