New York Times Editors Endorse Legal Marijuana, Complete With Trippy Animated Weed Graphics

The New York Times endorsed an end to the "prohibition" of marijuana with a new editorial Saturday night that features the stars on the American flag being transformed into green marijuana leaves as readers scroll down.

"It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished," the editors wrote. "The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana."

The Times was so excited about its new policy endorsement that the company fired off a press release to trumpet the editorial and an upcoming series of articles by the editorial board that will look at how to create "systems for regulating manufacture, sale, and marketing" the drug.

In a statement, editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal said he wanted readers to have a "personal approach" while engaging the topic of marijuana legalization with his paper.

"[W]ith this series of editorials, we wanted to deepen that engagement with a more personal approach," said Rosenthal. "These signed editorials explore a variety of issues critical to the national conversation about marijuana. We will continue to experiment in the future on different ways to use the power of the unsigned editorial, along with new and different ways to signal the author of other editorial articles."

Not everyone on the Times is on the legalization bandwagon, however. Columnist Maureen Dowd recently wrote about her trip to Colorado, one of two states that have legalized the drug, and had a terrifying experience after eating a marijuana candy bar.

You can check out the full editorial here >