Pubdate: Sat, 12 Oct 2002
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)
Copyright: 2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Contact:  http://www.seattle-pi.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/408
Author: Chris McGann, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter

DRUG CZAR DELIVERS ANTI-POT SPEECH

He Says Marijuana Advocates 'Living In A World Of Falsehoods'

U.S. drug czar John Walters practically walked into the lion's den 
yesterday as he warned of the perils of marijuana in the Seattle area.

Washington already has a voter-approved state statute that allows medicinal 
use of marijuana for a short list of chronic diseases. Seattle is just a 
three-hour drive from the Canadian province that not only has extremely lax 
enforcement for crimes involving marijuana but also produces tons of the 
most potent varieties in the world.

And a proposal before Seattle voters next year known as Initiative 75 would 
make the investigation, arrest and prosecution of adults for marijuana 
possession Seattle's lowest law enforcement priority.

But Walters drummed a steady beat in an appearance in Bellevue before a 
sympathetic audience against going easy on pot. It is not benign, he said.

"For those people who are being told that marijuana is a soft drug -- they 
are living in a world of falsehoods," said Walters, who oversees the Bush 
administration's $19 billion anti-drug programs as director of the White 
House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

However, the sponsor of Initiative 75, Dominic Holden, said there is no 
reason to panic about marijuana. Legalizing the drug, he said, would prove 
more effective at protecting children than continuing to outlaw it.

Walters spoke in Bellevue yesterday to a group for whom the pain of 
addiction needed no explanation -- about 400 recovering drug addicts and 
alcoholics in town for a national convention.

"We're tired of picking up the pieces of people whose lives should never 
have been shattered in the first place," Walters said.

He said he didn't come to the Northwest because of Initiative 75 but 
because he had promised to speak at the convention months ago.

However, he said he felt that it and other marijuana initiatives in Arizona 
and Nevada, which he's visited on his trip West, undermine the 
administration's efforts to identify and reduce the threat posed by drugs 
to the American people, especially children.

Holden, chairman of the board for Sensible Seattle Coalition, which is 
sponsoring I-75, said Walters' visit is part of a well-funded national 
campaign and in line with the drug war.

He said that "continuing to give distorted facts about marijuana and making 
large arrests don't address the problems associated with drug abuse."

"One of the battle cries for this anti-marijuana campaign is 'what about 
the children,' " Holden said. But he and others in the national movement to 
decriminalize marijuana say that a much more effective way to keep the drug 
away from children would be to regulate it much like alcohol.

"And it would generate enormous local tax revenue," he said.

Holden said Walters won't have much effect on Seattleites, who turn out 
100,000 at a time for Seattle's annual celebration of marijuana, "Hempfest."

"Adults that smoke marijuana are not criminals, and it's a waste of time 
and law-enforcement resources," he said.

Walters maintained that marijuana is the single biggest source of addiction 
this country faces. Of 6 million people who could benefit from treatment, 
62 percent are dependent on marijuana, Walters said.

He also takes issue with the contention circulated widely among those who 
advocate legalizing marijuana, that jails are overflowing with low-level, 
non-violent offenders who use marijuana.

That is a lie, he said. Most of those in jail for possession of marijuana 
plead down to avoid stiffer sentences for harsher crimes, he said.

"We can't face the drug problem without dealing with marijuana," Walters 
said. "Americans must begin to confront drug use -- and therefore drug 
users -- honestly and directly."

"There's no question of the flow of high-potency marijuana from B.C. is a 
threat. We are working with authorities up there," he said. " I've asked 
them to consider learning the lesson we've paid such a high price to learn 
. . . More drug use is bad for every family, every city, every country."