This is an entertaining exchange, with the character of the author's mother taking center stage. Unfortunately, this is also indicative of the knee-jerk response most people have towards marijuana. And, unlike say gay marriage, it has a religious and secular underpinning.

The history of drug prohibition, and specifically marijuana prohibition, in America is shot through with fear mongering and a good deal of racism. You can thank one Harry Ainslinger for much of the trouble we have now trying to hold a rational discussion about drugs. He was a walking crusade who was to drug enforcement what J. Edgar Hoover was to the FBI.

Today, there is almost no fact behind any politician's statements on drugs or drug use. There is also a dangerous conflation of all "drugs" under one dark umbrella that simultaneously demonzies things like pot while diverting attention away from truly nasty substances like meth that do exponentially more damage.

Still, I like to think that the first hand experience of the millions of Americans who have smoked marijuana will create, if not an irresistable force, than at least an immovable object that will eventually sap the energy out of the right's baseless ranting.

Maybe I need to smoke more weeds. Or herbs.

don't you have a long dissertation to write in response? Where are you? It's been at least half an hour that this article's been online.

I mean if Gandhi beat his wife, would that change anything? After all Hitler was a vegetarian and rabidly for animal rights.... Who really gives a shit what blunt would Jesus smoke

Is all of Salon baked?

First it's a piece of the wonders of porn. Then Courtney Love buying more publicity. Now another lame defense of people who can't handle reality and need an excuse for their addictions.

What a fucking waste of bandwidth Salon has become.

Or don't. Whatever. Ignorance is bliss, and puritanism gives one a comforting sense that the world really can be perfectly controlled.

That's why most well-adjusted folks simply mock people like Pothead Patty and her ever-vigilant quest to justify her marijuana use as a panacea for the world's ills in general and the sorry state of her life in particular.

Those of us who don't need to smoke, drink, snort, or shoot up (or pretend there's a magical being in the sky) to simply handle the ups and downs of reality are getting bored quickly with the antics of those of you who do.

You already have a life, just get back to it.

The government hates pot smokers for our freedoms.

It's true.

I wouldn't think "most well-adjusted people" needed to mock anyone.

No need, it's just fun. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Dopeheads are just easy targets because they move so slowly. Crackheads are much harder to get a bead on, but they eventually fall over of their own accord.

The writers of the self-righteous "I don't need to smoke like you do"-style comments should stop and consider the fact that this is completely besides the point. Even if it were the case that my bi-monthly desire to smoke some pot (a hobby shared by a long history of effective and brilliant people, from the Thomas Jefferson to the Beatles to Carl Sagan) makes me inferior in some way, this is no justification for its being illegal. I'd like to think that in this country, we make something illegal because we have a damn good reason to, not because we're not personally interested in partaking - such is the nature of "freedom".

Couch your addiction any way you wish, drape it in the most high-falutin' terms you can think of, drop all the names you want (while desperately hoping to imply these talented people would be talentless without their weed), and then wrap yourself in "freedom."

Your shit still stinks. You're still just making excuses.

Hurrah for Debra for offering us that piece. Made me laugh so much. Quintessential Salon.

Yep, and I love the Courtney Love piece too! And, Heather Havrilesky, please come back to us quickly!

What's gone wrong with letter writers lately anyway? What a sad, bitter, self-centered and stupid bunch. Get a sense of humour, guys.

Come on, given the editorial content (keep up the good work!), Salon must have a majority of intelligent readers with a sense of humour. Speak up!

It hardly requires an affection for marijuana to recognize the counterproductivity and waste of valuable resources reflected in the drug war, and of the 750,000+ annual mariujuana-related arrests (most of which are for simple possession) in particular. It simply requires paying attention.

We're talking about a substance which is less addictive and far less toxic than nicotine and alcohol, and less intoxicating than the latter. And it's not as though Salon has been harping on the issue. But when one's country has become the world's number-one per capita incarcerator -- almost entirely due to a drug war that costs already cash-strapped states far more than it raises -- I would suggest that liberals, moderate and libertarian conservatives, and Christians alike should give fair consideration to the flaws of zero-tolerance marijuana laws and avoid knee-jerk reactions.

As for the religious debate, Ms. Dickerson might want to ask her mother whether she considers the 32 ministers, rabbis, and other members of the Nevada clergy who recently endorsed Question 7 to be suspect in their faith. She might also mention Genesis 1:29-31 ("And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.") and I Timothy 4:1-3 ("Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.")