I thought you proved that smoking marijuana caused gay bashing.

causes sorry.

That graph looks like a buttplug!

I get that you're being realistic here and all, but this is a really good time for people to start flexing their brains on exactly how we could go for full legalization. we are in the middle of an economic crisis (CRI-sis), not a momentary downturn in the economy. if the government is going to continue to hand out cash as a way to stimulate the economy, we need to be ready to come up with new sources of revenue to pay for all this shit so we don't just wind up mortgaging our futures. at this point in history, I can't think of a better opportunity to push for fully regulated, taxed, legalization of marijuana as a way to offset that gap in revenue. I know not everyone will be for it at first, but this is the kind of drastic measure that these weird times call for. it makes me uncomfortable to say it, but to not support legalization and taxation would be un-American. ugh. yeah, not comfortable with that at all, but it's true.

honestly Dominic, I'm kinda disppointed in this piece.

Man, I should get a new buttplug.

Maybe we should think about decriminalizing buttplugs before we think about decriminalizing pot. Remember, when buttplugs are outlawed, only outlaws will have buttplugs.

The problem with decriminalization is that it just makes criminals even richer. Have some courage. Washington has recently passed referendums to keep a gas tax, give the right to die, and elects democrats for governor and the senate by wide margins. We have a solid system of state control for a controlled substance and plenty of libertarian types throughout the state. Be bold. Legalize, tax, and regulate.

heh heh butt plug!

Sell it at WSLCB stores.

Problem solved.

Treat it the same way we do gateway drugs like alcohol, which kills far more people, is far more addictive, and much more dangerous.

Jeannie Hale was a big supporter of I-75 (and gay marriage).

Pot being illegal is so stupid. Teenagers will get high with anything if they wanted to get high. Glue, choking each other, etc.

Funny - It's taken having a teenage son for me to realize that whether or not marijuana is illegal isn't the dominant factor in whether a teenager son smokes pot or not.

Or to put it another way - I'm more explicitly for legalization now than I was before I had kids. Then my views were sort of abstract because I already hadn't smoked for years.

My only concern is that I don't want potheads driving. I would legalize possession at home only. Allow everyone to grow X amount of marijuana at a time. Sell seed, not weed.

What exactly is preventing groups like NORML from paying some lawyers to write up a proposal for a realistic framework to legalize and regulate marijuana?

If we had such a proposal, we could counter all the pot-in-the-lunch-line crap with real answers - "Look," we'd say, "Nobody wants to let your kid just go buy weed like candy. It'd be kept under lock and key and only sold to adults who present ID, just like alcohol and tobacco." That would be a huge gain for the pro-pot side.

In addition, legal marijuana could be grown on Washington farms, with the revenue going to Washington businesses. Revenue from decriminalized marijuana - where does that go, exactly? House-grows in east King County? Canadian smugglers? Public-land growers hiding in state parks? The Mexican drug lords beheading each other and anybody who gets in their way? Does anybody really know? No. Even if possession of small amounts is decriminalized, production and distribution will still be heavily criminalized, so only criminals will profit from the upsurge in use.

By "More Americans" what Mr Holden meant was people in the Castro or WeHo or morally corrupt Massachusetts, cause no real American family supports this, even when used with the debunked its the same as alcohol argument.

Does anyone else think that the weed sold by stores if legalized would be a sad variation of the weed you buy from your neighbor who painstakingly uses hydroponics and other expensive gear to grow the most beautiful, crystal dense nugs you've ever tasted?

@16, the election demonstrated that real Americans aren't the kind of voting bloc they used to be. Time for the concerns of fake americans to finally be heard.