THIS BUD'S FOR YOU

Backhanded compliments gladly accepted:

I am also a longtime proponent of cannabis legalization ("Burning
Questions," Matt Smith, Feb. 21, on abuses at medical marijuana
clinics). I smoke pot maybe once a week, and I voted for Proposition
215. I'm happy it passed because my friends with "back problems" and
"insomnia" can get good weed very easily and share it with me (a
perfectly healthy individual).

That said, I found myself thoroughly agreeing with you. My problems with
the cannabis folks have always landed squarely on one principle -- they
are focused only on pot. The facts are as cut-and-dried as a 2-foot bud
crown: When you ban something that many people want (and some people
need), they're just going to figure out another way to get it. Bang,
organized crime. I don't blame the Cannabis Buyers Clubs: They're
filling a need, nonviolently, participating in a federal disobedience.
Good for them. The drug war is stupid and evil, and people should defy
it.

The thing is, if I want to, I have the right to slam heroin, snort coke,
and smoke PCP all at the same time. I have a right to indulge in sodomy
and prostitution. I have a right to kill myself. I can do whatever I
want with my own body.

Which is why, Matt Smith, you surprised me -- I did not figure that you,
being the moderate Democrat and free-market booster I've taken you to
be, would advocate the legalization and regulation of drugs, as opposed
to the half-assed compromise decriminalization we have with pot now. I
was pleasantly surprised to see that you were logical about the issue.
No, everyone will not be drug addicts if drugs are legal. Not everyone
wants to spend their whole lives watching Cheech and Chong movies and
battling sexual dysfunction. Plus, unlike drug dealers (Philip Morris,
Starbucks, and Anheuser-Busch included), if the government distributes
the drugs, they are (at least in theory) accountable to us -- the
citizenry. So, Matt Smith, I gotta hand it to you: You've got a little
bit of heart amid the darkness.

Name Withheld
Oakland

As bootlickers go, he is kinda cute:

Don't you just love his public-mindedness, though, in defending the
"progressive" public servant [Marin District Attorney Paula Kamena]? But
let's not forget this "progressive" public servant is wasting valuable
public resources prosecuting marijuana offenses. If she were truly
progressive, she'd Just Say No to drug prosecutions; but, instead she's
Just Doing Her Job.

Matt Smith can't see the obvious contradiction in either her attitude or
his own. But that's all part of what makes him such an adorable little
statist bootlicker. Grovel on, dude!

Name Withheld
San Jose