The nation's most prestigious newspaper has officially endorsed the legalization of marijuana, in an editorial posted online Saturday evening by The New York Times:

It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol.

The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana. [The New York Times]

The paper calls for the question of marijuana policy, and any appropriate regulations, to be determined at the state level. (For example, the Times endorses limiting the sale of marijuana only to people over 21 years of age.) The paper also says it will publish more articles in the next days by its editorial board members, to explore such issues, and they additionally ask readers to submit their own ideas. Eric Kleefeld