The D.C. Council passed a decriminalization measure today that would reduce the penalty for possessing an ounce of pot to a $25 civil fine. Unless the various federal police agencies feel like busting people under federal law, or Congress uses its colonial-rule powers to throw the whole thing out.

Here's a crazy idea: A Michigan man convicted of having a large quantity of pot—a plant that everyone smokes to get a little high now and again—was recently given probation by a judge who thought it stupid to send a guy to jail for years just because he got busted growing weed. Wow. Can America survive this kind of insanely rational justice?