Merry-juana Christmas

Soooo, Pat Robertson came out for decriminalizing marijuana.

Let's just let that sink in for a moment.

The guy is old, white and evangelical.  Pretty much the core constituency for the War on Drugs.  And yet he noted that we are locking people up for getting stoned.

Now, I don't agree with Pat Robertson on many things.  Ok, almost any thing.  OK, this might be the first thing Pat Robertson and I agree on.

Like Robertson, I agree that... Did I just write that?... marijuana should not be explicitly legalized.  I'm not comfortable with that.  But at the very least, we have to admit that no amount of legal coercion is going to stop people from sparking up.  We've been waging this stupid War on Drugs since Nixon.  It's pretty much an Epic Fail.

Decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana will not lead to end of civilization.  It will lead to more room in our overcrowded prisons for actual criminals.  It will lead to fewer lives ruined by years in jail for reasons that are increasingly absurd.

Now, decriminalizing pot will not bring about the benefits of legalization that advocates for legalization put forth.  Namely, tax revenues and the end of a large part of the illegal drug trade.  And the latter is particularly relevant, I think, although both are important.

Legalized pot would allow a shift in law enforcement resources and the ability to levy a whopping sin tax that states in particular could really use these days.  And hopefully, steps could be taken to keep legalized pot out of the hands of teenagers.  I haven't researched the effectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns, but we do know that kids smoke cigarettes and kids smoke pot.  Both are bad for you, but one carries a jail sentence.

Mexico is being torn apart by drug violence that is largely caused by US demand.  In the last decade, Mexico has transformed from a quasi-authoritarian, one party state to an increasingly democratic regime.  Calderon's drug war increasingly jeopardizes this, and the drug cartels make a ton of money off US demand.  Legalizing pot would cut into their resources.

Still, I think we proceed slowly on any attempts to legalize pot.  Increasingly, medical marijuana is gaining acceptance in America.  If Pat Robertson of all people can see the wisdom in decriminalizing pot, maybe more people can.  Maybe we can lock up fewer Americans, because they prefer a bong over a six pack.

Maybe that gives us a road map to one day stopping the New Prohibition.  Or maybe everyone starts getting stoned and work and preschoolers drop out and follow Phish.

But if Pat Robertson can see it...

That's a Festivus miracle.