Kathleen Parker January 18, 2014

Everybody’s doing it — confessing their youthful, pot-smoking ways — so here goes.

I don’t remember.

Kidding, kidding. Anyone over 30 recognizes the old adage: If you remember the ’60s, you weren’t there. Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk.

It is true that marijuana smoking tends to affect one’s short-term memory, but the good news is that, while stoned, one does relatively littleworth remembering. At least that’s my recollection.

So, yes, I toked, too. This doesn’t mean anyone else should, and I haven’tin decades, but our debate might have more value if more of us wereforthcoming.

Would I have written this when my children were young? Probably not. I wasfurious when an Episcopal priest, while speaking to my son’sthen-fifth-grade class about his ’60s experience, shared that he haddropped acid in college. My concern then was the same as parents’ now:If a priest (or a columnist) can drop, smoke, drink and become anaccomplished adult, how do you tell your children that it’s bad forthem?

And then there’s the question all parents dread: “Mom, did you ever . . . ?”

Mom: “Absolutely not.”

The correct answer to all such questions is that any drug, includingalcohol, is bad for children, hence a drinking age, even if many ignoreit. Children’s brains aren’t fully formed, and they are not yet aware of the dangers that accompany impaired judgment. Mind-altering chemicalsare bad for adults, too, if abused. But adults at least can makeinformed choices. Besides, who knows? Maybe I was supposed to become the secretary of state.

Among columnists confessing are the New York Times’ David Brooks, who voiced his objections to legalization, and my Post colleague Ruth Marcus, who noted parental concerns and her own reluctance to endorselegalization. This isn’t hypocrisy, which I embrace in the service ofcivilization, so much as perspectives developed through maturity andexperience.

Though I respect their views and share their concerns, I come down on theother side. My long-standing position is that marijuana should bedecriminalized, if not made legal. Regulate and tax the tar out of it,please, but let’s stop pretending that pot consumers are nefariousdenizens of the underworld. Among those who enjoy a recreational smokeare the folks selling you a house, golfing on the ninth hole andprobably an editor or two here and there.

The “war on drugs” (beware government domestic wars) hasn’t made a dent inthe popularity of pot. Nor, after decades of common use, has it beenproved to be the evil weed of “Reefer Madness.” How much better to havededicated our resources to education and treatment rather than, throughprohibition, to empowering criminals and cartels, not to mention ruining young lives with “criminal” records.

I came to this position not when I was a college student, a time wheninhaling pot was a consequence of breathing the ambient air, but when Iwas the law-abiding, straight-arrow, tough-loving mother of a teenager.Suffice to say, I became aware that marijuana use was common among teens of all hues and stripes.

I couldn’t imagine then or now that children might be labeled criminalsfor behaviors that mostly required parental attention. This should notbe construed to mean I recommend pot use, certainly not by minors, anymore than William F. Buckley did when he concluded that it shouldn’t be illegal.

Marijuana isn’t necessarily harmless — abuse is abuse — but adults should be able to consume it without fear of legal repercussions, just as we consumealcohol. Even though today’s weed is much stronger than the stuff weused to smoke, its use is rarely as consequential as alcohol can be.Stoners might become overinvolved in the microscopic ecosystem of treebark, but they’re unlikely to shoot up a bar over a pool game.

Brooks listed several reasons why he and his buddies quit smoking (you smokedduring school, David?!). I quit because it bored me. I’m a caffeinatedsort, happiest on Monday mornings when everyone is back to business andI’m on deadline. Give me coffee or give me death.

Having given up nearly everything that made getting out of bed worthwhile, Iam healthier, happier, more productive — and have discovered that lifeis not, in fact, short. But both my current abstinence and theindulgences I once enjoyed (and may again, if my cocktail-stoop buddieshave any say) were my own. My decisions, my responsibility, myconsequences.

As they should be — for marijuana as well.