Who knows the story of The Emperors New Clothes?

It is a story where everybody knows what is really going on, the Emperor is walking down the street naked, but they pretend they don't notice because it would be in bad taste, or offensive, or detrimental to their job to speak the truth.
That is the story of cannabis in our society in a nutshell. There is a whole parallel world going on where cannabis is in daily, but covert use, by a huge percentage of the population and either the police don't know about it, which would in truth make them exceedingly naive, and which I don't believe for a minute, or they chose to ignore, or turn a blind eye to it.
If every person who smokes or has smoked cannabis had the brains to refuse to vote for the National or Labour parties, who continue to demonise cannabis and who don't have the moral integrity to decriminalise it, (ie MP Simon Bridges and all Nat. MPs being told by the National Party how to vote on the medical marijuana bill recently) New Zealand would see an end to cannabis-related crime tomorrow.
In this particular case the only victim is the guy being sent to court. Now, excuse me for being naive, but for a crime to be committed, I thought there had to be a victim and as far as I know, you cannot commit a crime against yourself.
Why on earth is this man being criminalised for growing a few plants in his garden (or wherever) and having a couple of pipes?
If cannabis was legalised, minors would be protected by existing laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol or drugs to a minor.
The way the law stands, otherwise law abiding, everyday citizens (and there is a far greater number of them than many of you realise) are forced to purchase cannabis from gangs and denizens of the underworld, instead of being able to grow a couple of plants in their garden.
The real victims of the war on drugs are those who do not use drugs!
Whose lives are put at risk by people having to commit robberies in order to get money to buy something they could grow in their own garden?
Whose pockets are raped of trillions of dollars every year to prevent somebody else from doing something some people don't approve of?
Meanwhile cigarettes and alcohol – the biggest killers are legal.
Whose pockets are raped of trillions of dollars to try and stop people doing in their homes what they can't stop inmates doing in prison – for heavens sake if you can still get it in prison, how on earth do they hope to stop people doing it at home?
Wanting to ban drugs because gangs and criminals profit from them is also ineffective.
If you wish to crush gangs, try removing the policies which give them the monopoly to make a profit – the policies made by the government officials you elect!
And what are your chosen government officials doing about it? Here's what: They're making it possible for gangs and criminals to make more money out of crime. Every time another ‘War on Drugs' is declared, guess who cheers loudest? That's right; it's the gangs and criminals whose profits go right up.
Basically, if you accept that gangs are bad then you have to ask why you keep making them rich with the failed policies of prohibition. Prohibition doesn't decrease gang involvement in crime, it increases it. It doesn't decrease their profits, it increases them. It doesn't decrease drugs virulence, it increases it. It doesn't decrease police corruption, it increases it. Just ask Al Capone. He didn't make his money by buying and selling stocks and shares, he made it by buying and selling policemen, and by making the tough politicians who tried to stop him looking impotent.
Actually, they will not die out unless people stop buying drugs from them. And that's not going to happen unless the government makes it legal for consenting adults to buy recreational pharmaceuticals from safe and legal vendors.