while i agree completely with all of that, i don't think legalization would deter a common scumbag from taking "what's his". a lot of people really believe that cannabis would INCREASE in value should it be legalized, through heavy taxes and restrictions and permits and whatnot. i've had more discussions about it than i care to recall, all of them ending in headache.
suppose cannabis were legal but carried a heavy tax or something else to inflate its "value". it would be just as much of a target of thieves as it is now if they could sell it for less than the legal guys who obey the law. i used to steal weed from my friend's mom all the time. if it was legal i would have stolen it anyway because i wanted to smoke it and i had no money. how many times do we see after hours smash-and-grabs at liquor stores on the news? liquor is legal. how many times do convenience stores get robbed for cigarettes? those are legal and disgustingly expensive.
i don't think these types of stories have any place in the legalization debate. they give the impression that weed is something sought out by thieves, when all that is sought by a thief is a way to get money or avoid paying for something. weed, ipads, jewelry, whatever. the notion that cannabis would become dirt cheap if legalized is just a theory, and even if it were cheap it would still get stolen.