Cliches about broken clocks being right twice a day might need to be dragged out for this one. Pat Robertson wants pot to be made legal. He is on the straight-and-420 for this one. Robertson isn’t indulging in just idle, pass-the-bong, give-me-a-hit, don’t-bogart-that-joint talk. This is a serious policy recommendation, which gives off the aroma of prime bud, and which, if taken seriously, could unclog the legislative pipe, cleanse the bong water of our nation’s ludicrous, drunk-on-bad-beer, whiskey-addled, gin-soaked policy on marijuana, and perhaps, hopefully, cure the nation of its reefer madness.

(Even if it includes the usual disclaimer about not having tried marijuana and not intending to. Really Pat? Not even once? Such a long life, so many interesting experiences, and never a toke? Come on, it’s a sacrament. You should include it in your services. Perhaps everyone would mellow out and you would stop with all that crazy talk you’ve subjected us to over the years. I won’t forgive you just yet for all of it, but with this set of statements you might just have started filling out an application for forgiveness. My un-Christian heart could still be turned around.)

From the New York Times report linked above:

I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol…[T]his war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded….[the US] has gone overboard on this concept of being tough on crime…It’s completely out of control…Prisons are being overcrowded with juvenile offenders having to do with drugs. And the penalties, the maximums, some of them could get 10 years for possession of a joint of marijuana. It makes no sense at all.

And,

Mr. Robertson has now apparently fully embraced the idea of legalizing marijuana, arguing that it is a way to bring down soaring rates of incarceration and reduce the social and financial costs….Mr. Robertson said that he “absolutely” supported the ballot measures, [in Colorado and Washington, intended to roll back marijuana penalties and prohibitions]

Can you dig it? Legalizing marijuana makes so much sense that even Pat Robertson thinks its the right thing to do. Come on legislators. Put away your wine glasses, cancel your meetings with tobacco lobbyists, don’t fill this month’s painkiller prescription, and get to work on drafting drug policy bills that don’t read like they were written by some pothead. Sorry, I meant vodka-martini-head.

Perhaps, years from now, when marijuana is finally legalized, it will be because the sheer hypocrisy of keeping it illegal, punishing its casual users, and virulently opposing any attempt at rationalizing its regulation, while alcohol is glorified, turned into an indispensable companion for dinners, weddings, sports events, White House banquets, St. Patrick Day’s festivities, into a marker of manhood, an indication of sophistication, will finally become too much for the collective psyche of those engaged in maintaining that status. Perhaps.

If not, then at least those in charge of marijuana policy and enforcement can congratulate themselves that when they talk about the pernicious effects of marijuana they are correct in one sense: Pot can drive you insane and make you do really stupid things. Like not legalizing it.