The main disadvantage would be to the law enforcement agencies who would no longer be able to seize assets in a bust thus funding them. The advantages would be that there would be a new revenue stream for the federal government, since it would be taxed just like tobacco and alcohol and thereby providing funding to the federal and state governments. It would also reduce the prison population as fewer people would now be in prison or jail for offenses related to marijuana. It would increase the tax base and collections as now dealers would need to claim the income from the sale of the product there by again increasing the fund available to the government for public use. It has been my contention for years that if drugs were taxed and sold like alcohol that every citizen of this country could have free health care and probably no income tax. Governor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York made the comment toward the end of the prohibition era in the USA that you cannot stop men from doing what they want to do! This has been proved time and again with the longest war ever fought in history, The War on Drugs!
