Dodd Would Decriminalize Pot

Bill Maher handed Chris Dodd a smoking fatty during the HuffPost/Yahoo!/Slate Candidate Mashup, asking a surprise question about legalizing marijuana. To his credit, Dodd didn't pass. He puffed.

"We're cluttering up our prisons, frankly, when we draw distinctions" between booze and pot, Dodd said. "So I would decriminalize, or certainly advocate as president, the decriminalization of statutes that would incarcerate or severely penalize people for using marijuana."

Also harshing Dodd's mellow: racially-biased laws that penalize crack cocaine users more severely than powder cocaine snorters.

But keep the towel shoved under your dorm door -- Dodd doesn't want full pot legalization. "I want to be careful, and I know there are a lot of people across the political spectrum who would just totally legalize it," he said. "I don't go that far."