Meet the Press convened a panel this morning to consider the New York Times’ notable editorial calling for the national legalization of marijuana. For reasons far passing understanding, MTP did not invite to that panel a single expert on the subject at hand. Instead the show gathered a gaggle of columnists whose previous ignorance about the subject has been well documented. All this thing needed was Maureen Dowd fear-and-loathering her recent Denver adventure to be perfect.



Anyhoo, these are the people who influence drug policy in this country, and here are the seven most ridiculous things that came out of their mouths:

7. “David Brooks.” — David Gregory 6. “I don’t know what they’ve been smoking up there.” — David Brooks, referring to the Times editorial board. 5. “I think it’s important to have the debate but I wonder, what’s the rush? Pardon the pun!” — Judy Woodruff 4. “I don’t think we can say ‘Adult fine, [but not] if you’re 18.’ That’s not going to work.” — David Brooks 3. “I don’t have a huge problem with letting states experiment, but I think for states to decide to go the full legalization route is a problem precisely for my ‘mommy reason.’ You can you say it’s okay for adults, but everybody knows who has teenagers like me, the fact that alcohol is legal increases their access to alcohol. Making marijuana readily legally available — my kids are at home laughing at me.” — Ruth Marcus 2. “The country is getting more libertarian on a lot of these issues. It’s ‘everyone should do what they want.’ But we’re part of a community, we’re part of a culture, we’re affected by each others’ views, each others’ values. To me, there’s some role of government in playing some role in restraining some individual choice, just to create a culture of health for teenagers.” — David Brooks 1. “When I think of grass I think of something to walk on, pot as something to put a plant in.” — Judy Woodruff [Pro-tip: this is a great person to invite to a marijuana legalization debate.]

Never mentioned, not once: the extraordinary harm the War on (Some Classes of People Who Use Some) Drugs has done via mass incarceration alone, one of the major points of the Times editorial. But hey, they had a lot of yuks, those columnists did.

Watch the clip below, via NBC News:

[Image via screengrab]

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