On Friday, the House of Representatives in Vermont voted to legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, and to let people grow up to six plants at home.

The Vermont Senate is expected to follow suit and the Republican governor has indicated he will sign the measure.

Hawaii should follow Vermont’s lead, offering defiance to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions from both “an island in the Pacific” and the land of Bernie, Ben & Jerry.

Flickr: Bob Doran

Sessions announced last week that his Department of Justice had reversed the Obama administration policy that “shielded legalized marijuana from federal intervention and enabled the pot industry to flourish,” as one news report put it.

“The previous issuance of guidance undermines the rule of law and the ability of our local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement partners to carry out this mission,” Sessions wrote in a three paragraph memo.

Sessions’s abundantly foolish order was widely ridiculed on both sides of the political aisle, including by the four Democrats who represent Hawaii on Capitol Hill.

“Jeff Sessions is turning everyday Americans into criminals while giving Big Pharma a pass for the opioid crisis,” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said on Twitter.

The attorney general’s announcement was not a surprise. This is a man who, as U.S. attorney in Alabama in the 1980s, said he thought Ku Klux Klan members “were OK until I found out they smoked pot.”

In April, Politico reported, Sessions said, “Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” and that cannabis was a “very real danger” that is “not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized.”

‘I Don’t Think We Should Be Intimidated’

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia say otherwise, including California, the largest, which began selling recreational pot last week. In addition to the Golden State, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada each passed measures in November legalizing recreational marijuana.

Vermont would be the ninth state to “legalize it,” as Peter Tosh sang, and Hawaii theoretically could be the 10th.

To understand just how ludicrous Sessions’s move is, consider that Alabama itself maintains laws permitting medical marijuana for severe epileptic conditions.

This editorial does not take a position on whether pot is harmful. But it is absurd to categorize it as the equivalent of heroin, Ecstasy and Quaaludes, which the federal government has for decades.

“Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” says the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

And yet, medical marijuana can be prescribed under Hawaii law for a number of debilitating medical conditions including cancer, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, PTSD, wasting syndrome, severe pain, severe nausea, severe muscle spasms and seizures and epilepsy.

Late last month, the state Department of Health added ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, to that list.

When was the last time a medical doctor prescribed a martini and a cigarette as medicinal treatment? But alcohol and tobacco are legal. They also kill, but they also make money and are taxed and regulated.

Colorado understands that last part well: The state’s Department of Revenue estimates that total pot sales to date are $4.2 billion.

Jeff Sessions is turning everyday Americans into criminals while giving Big Pharma a pass for the opioid crisis. We need to #StopSessionsNow. Join me and become a citizen cosponsor of HR 1227, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act today: https://t.co/NSeIHzRx9j pic.twitter.com/jt3bfcsI7S — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) January 5, 2018

Imagine the tax revenue from marijuana sales in Hawaii, already world famous for Maui Wowie, Puna Butter and Kona Gold, should we move to legalize pakalolo.

Imagine the easing of burden on our criminal justice system, where too many people are in jail or prison for nonviolent crimes.

Locally, polls on pot are mixed. A recent Civil Beat poll showed that a majority of voters oppose recreational pot, while a Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii poll says the opposite.

But the trend line is clear. Roughly six in 10 Americans think marijuana should be legalized, according to a new Pew Research survey, up from 57 percent a year ago.

We recognize that many Hawaii legislators oppose legalizing marijuana, in large part because of the federal prohibition.

State Sen. Russell Ruderman, who plans to introduce a legalization bill in the 2018 legislative session, told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald last week that the federal decision that greater enforcement of marijuana laws could make the legislation a tougher sell.

But, Ruderman added, “I don’t think we should be intimidated.”

Neither do we. Let’s legalize marijuana.

As an added benefit, it will also mean we could fully embrace growing and selling hemp and hemp products rather than the limited cultivation permitted now. That would mean real diversified agriculture.