Ellington

The Washington Post reports on a comment made by Pat Robertson on his television show in the past few weeks that has burned up some of the blogs:

"We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana, and the next thing you know they've got 10 years," the controversial pastor said on "The 700 Club" on Dec. 16, in a clip unearthed by bloggers this week. "I'm not exactly for the use of drugs - don't get me wrong - but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, I mean, it's just, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people."

According to the story, 15 states and Washington DC now allow for marijuana possession for "medicinal" purposes. (Alt-weeklies in parts of the country, particularly the west, have jumped on the bandwagon, some offering pages of ads for medical marijuana dispensaries and even Special Sections devoted to the leaf.)

The question becomes: Is there a movement afoot? Would it be possible (and make sense) to decriminalize possession to the point that it would benefit individuals and the society that is breeding more hardened criminals by putting pot users in jail? According to WaPo, public sentiment is changing:

"The nation's attitude toward marijuana has changed dramatically over the past two decades. In an October Washington Post poll, 43 percent of respondents said they would be in favor of legalizing the possession of a small amount of marijuana for personal use - up from 22 percent in 1997."