Cause, meet Effect (Volume, I dunno, a million?)

There’s something charmingly naive about the way in which the Leftiers amongst us are constantly surprised by the way in which Effect resolutely follows on Cause. This time, the unexpected (for them) surprise is that, if you legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, more people will grow more of it:

There is probably no marijuana-friendlier place in the country than here in Mendocino County, where plants can grow more than 15 feet high, medical marijuana clubs adopt stretches of highway, and the sticky, sweet aroma of cannabis fills this city’s streets during the autumn harvest.

Lately, however, residents of Mendocino County, like those in other parts of California, are wondering if the state’s embrace of marijuana for medicinal purposes has gone too far.

Medical marijuana was legalized under state law by California voters in 1996, and since then 11 other states have followed, even though federal law still bans the sale of any marijuana. But some frustrated residents and law enforcement officials say the California law has increasingly and unintentionally provided legal cover for large-scale marijuana growers — and the problems such big-money operations can attract.

As for me, I’m libertarian enough to feel that, if alcohol is legal, marijuana should be too, subject to the same legal standards: don’t smoke and drink, committing a crime while stoned is no defense, and you’re really boring when you’re stoned. Okay, the last isn’t a legal standard, but it should be.

I bring this story to your attention, not to debate marijuana legalization, but simply to point out the way in which Progressives, like babies who are perpetually surprised by peek-a-boo, are repeatedly wigged out by the obvious consequences of their actions.

(Thinking about this post, maybe I should have given it a title that’s an homage to Gomer Pyle, a show I regret to say I watched avidly as a child: “Sur-prahz, sur-prahz, sur-prahz.”)