I smoke pot.

There, I said it.  It wasn’t hard.  It didn’t hurt.

Now, I don’t smoke pot like some people I know smoke pot.  I smoke it once in a while, usually socially.  I enjoy it.  I enjoy partaking with friends.  I likely don’t need to state for everyone here the health facts about marijuana use: it’s safer than cigarettes, and the negative effects are vastly less than those of alcohol.  Alcohol and cigarettes contribute vastly more to bad health and other societal problems than does marijuana use.  I’m sure you already knew all of that, though. I’ve never assaulted anyone while high.  I’ve never robbed a bank, nor knocked off a liquor store because I got stoned.  Marijuana has not turned me into a perpetrator of crimes which infringe upon the rights of others.  It does help me relax, it does help me laugh, and the fact is that neither relaxing nor laughter are conducive to going out and infringing on the rights of others.

Let me get to the point, though.  When things become normalized out in the open, acceptance goes up.  It’s worked for achieving less discrimination for queer individuals.  It’s worked for a variety of other communities, causes, and activities, as well.  Once homosexuals started coming out, publicly, it became a whole lot more accepted very quickly.  There’s still room for improvement of course, but I digress.  This is about pot.  I’ve gone to all this trouble to announce that I smoke pot simply because I think it’s important to make it a normal, accepted part of American culture.  Once that happens, legalization will be a vastly easier task.

So I invite you all – regardless of how much or how often you smoke – join me in coming out of the closet.  Tell your family.  Tell your friends.  Post it in a comment here.  Whatever you do, lets make it so ordinary that people in this country smoke pot, that no one even thinks twice when they hear it.