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In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never been a Jay Leno fan. He had the toughest act in show business to follow – the legendary Johnny Carson – and I don’t think he was up to the task. But it’s always interesting to me to hear what other people think about CA Proposition 19, especially in California.

There is no doubt that the vote is going to be close. So every little nugget of information, a quote, an endorsement; these are the things that will tip the balance.

A couple months ago Bill Maher was a guest on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, and they got around to discussing the subject of marijuana and legalization.

“I say decriminalize it,” Leno (left) added about marijuana. “I don’t want to be inducing young people who really don’t want to smoke to, through trick advertising or peer pressure, to get into it. Anybody who wants to do it is fine with me. I just don’t want it to become a Madison Ave. product.”

As the writer of the blog post pointed out, this is a very “middle-of-the-road” attitude. It is also a very practical one, and one that is addressed by Prop 19. Only those 21 years of age and older will be able to posses and grow marijuana; that’s a far cry from our current system of whoever can give a drug dealer money can get cannabis.

As I’ve said before, we can’t get so caught up in our idealism that we let practical matters go by. Do I think there is any danger in an 18-year old buying and using marijuana? Not in the least. But there are plenty of older people in California like Jay Leno who see a big difference in those three years. And ballot measures are all about the numbers; every last vote is needed, because you never know how close things will be.

- Joe Klare