Hmm...

First of all, I hate the double standard. Alcohol and nicotine (cigarettes) are legal but marijuana isn't. That doesn't make sense.

First thing that should happen, in my opinion, is the decriminalization of cannabis (and other drugs). It isn't right that people go to prison (for a long time sometimes) for drug use/abuse (be it cannabis or cocaine, heroin, etc...) (Here's another double standard, drug use gets treated as hugely damaging to society while corporate crime seems as bad as stealing candy). It's unjust and it simply doesn't work.

Portugal has decriminalized drugs (such as cannabis, but also others like heroin,...). They haven't made it legal, but they don't treat caught drug users as criminals.
Prevention and treatment have been proven more effective than repression.

I think there should be prevention campaigns though, you can't say cannabis is healthy. Especially under 16-18 years old.
Cigarettes aren't healthy either (worse even, depends on the kind of abuse), but you don't go to prison for lighting up a cigarette.


I don't see it happening any time soon in the US though.
There's the taboo.
And then there's the 'drug wars' the US is fighting. (Even though, in reality, those are about maintaining the power status quo in their sphere of influence.)
How are they gonna explain that they're fighting drug wars in other countries while they legalize/decriminalize drugs at home.