Norm Stamper in The Huffington Post:
The problem for Mr. Obama is that marijuana reform was at or near the top of the list of all questions in three major categories: budget, health care reform, green jobs and energy. Our leader doesn't seem to understand that millions of his interlocutor-constituents are actually quite serious about the issue.
Which is not to say that drugs, particularly pot, doesn't offer up a rich if predictable vein of humor. Cheech and Chong's vintage “Dave's not here!” routine is still a side-splitter. As Larry the Cable Guy would say, “I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.”
But there's nothing comical about tens of millions of Americans being busted, frightened out of their wits, losing their jobs, their student loans, their public housing, their families, their freedom…
And show me the humor in a dying cancer patient who's denied legal access to a drug known to relieve pain and suffering.
More here. And here are Bill Maher, Mos Def, Salman Rushdie, and Christopher Hitchens talking about the same thing: