No one familiar with the sport of mountain biking in general, and La Missile in particular, can be surprised at Giove’s arrest. But listen: This is a country that smokes dope. Prohibition does not work any better for marijuana than it did for alcohol. When my right-wingnut friends carp about weed I come back with, OK, let’s be consistent then and ban alcohol. People are dying in the streets from DUI.

Here in NorCal, where I’m biking and visiting, all the talk is of the state facing bankruptcy over a $24 billion budget deficit. Legalizing/taxing dope is one of two primary strategies being discussed to ameliorate the shortcoming (a higher gas tax being the other). Even Gov. Schwarzenegger seems receptive to the idea.

At the pinnacle of her sport, Missy was always edgy, funny, outrageous and pharmaceutically aware. Let her out on condition she help lobby for national marijuana legalization. Now there you’d have a loud ‘n proud spokesperson we could get behind!

And in other drug news: Alejandro Valverde is banned from the Tour de France, starting July 4.