I don't normally blog about my own TV appearances, but Thursday night on CNBC, debating medical marijuana with former prosecutor and Drug Watch International board member Terrence Farley, I found myself almost feeling sorry for him. Not because I'm such a hotshot debater -- watching the encounter later, I could easily spot a dozen things I could have done better -- but because I suddenly saw what it was like to be on the losing end of history.

Now I think I know what it must have been like to be, say, the last premier of East Germany, standing guard over the fading embers of an empire in irreversible decline. It's a little sad. Like them, the Terrence Farleys of this world no longer have a real case to make or a reason to justify their existence. They just cling to what they do because, well, it's what they do and they don't know anything else.

Still, those last rulers of East Germany hurt -- and sometimes killed -- an awful lot of people whose only crime was to seek freedom. The Terrence Farleys of the world hurt a lot of people too, so I won't shed too many tears when they end up on the ash heap of history next to those who ruled the last remnants of the old Soviet empire.

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There are a lot of colorful characters who, for fun and profit, devote their lives to prolonging the war on marijuana users, no matter how much damage it causes to society or how little it does to stem drug trade violence.

Many of these drug warriors are clearly unhinged, their views informed more by blind zealotry than by sober policy analysis. That's why I hesitate to post this video of longtime anti-drug culture warrior Joyce Nalepka attempting to disrupt a recent MPP-sponsored press conference regarding faulty drug tests administered by law enforcement. After all, there are shaky folks on all sides of the marijuana policy debate, and I don't think it's right to single out the clowns on such a serious matter.

However, as Nalepka herself points out in this exchange with MPP's Rob Kampia, she has drug policy experience – if not expertise – and the larger, federal drug war establishment hasn't exactly tried to disassociate itself from her. She's president of Drug Free Kids: America's Challenge and was once president of the National Federation of Parents for Drug Free Youth, which Nancy Reagan chaired during her husband's presidency.

So who am I to protect her if she wants to make a fool of herself? Here she is, squaring off against Rob, in all her indignant, delusional glory ... 

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Two weeks and eight arrests after a photo of Michael Phelps smoking from a bong made headlines, Richland County, S.C., Sheriff Leon Lott has called off the criminal investigation of the Olympic champion.

Unlike Phelps, who has expressed regret for the entire incident, Lott was unrepentant about wasting the county's time and resources on a case that at most would have led to charges of possession of a pinch of marijuana. He also didn't apologize for the armed raids and arrests of eight college kids whom he hoped he might pressure into verifying whether the contents of Phelps' bong might have been marijuana.

He did say he hoped Phelps had learned something from all this. I suppose it's too much to hope that Lott might actually learn something here too.

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Last night I had the opportunity to debate medical marijuana policy with the White House drug czar's chief counsel, Ed Jurith. Scott Morgan of StopTheDrugWar.org did a great job covering the event.

Nobody expected a drug czar official to get up on stage, slap his forehead and say, "Oh, you're right, arresting patients for using a safe, effective drug recommended by their doctors is shameful and immoral." Still, I thought there were signs in the debate that there could be some common ground somewhere. Or at least the possibility of civil discussion.

Mr. Jurith – who served as acting drug czar before John Walters' appointment – is certainly a drug warrior, but he's also a career bureaucrat, not a political appointee like his boss.

Considering that Walters will soon be gone (wait for applause), I thought it was appropriate for a senior career government guy like Jurith to represent his office's position. I also couldn't help but notice how different it was interacting with him over marijuana policy rather than his boss.

Unlike the drug czar, Jurith didn't lie, bully, or accuse me of secretly trying to get children hooked on marijuana. His arguments at least had some basis in legal fact, although I believe they were far too narrow to justify denying seriously ill patients access to safe, effective medicine, let alone arresting them for it. But he was civil and thoughtful. I liked him.

Like Walters, Jurith is wrong on marijuana policy. But Walters is a zealot, and he's never shown much respect for the public he was supposed to serve.

But political guys like Walters come and go, and so do their personal crusades. I'd like to think that as our marijuana laws improve – and they are, right now – professional public servants like Jurith will know how to embrace and execute the people's will in good faith.

(By the way, I'd like to thank Ken Falcon, Georgetown Law School's Students for Sensible Drug Policy president, for the fantastic job he did setting this debate up.)

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Folks, it's official: Opposition to safe, legal access to medical marijuana for seriously ill patients has dwindled to the point where only the most obnoxious blowhards like Bill O'Reilly even bother stoking it.

Here he is spouting off on the latest lie from the White House drug czar's office that medical marijuana dispensaries outnumber Starbucks coffee shops in San Francisco. My colleague Aaron Smith has already exposed this nonsense as a complete fabrication, and it's already been reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, but apparently even imaginary dispensaries are enough to scare the crap out of guys like O'Reilly.

Funny, but O'Reilly and his staff didn't bother to talk to anyone who might have set the record straight. Wouldn't want to let the truth get in the way of a good story, after all.

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So police discover a package of marijuana apparently shipped to the mayor of a small town in Prince George's County and respond by sending a SWAT team to pounce on the unarmed man as he returns from work, killing his two Labradors for good measure. The police then handcuff him and his mother-in-law next to their pets and interrogate them for hours as blood pools on the floor. And a PG police spokesman says the raid was carried out properly according to their policies.

I'm sure it was. Does anybody else see anything wrong with our policies?

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