Testing one, two three. This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, March 9, 2012. I'm

Caleb Brown. Pat Robertson has had enough. The 81-year-old religious broadcaster says marijuana should be

legal, that the war on drugs hasn't worked, and that we are ruining too many young

people's lives by putting them behind bars for minor possession.

Cato Institute Executive Vice President David Bowes comments.

Pat Robertson said last week on his TV show, The 700 Club, that he doesn't think people should go to jail for smoking

marijuana and he deplores the idea that we're arresting a million people a year

for that. Got a lot of attention, got a New York Times article, an AP story about it.

One of the interesting things is that this was not something that just popped into his

head today and he rattled off and maybe he wishes he hadn't done that.

He said this about a year ago on the 700 Club.

I thought it sounded a little more tentative a year ago and so now obviously he's thought

about it and he he says, we have too many laws,

we're arresting too many people, we're putting too many people in prison,

and he doesn't think it's right, even though he himself

doesn't use drugs and barely use alcohol.

He especially notable is that he wrapped up his criticism in ruining young people's lives

and over criminalization, which is not that typical really.

Well, that's right. I think it is interesting that at some level, Pat Robertson is a man of

compassion, and he does see that we are ruining many young people's lives and

I'm not sure if he made this point but of course we know that mostly we're

ruining the lives of a lot of young people who don't have many advantages in life already.

...