After his very public, and I believe very mistaken, remarks about the Haiti earthquake, I’m startled but pleased to find common ground with Pat Robertson on the subject of marijuana prohibition.
“I’m … 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, that kinda thing it’s just, it’s costing us a fortune and it’s ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That’s not a good thing.”
That’s pretty much the same conclusion I came to when I was doing prison ministry during my seminary years. Any problems caused by marijuana use pale in comparison to the damage that its prohibition has done.
(Note: I see that Robertson has subsequently walked this back a bit, but not, I think, too much. The fact is that prohibition has been doing enormous damage for two or even three generations. Fixing the problem will be nearly impossible, but the first step, of course, is admitting you have a problem.)