Palin's Pot Problem

Jacob Sullum from Reason.com has some issues with Sarah Palin admitting her past cannabis use while squaring it with her current stand on the war on drugs:

In other words, Palin got to smoke pot without worrying about legal consequences and now wants to deny that assurance to fellow Alaskans doing exactly the same thing. "Palin doesn't support legalizing marijuana," the Anchorage Daily News reported in 2006, because she worries about "the message it would send to her four kids."

It's Palin's job to teach her children that certain pleasures are reserved for grownups. The government should not continue to arrest adults who are harming no one simply because her children are easily confused.

But let me guess: she's OK with the legal status enjoyed by alcohol and cigarettes, despite the fact that they are responsible for the deaths of 50,000 and 450,000 Americans every year respectively and also despite the message that sends to her kids. About 870,000 people were arrested in this country on marijuana charges last year and the vast majority of those (775,000) were for simple possession.

I've had this argument with conservative friends and family members many times already: just because you don't want your children seeing/listening/smoking/snorting something doesn't mean that I as a responsible adult should be denied those same pleasures; this is the real world, not Disney World. The hypocrisy displayed by these people is amazing. "Keep the government out of my life when it comes to business and profits but let them have free reign to legislate my body and what/who I choose to put in it". And yes I know, Barack Obama has smoked cannabis before and yet still favors war on drugs legislation; it's one of several issues on which he and I disagree.