Paul Waldman points out the latest example of incredibly dumb marijuana reporting, courtesy of a cover story in National Journal:

The matter at hand is typically dearer to the stoner minds of the Grateful Dead "Truckin'" crowd: marijuana legalization -- as in the blissful freedom to light up a bowl in one's own home, purely for one's own pleasure (crank up the stereo and pass the chips, giggle, giggle), and to grow small amounts of the weed on one's own property, too. Says one dazed pot-head to another: Is this a great country, or what?

It's an unbelievable mouthful of lame clichés and stereotypes, rendered self-evidently frivolous by the fact that National Journal decided to run a cover story about this in the first place. If only a few wasted hippies cared about the issue, we wouldn’t be talking about it, would we? The modern debate over marijuana policy in America bears no resemblance to these ignorant characterizations, and anyone who still views the issue through that lens has nothing to add to the conversation.

If having to read such thoughtless crap is our punishment for driving this issue into the political mainstream, I suppose it's a small price to pay.