"You can't really say "like cigarettes and alcohol" because those are two really different things. Cigarette regulation has been one of the greatest success of the last 25 years or so. Taxes keep the price high, suppressing demand. Marketing is strictly limited, which also limits demand. And prohibitions on where you can smoke further limits the appeal and thus suppressed demand further. And yet none of this is so oppressive that a real black market can flourish, except at the margins near state borders with big tax differences. I'm A-Okay adopting this regulatory regime for pot. Alcohol regulation on the other hand is disastrous. It's heavily marketed, prices are insanely low, and the few limits we do place on sales (a prohibition on selling to 20 year olds) yield terrible unintended consequences - teens who get drunk and then do stupid things like drive and not report problems because of a fear of getting caught. There's giant corporations behind both these products but the results..." - Eric P