Read moreAs I walked back to the hotel, it seemed very strange that any society would want it different. You don't want rules and security guards? You'd rather thrust this relatively mild and commonplace activity into a criminal world where the law is enforced by biker gangs and Mexican cartels, thus guaranteeing their continued profits and monopoly power? Tell me again, why?
Look, I'd hate it if my kids became stoners. I'd hate it more if they became alcoholics. But that doesn't mean:
A) I'd want them to get arrested for smoking a bong hit or two on a Saturday night; or that...
B) I'd want to use the awesome power of the law to force the entire world to behave as I would like my children to behave.
Just as criminalization was the fruit of a newspaper campaign by a timber baron and decades of gov't propagandizing, legalization became inevitable when the Internet disintermediated (and disembowled) the information gatekeepers now and forever.
This is an age when Reefer Madness is viewed exclusively for its ironic value and campy ignorance. Every year a few more people wake up to the obviousness of the truth.