....In their 2001 book "Drug War Heresies," Robert MacCoun of the University of California at Berkeley and Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland noted that by effectively legalizing pot, "the Dutch have significantly reduced the monetary and human costs of incarcerating cannabis offenders with no apparent effects on levels of use."

....Maybe the Canadians understand that. Or maybe they're just quicker to recognize the stupidity of giving someone a criminal record for doing something that an awful lot of people have done without hurting anyone else. Nearly 80 million Americans have tried marijuana--including the last president of the United States and, apparently, the current one, who doesn't deny youthful drug use. Only the unlucky ones get collared.

....For that matter, the dangers of pot are mostly imaginary. The respected medical journal The Lancet concluded a few years ago, "The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health." Not all experts are quite so sanguine, especially when adolescents are involved, but the health hazards of getting arrested are clearly much greater than the health hazards of getting high.

Everyone knows that marijuana is not a menace to public health or morals. The marvel is not that Canadians may finally act on that knowledge, but that Americans still tolerate the waste of police time and tax money arresting people for an innocent vice. What are we smoking? [Chicago Tribune] I'm not even calling smoking pot "an innocent vice": there are real dangers, especially to kids, and smoking anything isn't good for you, but it's a matter of perspective and the War on Drugs is a hypocritical sham that has none. Surely moderate marijuana smoking by adults is more benign than immoderate drinking or tobacco smoking, and the War on Paraphernalia is beyond comprehension: it's like arresting people for making beer mugs or ashtrays - goddamn, I am pissed off about this.

It is time politicians show some semblance of balls and confront this stupidity and call a spade a spade - this marginalization must end. Free Tommy Chong!!