Let me lay the whole story on you because (1) it hasn’t been the well reported and (2) I’m a hip cat who wants to lay it on rather than just write it down. In the lead up to Colorado’s shocking vote to make cannabis legal—Just to get high, if you can believe it!—Tom Tancredo promised that if the proposition passed that he would blow a fat one. This promise was made to Adam Hartle, a documentary film maker who caught the exchange on video.

Well, Colorado passed the law to make cannabis legal—Just to get high, if you can believe it! If this were a normal story, it would end here. Tancredo would back out saying something like, “Well, it’s still against federal law.” But it isn’t and he didn’t. Instead, he announced that he was going forward with his promise. He and Hartle were gonna blow a fat on and let the empty ice cream containers fall where they may.

But it is not to be. On Saturday, Tancredo announced that he will not be subjecting himself to reefer madness. That’s fine. As I indicated, that’s what I originally expected. What bugs me is how he’s backing out. According to him, “My wife is absolutely… She’s pissed.” What’s more, his grandchildren are “very upset with grandpa.” Give me a fucking break! So now cannabis use is legal in Colorado—Just to get high, if you can believe it!—but the Tancredo family want the world to know that they think it is the wrong thing to do.

Tancredo has long been on record in support of cannabis legalization. So are we really expected to believe that he can’t explain to his wife and grandkids that the use of this drug is neither physically nor morally dangerous? Tom Tancredo has spent his career doing mostly harm. Here was a chance for him to do real good: to say to the nation that its ideas about drugs are based mostly on government propaganda and bad B-movies. Instead, he is doing the opposite. Can you dig it?