Among the most popular lies told by millions of American adults every day:

"The check is in the mail."

"I'll respect you in the morning."

"Sure, I used to smoke that shit back when I was in college, but I haven't touched it in years."

If the general public only realized how very many of their respectable and otherwise law-abiding neighbors were regular pot smokers, attitudes would change radically, right quick. But since the sacred herb is still illegal, why make waves by outing yourself when it's so easy to fly under the radar? Who needs the aggrevation of being arrested? And more importantly, who'd want to be in a position where you're asked to reveal your sources?

There are entire networks engaging in the cannabis trade without attracting police attention because they don't deal in other drugs and don't brandish firearms. And of course for every such underground merchant, there are dozens of satisfied customers.

Everything works out on a regular basis, as long as everyone follows the "don't ask don't tell" rule. When a business-owner grandfather tells lie #3 (as listed above), who's going to disbelieve him? He's just like the nurse and the lawyer and the schoolteacher who'll tell you the exact same thing; they are all reasonable, well-behaved people who are never visibly intoxicated, who live up to all their responsibiites, and who are generally nice, pleasant neighbors.

And at least half of them are lying their asses off.

Now, before you jump all over me, I will concede that there ARE, of course, large numbers of baby boomers who DID smoke weed in the past and who DID give it up for good, in some cases many years ago. Some of these folks never "got into it" enough to develop a real liking for the stuff, while others indulged to excess and HAD to quit; there are any number of reasons for a significantly large minority of users to become ex-users.

That's why it's so easy for all the rest of us to make the same claim.

When we were young and all of this was new, public displays of civil disobedience were all the rage and defiant public "smoke-ins" may have seemed like a good idea to many of us.

Thing is, disinterested observers could be expected to readily understand the seriousness of sitting in for civil rights or of resisting the military draft, but not so many folks would be likely to respond positively to demonstrations for the right to get high in a different manner ~ a more pleasant and less destructive manner ~ than drunkenness. So, decades later, we continue to go about our business (or rather, our pleasure) without making a public issue of it.

Hell, I'm as guilty as anyone by posting this anonymously. I have enough problems and complications in my life without asking for police trouble, without being pressured to rat out my friend who buys pounds and sells eighths-of-an-ounce. I am certainly not going to among the first to come clean; I just wish others would emerge from this particular closet so we could see an end to this irritating latter-day prohibition.

Will the election and inauguration of a President Obama make a difference on this issue? I'd like to think so, but I'm not holding my breath. Well, not figuratively, anyway.