Can you believe that?  Sounds like an epidemic to me.  Well, it would if it were true.  Sad thing is, I have yet to see one documented case of death due to over consumption of marijuana.  I have, however, read stories of kids binge drinking legal alcohol to the point their bodies say "Enough!" and expire.

So to see that the Governator signed  a marijuana decriminalization bill is encouraging, though still not enough.  I haven't been given a ticket for the civil infraction of carrying a six pack home yet, so if you have a functioning brain stem, you can hopefully grasp the idiocy of ticketing people for a holding a harmless plant.

The massive drug cartels aren't so harmless you say?  I agree.  The murderous violence is reprehensible.  But I ask, what do you think Al Capone was smuggling?  Lolipops and gum-drops?  Is Capone's St. Valentines Day Massacre  that different from La Familia's and Gulf's war on the Zetas ? 

When Prohibition ended (which, if you remember required a Constitutional amendment to ban, and reverse the ban, of a simple substance) the bootlegging business ended.  Well, at least the violence did as the government allows certain preferred entities (massive corporations with big lobbying budgets) to produce alcohol which they can also tax, whereas individuals are barred from making their own, unsanctioned hooch.  I will always applaud even the slightest decrease in anti-liberty 'laws', but I will never be complacent and sacrifice true freedom for a nugget of reduced tyranny.

In closing, if there is an argument that can be made for marijuana that can't also be made for alcohol, I'd like to hear it and encourage robust debate on the topic.


Full Disclosure: I was enjoying a cocktail during the composition of this entry.  Though I would prefer not to have a hangover in the morning, my state will still throw you in a cage for keeping company with a prohibited plant.  I can be pragmatic (at times).