Recently in the media there has been much debate about the pros and cons of marijuana use, a reaction to the legalization of small amounts of weed in Colorado and Governor Cuomo’s announcement that New York will soon legalize medical marijuana. Perhaps the most widely-discussed is David Brooks’ piece for the New York Times that essentially amounted to “I, a successful white dude, smoked weed for a while but then I got tired of it. Therefore, pot is morally wrong and we shouldn’t legalize it.”

Other more progressive writers have certainly taken down Brooks’ and other conservatives embarrassingly privileged and unfounded arguments, but even so, what no one seems to be getting is this: it’s all well and good for a bunch of white ...