Is Marijuana the new alcohol?

USA Today reports that the states who had passed laws permitting medical marijuana are not backing down after the Supreme Court ruled that they were preempted by federal law. George Will reports the arguments for and against continuing to outlaw marijuana. Comparing marijuana to alcohol is to ignore the great cost to society of the latter. I doubt there are good figures on the loss in productivity alone, but common sense suggests that it must be huge. Then you'd have to add the deaths caused by drunk driving, the spouse and child abuse committted while under the influence, the medical costs and the property damage and tax funds required to support those whose "providers" have defaulted. There is no way to monetize the pain and suffering caused by alcohol.

Yet people continue to demand that we need more varieties of recreational drugs. Can't we at least have a cost-benefit analysis of these things before we adopt them nation-wide?