[fluxrad]

error - should read "self described millionaire."

I'm one of the 53% as well (Actually ~54%) and this guy certainly doesn't speak for me. I'm fine with war on the poppy plant and the coca plant (well, some days). I'm just uncomfortable with the war on cannabis. More importantly, it's this high and mighty attitude that turns people off to the anti-prohibition message.

The fact that I may or may not smoke marijuana doesn't mean I've the inclination or the right to act morally superior. It simply means I have the right to act differently, in the same way as punks have the right to wear purple mohawks; in the same way the irish have the right to wear green; in the same way you have the right to visit a bar for a cold one after a hard day at the office.

Maybe I've had a hard day at the office. Maybe I choose to unwind without the need for a depressant in my body, or to wear purple hair.

Will I drive home after a joint? Of course not. Anyone that supposes that the legalization of marijuana will somehow lead to the legalization of driving on marijuana just isn't using their brain (Ironically, the same thing pot smokers are accused of every day). If the argument is about the propensity for crime while on a substance, then where do we draw the line? Do we outlaw alcohol because people may drive drunk? Do we outlaw cigarettes because people may drop an ash in their lap? Then again, maybe that's one of the other rich ironies in this whole prohibition fiasco. Most of the social conservatives I know that are so critical of "the increasingly liberal nanny state" are the very same who are first in line to keep me away from the pipe.

At least I can have that chuckle, knowing that those who would take away my right to smoke marijuana are, by virtue of their vote, indirectly eroding their own freedoms even if they don't realize it. I chuckle knowing that Antonin Scalia, while chosing the commerce clause over the choice of the people of California, has placed his anti-marijuana, anti-drug viewpoint above his respect for the sovereignty of a state.

I chuckle as I watch people trip over their own principles and false logic in attempts to continue the villification of a simple green plant.

And I am comforted by the knowledge that the people of Denver are chuckling with me. I'm not high and mighty. I'm just amused.

For what it's worth, I haven't smoked weed in several years. The day it becomes legal, I'll play a nice game of Zonk with my friends and then I'll probably never smoke it again.