A Virginia state lawmaker recently proposed legalization and selling marijuana in liquor stores, which in my opinion is a terrible idea.
I have always felt that marijuana is something known as an Upaya, that is, something which facilitates spiritual evolution. Other people see it as a relaxant, others see it as something that enhances The Simpsons. In my experience, getting "high" takes some effort, and a lot of people who smoke marijuana are merely getting "low."
Selling marijuana in liquor stores would promote MJ as a party drug, and encourage its use in combination with alcohol. Furthermore, there is a significant group of Americans who hold a large amount of animosity toward MJ, in my experience these people tend to consume alcohol (and ignore the fact that alcohol, too, is a drug). This sets up a bad mixture where patients seeking medicine might have to interact with opponents who would ridicule and harass them.
There is a culture to alcohol in this country, would you agree? It revolves around heavy consumption while watching sports and going to parties where the average person doesn't give a toss about the taste or quality and they're just in it for the buzz. A small sliver of people do care about the taste and quality, and you can find them consuming alcohol in moderate amounts at home or their favorite restaurants. The alcohol industry likes to pretend that they cater to this latter group, but in reality all of their advertising is geared toward the former groups. You know the stereotypical beer commercial that subliminally says "drink this beer and beautiful women will be attracted to you." All of this adds up to the culture of alcohol.
In my experience, there is also a culture to marijuana. It revolves around being shared in a tight knit community. When it resurfaced on the national scene in the 60's and 70's, it was very much used as an Upaya, because that was the genesis of the New Age movement. But the marijuana culture has evolved, and even split down two paths - one path goes toward therapy and medicine, and the other toward senseless use and abuse. You should agree that it's possible to abuse marijuana the same way alcohol gets abused, and you ought to see that the way alcohol is marketed contributes to that abuse.
One of my biggest complaints about the medical marijuana industry is that it's taking a turn toward the seedy and tawdry, catering to the "gangsta" lifestyle. E.g. Denver's HempCon featured a wet t-shirt contest. What does a wet T-Shirt contest have to do with medicine and healing? One Medical MJ mag I saw feature a scantily clad woman on the cover with her legs spread, holding a big bud in front of her vagina. Is that really how marijuana should be promoted? If we don't intentionally set some standards it will devolve to serve this least common denominator.
Even though I use marijuana as a spiritual facilitator, even going so far as to say it's part of my religion, I'm not all about dictating to someone how they should enjoy the herb. But if we're going to go full out on this idea we really ought to encourage people to use the herb constructively. It should be sold over the counter, but sold as a therapeutic, first and foremost, in the same vein as homeopathy and herbal medicines. We have a choice - to put it in the liquor stores and sell it next to the cigarettes and malt liquor, or put it in the natural medicine store in between the chamomile and echinacea. The usage patterns of every next generation will depend heavily on how the rest of us treat it.
Before we open Pandora's box, we should be deliberate about the way we agree to market marijuana, because if the corporate world gets involved, they WILL market it toward the groups that will abuse it. And that, sadly, is a lost opportunity.