Appearing Wednesday with Huffington Post hosts Alyona Minkovski and Jacob Soboroff, longtime television interviewer Larry King confessed that he thinks marijuana should be made legal, saying prohibition’s end is actually quite “logical.”

“I’ve always felt marijuana– Marijuana used to be legal,” he said. “It was the liquor industry that made it illegal. In 1938 you could go into stores and buy marijuana. I know it helps ill people. I know it’s great used with cataracts. I think it will be legal.”

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King went on: “The best quote I have on that Lenny Bruce, a friend of mine who said, ‘Marijuana will be legal some day because every law student I know smokes it.” He added that, to him, legalization appears “logical,” but some regulation will be needed. “I certainly don’t think you should smoke marijuana and drive,” King said.

For the longtime CNN host, the admission probably isn’t that big of a leap for him. In more than 25 years on television, King spoke to tens of thousands of people about every topic imaginable, including drug reform.

In a memorable 1988 segment, King even lit a joint for Robert Randall, the first American permitted under federal law to use the drug for medical purposes. And that’s not to mention the numerous celebrities, from Snoop Dogg to Willie Nelson to Mic Jagger, who’ve told him about their experiences with marijuana.

But celebrity endorsements aren’t what convinced King to side with drug reformers.

Describing an interview he sat for with four chiefs of police, King said he asked the men: “If neither one were legal, marijuana or liquor, and you could only legalize one, what would you legalize? And they all answered at the same time, ‘Marijuana!’ Because they had never seen murder committed while someone’s under the influence of marijuana, and 80 percent of the homicides they investigated were alcohol-related.”

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This video is from Huffington Post Live, broadcast Wednesday, October 3, 2012.





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