Pat Robertson Says Legalize Marijuana

Here's an early Christmas gift from one of the last people you thought was going to take a stand for drug law reform:

Here's the transcript, via Pete Guither:

“We’re locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana and the next thing you know they’ve got ten years – they’ve got mandatory sentences and these judges, they throw up their hand and say ‘What can we do, it’s mandatory sentences.’ We’ve got to take a look at what we’re considering crimes, and that’s one of them. I mean, I’m not exactly for the use of drugs, don’t get me wrong, but I just believe criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of just a few ounces of pot, and that kind of thing, I mean it’s costing us a fortune, and it’s ruining young people. The young people go into prisons, they go in as youths, and they come out as hardened criminals.”

What's going on here? I'll tell you. The idea that our marijuana laws are all kinds of stupid has taken hold in mainstream political culture to such an extent that anyone who wants to can just come out and say it. What a wonderful feeling that is for anybody who's silently rolled their eyes at our mindless marijuana laws for years, just waiting for the right time to say something about it. Well, that time is here and if a notorious windbag moralizer like Pat Robertson has figured it out, I'll never again be surprised to hear an unlikely voice joining the call for reform.