You can use facts to prove anything! Facts, schmacts.

So, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not terribly sharp this morning, and I'm not going to risk going off on a rambling diatribe about why marijuana should be legal (for the record, I don't necessarily think it should be, but SOME political discussion toward that end would be helpful, I think).

Here's a case in point. Of course, the stats here are cliched stats (like the one person arrested every 38 seconds thing; I'm not even sure what that means), but as usual, they bring up thought-provoking issues regarding our justice system and the time it spends on generally non-violent crimes.

The point, however, that I'd like to harp on here is the fact mentioned in the article of how young people are reporting repeatedly that it is easier to access marijuana than tobacco or alcohol before they reach the appropriate age for those respective substances (this is notwithstanding the argument that marijuana is less harmful than cigarettes, and that someone who cannot handle his or her high will likely be much less destructive than someone who cannot handle his or her drink). It is much easier for kids to get illegal drugs than legal ones, and that raises another important question: if the war on drugs is about keeping kids off drugs — at least one of its goals — why hasn't it made any efforts to actually keep kids off drugs? Clearly nothing has worked yet.