Today Is 420 Day

Today, April 20, that is, 4/20 is now a nationwide celebration. Nationwide. Proof of this assertion is this blog in the Huntsville, Alabama newspaper. Nationwide.

Unfortunately, despite the celebration, the idiotic War on Drugs continues unabated. And it's been forty years since Richard M. Nixon first coined the phrase. I'm not going to recount now the number of lives that have been upset by imprisonment for possession and use of what I consider a substance more benign than alcohol. Suffice it to say that advocates of legalization have failed so far adequately to overhaul the nation's drug policy. That's why today's celebration is beclouded not just by smoke, but by Neanderthal politics as well.

So before striking the first match today, before commencing whatever celebration you may have planned, it would be a really good idea to make a donation to NORML, the National Organization To Reform Marijuana Laws. Remember: this is the internet. Many donations of small amounts of money, amounts so small you won't even feel it, can build the kind of organized program of advocacy that can repeal the antiquated, ineffective, expensive, groundless laws that make possession and use of marijuana illegal.