One More Nail for Prohibition

Libertarian Pol Don DeZarn (Image credit: NJ.com)

A New Jersey Libertarian running for that state's senate publicly smoked pot in public. It's good to see people taking a stand, even if there was no risk of getting arrested as the story from NJ.com/The Times said.

Is this really the best picture they could find for the cover?

Or next time, dude, could you bring some Visine?

He's actually somewhat lucky he didn't get arrested, since 86.5 people are arrested on marijuana charges every hour in the U.S. according the chart at the bottom and it's data (which can be found by following the image's link).

Because of this high arrest rate and the heavy consequences paired in some states with a possession charge, the traditional civil disobedience component of getting arrested in the act might not bring the desired attention to the issue.

It's somewhat hard, after all, to stand out in an annual crowd of over 750,000 arrested for a plant each year.



UPDATE: Russian Bears Get Wasted Too

UPDATE 2: According to Reason, Jimmy Carter (now a private citizen since the Constitution explicitly prohibits titles of nobility such as "former President") stated his desire to continue The Prohibition. Carter said:

"We have to prevent making marijuana smoking from becoming attractive to young people, which is, I'm sure, what the producers of marijuana....are going to try and do."

As are probably the producers of movies, music, television, video games, and toasted pastries. But nothing makes access to marijuana for kids easy like keeping it illegal, since drug dealers tend not to check IDs...