Just when we think we are turning a positive corner in the misconception of cannabis users, we get stories like this one out of the Pentagon that make us all do a collective facepalm.

The laws of the land allow for this mental giant to remain anonymous, but I think it’s perfectly acceptable to chuckle at the events. As the story goes, an army civilian was arrested trying to bring nearly an ounce of cannabis into the Pentagon of all places (although the Pentagon occupies fields where the US government previously grew hemp). I had a dime bag confiscated from me once at a Rolling Stones concert, but that’s about as brazen as I have been with trying to sneak weed anywhere.

Anyway, back to our Fields Medal candidate. He is/was employed at The Pentagon and was basically just going to work. The Pentagon security team was conducting what they call “enhanced screenings” of all employees as part of a routine security process. During this screening, they found weapons (knives, collapsible batons, pepper spray) and other drug paraphernalia on many of their employees, in addition to the 25 grams of marijuana found on this articles titular character.

The Pentagon is hiding behind their own smoke screens (no pun intended) and releasing next to no information about what happened or why. It seems likely that this employee will face criminal charges.

Beyond the silliness of this story, a deeper look shows a glaring gap between perception and reality regarding cannabis. This guy will be charged with some crime (the amount he had on him puts him in the realm of “intent to distribute,” which is bad joo joo in the courts). However, the penalty for having an unauthorized weapon under Pentagon law is, at most, a $1000 fine and the confiscation of your weapon.

You read that correctly. The guy with the bag of weed will face harsher punishment than a person who legitimately brings a (legally-owned) weapon onto the Pentagon campus.

Is this weed laced with anthrax? Is there a North Korean nano-filament bomb woven into the buds? No. Of course not. It’s just another nugget of lunacy from a federal government who, at least on the cannabis front, is bent on willing us back into prohibition.