Train is Leaving the Station . . . All Aboard!

The noxious weed is on the ballot. Hooray!

In addition to the presidential candidates and all the state offices and questions, three states will put it to the voters on Tuesday the question of whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Regular readers here, that hearty band of less than 20, will already know my position on the matter. Do it!

The so-called war on drugs has been one of the most expensive, wasteful, idiotic, and vicious exercises of government coercive power in U.S. history . . . and it has been waged against citizens of this country for over 40 years with no discernible effect on the use of marijuana. All it has done, as innumerable writers and thinkers have pointed out (here's one, in Forbe's magazine, no less) the baleful effects of this crusade so far outweigh any possible benefit that a sane society would have long since cut their losses on this issue. Billions of dollars spent, millions imprisoned, and no dent in the problem? Are you kidding?

Well, on Tuesday the voters in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado are going to get to vote for the straight-out legalization of pot. (Medical marijuana is on the ballot in Massachusetts and Arkansas.) I'm hoping they all three say yes. Once some states do this, it's bound to happen in other states, too. It's way past time that some common sense were applied to this "problem" of pot. The train is leaving the station on this issue, it's time to get on board.