>> but I have always believed that there is a link between people that smoke a lot of pot when they're younger and depression when they become older (I have no evidence to back that up).

Evidence is pretty clear in jurisdictions that have drug and alcohol courts where you can spot the middle-aged pot heads a mile off. Meanwhile one of the brightest kids at Med School when I was there, became quite a pot head and ended up bumming around surf beaches on NZ's remote East Coast to this day. Terrible waste.

>>That being said...I still think it should be legalized AND regulated AND taxed.

The law is an ass in many jurisdictions where weed is so commonly used you need to provoke a cop to get in trouble for anything less than supply quantities. But there's 2 issues: first, industries that rely on immigrant labour like fruit picking, say they need to drug test local employees and fire them if on drugs because of the resulting lack of care/work ethic that risks the whole crop. Unlike the immigrants who are eager to comply. What effect will legalization have on that- can you discriminate against citizens for their legal habits? The second issue is involvement of gangs who lace marijuana with methamphetamine in NZ to create better customers. Legalization and taxation should put a stop to that at least- though if the tax is anything like the tax on cigarettes, as it logically ought to be, there will still be a black market and crime.