Travel guru Rick Steves told Hill.TV on Wednesday that the federal government should legalize marijuana.
"It's clear it's time for the federal government to recognize that we need to stop the prohibition against marijuana," said Steves, who is a board member at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
"Marijuana is a drug, it needs to be taken seriously and highly regulated," he added. "It can be abused, it needs to be kept out of the reach of children. And the smartest way to do that is to take it out of the black market and regulate it."
Steves said lawmakers are "a little behind the curve" on the issue, as public opinion on cannabis has shifted in recent years. According to a CBS News poll released in April, a record 65 percent of Americans said marijuana should be legalized, more than double the percentage of respondents who held that view almost 20 years ago.
"We've had states incubating change, we can look at the results," Steves told Hill.TV. "This is just going to be a rising tide of sensibility and sooner or later the federal government needs to step in."