As a note to your uptight Sunday school teacher "tribute" to George Carlin, a man whose genius you are destined to appreciate from afar --from very, very far--we should mark the passing of yet another clown. No, not Jesse Harmon, who merely played Bozo the Clown, but the real Bozo, Jesse Helms, race-baiting bigot, and like Bonzo before him, an icon of the Christian falangists. Yes, Jesse Helms, who, to the glory of God, died on my birthday. I can hardly imagine a more satisfying gift. Let's all pause to commemorate the moment when America became a better place through the loss of this senile "son of the South," professional hate-monger and fundamentalist know-nothing.

To comment on your George Carlin article: nothing was sacrosanct to the man.He taught me to laugh at topics and words I'd been taught to fear. He taught uptight people, full of fears, to laugh at themselves and their fear. I understand George was atheist, I'm not. His message is that we define ourselves by our beliefs and a lot of our beliefs are based on our fear and the fears of our parents and our society. That nothing has any power over us except the power we give it. The Bible teaches true love casts out all fear. George loved to talk about "taboo" stuff and yes, he did drugs. He was a human...being. There are all these sacred cows in our civilization, such as words you can't say. Subjects we "don't" talk about. George didn't believe in people's sacred cows he saw them for the hypocrisy they are and did not fear to name them. As for the Seven words. How can you berate a man for speaking the truth? Words are just words, not to be feared, with no power except what we give them. They're just words to be used, for evil or for good is in the mind and heart of man.
To comment on your marijuana chic article: I, too, shudder when I see the drug lifestyle promoted as chic and child stars in these breakout roles. But worse than the people who present and star in these types of "entertainment" are the parents and caregivers who allow their children to watch it. The entertainment industry, they're just trying to make a buck. But, the adults who allow their kids to watch it...what's their excuse?
Regarding marijuana, how do you know what they're smoking is pure, untreated leaf? In its pure state, used properly, it's medicinal and beneficial (if it wasn't, it would not have survived through the ages) but with the war on drugs spraying marijuana plants with toxins, and the dealers adding a little of this and that, well, these days, it's not safe unless it's pharmaceutical.

"...a teenager who has been depressed in the past year was more than twice as likely to have used marijuana than teenagers who have not reported being depressed (25 percent compared with 12 percent). The study said marijuana use increased the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent. So much for the "harmless" nature of pot." The conclusion there gets ahead of the data. Were people who used cannabis more likely to DEVELOP depression from that use (as the story implies, but does not prove), or were people who WERE depressed more likely to have tried some cannabis self-medication? The latter seems likely on its face, so the former is certainly not established by the so-called "study's" spin on the data.

The criminalization of marijuana in the 1930s had nothing to do with public health or safety concerns, and everything to do with economic and political interests.
________
The migrant labor that was in demand during the 1920s was unwelcome after the Depression got started. States in the American southwest were pushing Washington to enact anti-marijuana legislation so as to get legal means to crack down on Mexican migrants. In 1937, the Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act which was used in the southwest against Mexicans, jailing and deporting them on drug charges.
________
Furthermore, commercial hemp farming was in direct competition with the oil industry (lubricants) and the timber industry (paper manufacturing). With the outlawing of marijuana, it became necessary (conveniently, for the oil and lumber industries) to ban the growing of industrial hemp as well, since the two plants can't be distinguished from one another on sight.
________
Cannabis has been used for medicinal, spiritual and recreational purposes for at least 6000 years. It was known before wine and beer were invented. Moderate cannabis use is far less harmful to the individual and to society than the use of the legal drugs alcohol and tobacco. Marijuana prohibition serves no purpose other than to fill jails and prisons with honest, decent, law-abiding citizens who just happen to have a different taste in intoxicants.
________
In fact, ALL drugs should be legal, as long as their use is restricted to adults. You've got to know what reality is before you start screwing with it.