When most people get caught smoking bud (marijuana) they usually follow a set step procedure:

1. They get angry because the cops just took away their weed.
2. They angrier because they realize that they’re going to have to pay a huge fine.
3. And they get even more angry because they can’t understand why smoking responsibly should be illegal.

Then they bite their lip and pay the fines.

After getting busted with possession by an undercover police officer Richard Cusick and R. Keith Stroup followed the first three steps but refused to lay down to the law.  They have now turned to Harvard Law School professor, Charles R Nesson, for guidance. They will make the argument that the outlawing of marijuana has no “rational basis.”

I have to say that I’m on Cusick’s and Stroup’s side. I really don’t see what the big deal is with smoking a little joint (or blunt).  It’s understandable that weed, when smoked improperly (i.e. when driving) can be somewhat dangerous. But what can be said about alcohol? 

Weed can make you lazy and destroy a person’s ambitions, but this effect only last so long as the persons high. The smokes not good for you, but I can’t imagine it’s any worse than what the cigarette smoker endures each day. So what’s wrong with smoking weed?

I’m guessing there’s three reasons why M.J.’s illegal. First, the government didn’t move quickly enough to regulate the growth and sale of it.  Second, there’s no quick equivalent to the breathalyzer for weed; three, those making the laws have never tried it, and if they have they saw something in themselves that they didn’t like.

Whatever the reason, the criminalization of the drug seems unjust… Luckily there are people like Cusick and Stroup fighting for the cause.