Thursday, January 27, 2005

Taking the High Road: The Justice Department is not going to fight to uphold a law that would have outlawed pro-marijuana advertisements in the Washington, DC, public-transportation system.

After a group calling for the legalization of marijuana ran ads at bus and subway stops in the nation's capital, Congress threatened to cut off $3.1-billion in federal funding to transit authorities across the nation if anyone ran such ads again. A U.S. District Court ruled that what Congress had done was unconstitutional, citing free speech.

In a moment of sanity, apparently, the Justice Department realized that the District Judge made the right ruling and that the ads don't break any laws. Although it's a small victory, this may help encourage actual productive dialogue about marijuana instead of the ill-informed scare tactics often employed by those who don't seem to know anything about the subject.