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Interesting historical tidbit: When Jimmy Carter was president, he made some moves towards decriminalizing marijuana nationally. He made public statements saying it should be treated basically like a traffic offense. Then some government officials were caught by the press doing cocaine at a High Times party. The political embarrassment killed Carter's decriminalization initiative.

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Interesting, but inaccurate.

The official in question was at a NORML Christmas party, and in addition to the obvious, was present when fellow revelers were partaking of cocaine. It was only alleged, and certainly not proven, that said official (Peter Bourne) actually partook of said substances. The scandal took about six months to "break," a curious delay that I would feel more comfortable analyzing in the Politics forum, except that its peopled by Terri-Schiavo impersonators. At the time, Peter Bourne was Special Assistant to the President for Health Issues, functionally his "Drug Czar." He was not head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the leadership of which is usually conferred the czardom today, because the Office did not yet exist. His curious official position reflected the ambivalence in the Carter adminstration towards the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (SAODAP)created in 1971. That post dates to the Nixon presidency, a man who laid the groundwork that almost became federal decriminalization in 1978 (also the peak year for marijuana use in recorded American history).

Ahh, enough of that. That [censored] makes you stupid.