Arnold Schwarzenegger has been an epic failure as governor of California, but he’ll have one outstanding thing to point to…something that the country will thank him for for all posterity.
Citing the need to reduce spending on prosecution and courts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure that makes marijuana possession an infraction, on par with traffic and littering tickets.
The Republican governor’s unexpected support for the measure comes one month before voters decide whether to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana in California.
No one is in a better position to make such decisions than outgoing Republican governors. The criminalization of pot-smoking is one of the stupidest policies known to man. It’s not that pot-smoking is a good idea. It makes you stupid and lazy. But making it a crime? Expending resources to punish it? That’s ridiculous. Potheads are close to the most harmless beings in existence. If they didn’t have to engage in criminal activity to obtain their weed, they’d be entirely harmless.
So often, as California goes, so goes the nation. Let’s hope that proves true again in this case.
