Now that marijuana is a legal substance in Colorado, I’ll await along with the rest of the nation — if not the world — to see how this all plays out.

I’m not yet ready to climb aboard fully on the Legalize Pot Bandwagon, but I’m ready to give this notion a chance to see what transpires in at least one of our 50 states.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/01/03/the_perils_of_legalized_marijuana.html

We’re getting some intelligent debate now about pot legalization. Some people argue that it’s going to produce a large influx of young users and that it will inhibit their thinking capacities. Others say that it will generate income for cash-strapped state governments that they can use to combat drug abuse. Some advocates say it’s time we decriminalize an activity that has become as common as cigarette use and alcohol consumption. Others suggest the federal sentencing guidelines are OK, while still others point to the overwhelming racial disparity in our jails and prisons of people incarcerated for drug use.

My sense is that the tide of history is turning toward eventual legalization of this substance.

I’ve spent my life opposing it. I’m not so sure any longer. The older I get the more open-minded I become. I guess that’s a good thing.

Am I going to light up? Never. Not going to happen. As the columnist David Brooks wrote, “Been there, done that.” I’m finished with it.

I think we’ll know the results fairly quickly, perhaps by the end of this year, about the result of marijuana legalization. I’m no longer convinced it’s going to wreck society as we know it.

I might be wrong about that … but I doubt it.