David Leonhardt

Why are they lobbying against them?

It turns out, actually, that when you raise taxes on rich people, you raise taxes on rich people.

And the same thing goes with marijuana, which is if we crack down on some of these abuses, yes, some of it will move to the black market and we'll then need to look for ways to restrict that.

But the bigger dynamic will be that essentially harmful behavior by companies will be less common.

And so I think we shouldn't be scared of putting in place a law because it won't have 100% efficacy.

I'm willing to do a little bit of moral grandstanding and maybe inspire some disagreement from the two of you.

Yes, smoking pot is a vice.

So is drinking alcohol, which is something I very much enjoy doing.

And so is smoking tobacco.

And so are a whole bunch of other activities.

That doesn't mean that people who do these activities are bad people, to echo Hermann.

But it does mean that you want to be honest about the trade-offs here.

So I would say to your question, Emily, yes, smoking pot is a vice, the same way drinking a martini, which I very much enjoy, is a vice.

It is a perfectly good thing for people to do in some circumstances.

But when you add it up over society, it has costs that we've been too eager to wish away with marijuana over the last 15 years.