A couple days ago, it was April 20th. 4/20. The unofficial holiday celebrating marijuana and the push to decriminalize it in the United States. Naturally, Youtube is overflowing with green, sticky buds of videos about pot. Actually, it's probably the best place to get an accurate picture of the marijuana debate in America. Youtube is full of videos featuring slow-talking numbskulls who have so fetishized their pipes and bongs that the line between sex and drug use has blurred beyond recognition. It's also full of local news stories and other, more traditional slices of media that depict an ignorant, panicky and thoroughly reactionary base of people who vacillate between merely not understanding pot to fearing it like some sort of black magic in the woods of 1600's Massachusetts. The weed debate in America is getting better with each generation and we currently have one of the most decriminalization-friendly presidents in history, but it's still a maddeningly stupid discussion.

Personally, I'm all for the decriminalization and, hell, even legalization of cannabis, but not because I smoke the stuff. Truth be told, I personally find pot repulsive. It smells like an old gym sneaker dipped in raw sewage and lit on fire, and it turns people into irresponsible idiots. Granted, my preferred intoxicating substance, alcohol, is Instant Caveman Juice for at least a quarter of the population, but at least it has a culture of responsibility and class behind it.

No, I want pot legalized so pot culture will finally go away. See, when something is made illegal, it's more likely that irresponsible people will pursue it. I'm not saying that all people who smoke pot are childish idiots, just that the loudest portion of them are. Mature, responsible people who smoke pot in America don't hang blacklight posters on their walls, get bongs shaped like Homer Simpson and talk like stereotypical surfers from the 80's. Respectable pot-smokers keep their habit private in order to shield themselves from legal repercussions and they don't let one recreational substance define who they are as people.

The same thing happened to alcohol when it was prohibited in America. It became the preferred substance of stupid, destructive people because obtaining it meant doing risky things like associating with criminals and carrying large amounts of cash in dangerous neighborhoods with which to buy their black market goods.

If pot gets the green light (no pun intended) from our government some time in the near future, I may live to see a generation of grown-up users. Sure, there will always be the idiot college kids who live on a steady diet of skunk weed, reggae and video games, but there will also be delightfully pretentious pot bars run by former computer programmers who insist that you really must try the latest vintage from Jamaica (the annual rainfall provides a nice freshness to the flavor, after all). The panicky squares and the insufferable bro-culture will fade into obscurity, as will increasingly ridiculous holidays like 4/20.