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Legalizing Pot May Be Women's Work

Today's users don't fit the stoner stereotype: Parker

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 21, 2009 7:00 AM CDT

(Newser) – Good for AG Eric Holder for announcing that the Justice Department will let medical marijuana laws stand, writes Kathleen Parker—at last, the 14 states that give cannabis to the chronically ill won't face further raids by the feds. But it's not enough: 44% of Americans favor full legalization, and these days, writes the Washington Post columnist, it's not hippies or liberals who are leading the charge, but soccer moms who don't want to see their children criminalized by irrational laws.

High Times is about to feature Jessica Corry, a pearls-wearing, pro-life Republican mom fighting to end marijuana prohibition on conservative grounds; smaller government conflicts with laws about what we put in our bodies, and, anyway, "alcohol and cigarettes—not to mention 700-calorie cheeseburgers—are inarguably more harmful than a little reefer," Parker writes. But it seems male conservatives are slow to rally. As with the repeal of prohibition, it may be women who will lead the "next revolution in personal autonomy."

[Images (2)]

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A box is filled with marijuana plants at the San Francisco Medical Cannabis Clinic in San Francisco, Monday, Oct. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

44% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, up from 31% in 2000. (©Wiros)

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The decision not to raid dispensaries or punish medical marijuana use, though commendable, falls short of what's needed. At the very least, when jobs and cash are in short supply, legalizing marijuana would seem both prudent and profitable. -

Distilled to the basics, the drug war has empowered criminals while criminalizing otherwise law-abiding citizens and wasted billions that could have been better spent on education and rehabilitation. - Kathleen Parker

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Legalizing Pot May Be Women's Work