The New York Times Says that Weed is Totally Awesome and Should Be Legalized
The New York Times published an op-ed on their Opinionator blog this morning called "Give Pot a Chance." It's a well argued defense of marijuana legalization by author Timothy Egan. So yes, the "paper of record" shall now be known as the "rolling papers of record." And perhaps she's got glaucoma in her old age, but somebody pass the Old Gray Lady a blunt already because she's jonesing for it.
The article argues that the country should follow the lead of Colorado and Washington and just go ahead and make the damn thing legal. It does this in three points — three is what you get when you add one to the average of four, two, and zero, whoa.
The first two are standard legalization arguments: the fact that it's just as bad for you as alcohol or energy drinks and that it could raise revenue if it's properly taxed. Nothing more enlightening than what comes up in a casual dorm room smoke shesh.
But the articles last bullet point, labeled "lead" is a pretty new take on the subject:
That's what transformative presidents do. From his years as a community organizer - and a young man whose own recreational drug use could have made him just another number in lockup - Obama knows well that racial minorities are disproportionately jailed for these crimes.
Obama, of course, famously spent his formative year in a group of pot-smoking teens who called themselves the Choomgang. Their dealer was named Ray the Dealer, as all high school dealers should be named. They rode around hotboxing a station wagon they called the "Choomwagon."
Sounds like Barack would fit right in at the Times.
