“Never trust anyone over 30” is a phrase we’ve all heard. It began when the counterculture and free love revolution first started over 30 years ago. It’s the idea that anyone over 30 years old can’t be trusted to get down and party because they’ve settled down and their party days are over.

This principle was one of the arguments given by Bob Stutman, a retired DEA official, during Tuesday evening’s debate between him and Steve Hager from High Times, on whether pot should be legalized. Stutman argued that most potheads in college would stop smoking after they had started a family. And because most people stop smoking it, the majority of Americans would never support its legalization because they don’t support it when they stop smoking it. He assumed that most college students, on average, have begun families by age 30. Is this truly the case? Perhaps it is.

Perhaps it is, but why? I’m not saying there should be regrets about starting families. After all, love comes from families; they make us feel great and they support us in whatever we do. It’s just that between working times and dropping kids off at day care and basketball practice, parents’ lives become solely devoted to their children.

Not that being devoted to children is a bad thing or anything, but there just really isn’t time to get away and relax. Weekend retreats are a nice place to escape to and so are cruises to Cancun, and road trips to Cleveland are okay too. But do people, including parents, ever think about what else there is to do in the world? True, everyone has different things and hobbies they like to do in their spare time, but after carting the family to church and then to grandma’s for Sunday dinner, and finishing just in time to go home to bed to start the same week over again, is there ever any excitement?

The kids say funny things because they’re so innocent, the spouse is always warm, and the sex is nice, but do parents ever think about how they settled into the doldrums? Do they know there has to be something more? Some people might think the doldrums are comfy and nice, but others, including myself — don’t. Comfortable living is nice, but only if there is still something to be passionate about. Sex is passionate, but that’s not what I’m talking about. The kind of passion I’m talking about is something that is sort of spiritual in nature. It’s impossible to fathom with rationale; it’s something to experience. And if the only thing doldrum parents are passionate about is passing time instead of enjoying it, then they’re in for a surprise. Someday they’ll wake up and see they haven’t done anything except for what they were “supposed” to do.

And the government feels it is “supposed” to protect our children as well as us by keeping marijuana illegal, and allowing tobacco and alcohol to remain. Stutman argued that many people don’t smoke pot just because it’s illegal, and that if it were legal, the rate of pot smokers would skyrocket. Similarly, he argued that the majority of Americans want tobacco and alcohol legal. Yet did he take into consideration that many people will say they don’t mind tobacco and alcohol being legal only because it already is? I’m sure if marijuana were legal, the majority of Americans would agree to keep it that way because of it already being that way.

So do I have a point in this article? My point is that the only way marijuana will ever be legal is if the majority of Americans want it that way. And the only way this will happen is if the current smokers out there don’t stop after 30. After all, your kids are going to have to deal with it sometime, so isn’t it better for parents to let them know what it is, rather than letting them find out about it from a good friend. Instead of hiding them from it, guide them through it so they can choose their own way. If they don’t go on the path you want them to, just hope for the best. And as for the pot smokers, don’t stop the passion, and just keep truckin’.