You are right Lupo. Taxes are bad punitive devices. Creates hate and discontent in the populace. Kinda like the Washington State monopoly on booze. Guess the State could run the drug market. Then the politicos would probably be drug cartel members rather than just power hungry control freaks.
I don't know how to fix the 'drug problem.'I do know that if you think you have entitlement peoples now, that will be nothing compared to what will happen if drugs are essentially freebies. And then again, there would be a lot of happy socialists on the scene.
Close the jails and let the vigilantes handle the troublesome ones. Save a lot of dollars that way.