IT'S HERE TO STAY. LEGALIZE IT.

A new Gallup Poll says that 50 percent of the American people believe
that possession of marijuana should be decriminalized. This number has
been rising pretty steadily as the demon drug has made its way into
suburban living rooms all across the nation.

You have to wonder, with that kind of support, where the politicians
are. There are certainly lefty politicians who pay lip service to the
idea, but it's not as if they're sponsoring bills or anything.
Meanwhile, thousands of lives are being ruined every day by draconian
drug laws.

Libertarians are for it too, but only if you ask them nicely,
preferably in a dark corner. And the so-called mainstream politicians
just won't touch the issue, even though the arguments are so
overwhelming in its favor. I will not bore you with those arguments -
I've been doing that for a quarter of a century - but I am a little
stunned that this orphan issue, apparently supported by at least 100
million people, can get so little traction.

Perhaps they are afraid that people will think that they personally
have had a pleasurable experience with the vile weed. And yet you
don't need that; just listen to people who really know what they're
talking about. Similarly, you don't have to be gay to support gay
rights. It's just the right thing to do.

There are, of course, big-government conservatives - not that they
would refer to themselves that way - who believe that personal habits
should be a matter of concern to the federal machinery. They're
against contraception and abortion and gay rights and, indeed,
apparently anything that has to do with the wanton commission of sex
outside strict biblical delineations.

But they are a minority. Most conservatives, most people in this
country in general, drink alcohol to experience the mild euphoria it
brings. Now, of course, there are problems with alcohol abuse - binge
drinking, drunken driving, unwise videos - but it's legal. Marijuana,
which is far less dangerous than booze in every way, also produces a
mild euphoria - and you can go to jail for owning a little.

Wait, I'm making the arguments for legalization again.
Sorry.

The president certainly isn't going to get involved in this. I'm sure
he's been told that it isn't a winning issue, but it's more than that
- - there are just certain causes where his heart apparently is at war
with his common sense. You can see that in his, ahem, evolving
position on gay rights. He saw (I'm projecting here) where his
principles should take him, but he really had a tough time handling
it.

His Justice Department has stepped up raids on medical marijuana
dispensaries.

Whitehouse.gov, the president's official website, has been offering
people a chance to petition the government for redress of grievances.
When the issue of marijuana comes up, though, the rules change, more
signatures are needed to make that petition viable and suddenly it's a
nonissue. And no one in the press corps will ask the president any
questions, lest the general suspicion be confirmed that we're all a
bunch of potheads anyway.

And meanwhile there are people in prisons, real prisons, for
possession of marijuana. In prison, of course, they will learn real
criminal skills. Thank God government support for higher education
still exists in some sectors.