Time to Weed Out Marijuana Ban: Klein

Rocker advises tax revenue go to education

(NEWSER) - Carlos Santana has a request for President Obama: Legalize pot. The musician says legalization is “really way overdue” and compares the current state of affairs it to Prohibition, the AP reports. His idea for the tax revenue? “Take all that money and invest it in teachers and in education. You will see a transformation in America.” Specifically, Santana wants California to profit enough from legalization to send Arnold Schwarzenegger packing. More»

(NEWSER) - Pro-legalization activists stuffed the ballot box with questions about marijuana when the White House solicited questions for today’s online town-hall meeting, and President Obama went out of his way to address the issue, the Los Angeles Times reports. “I don’t know what this says about the online audience,” he joked, but then got serious: “The answer is no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.” More»

New York Times examines case of border patrol agent

(NEWSER) - Bryan Gonzalez was working as a Border Patrol agent in New Mexico when he made the fatal mistake of musing to a colleague that legalizing marijuana would end Mexico’s violent drug war. He was fired soon afterwards; his termination letter said he held “personal views that were contrary to the core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication and esprit de corps.” He’s not alone either, the New York Times observes. Law enforcement officials nationwide have been fired for questioning drug laws. More»

Our war on marijuana does more harm than good

(NEWSER) - What will happen if we legalize marijuana? Simple: Police will be able to “focus on serious crime instead,” writes George Soros in the Wall Street Journal . The liberal billionaire and philanthropist outlines his reasons for supporting California’s Prop 19 , with the bottom line being that “our marijuana laws are clearly doing more harm than good.” The people benefiting the most from keeping pot illegal, he argues, are “the major criminal organizations in Mexico and elsewhere that earn billions of dollars annually from this illicit trade.” More»

Obama puts up his dukes in feisty speech

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama’s first State of the Union Address naturally has all the pundits talking. Here’s what they’re saying:

• “It was a terrific performance,” writes Joe Klein of Time . “He seemed to be having fun up there,” ad-libbing and needling the “recalcitrant elephants in the room.” There wasn’t a ton of substance, but “the eloquence and sense of purpose was riveting. … He wasn’t cuddly, but who cares?”