Pubdate: Wed, 17 Apr 2002
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2002 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Clarence Page
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)

PUFFING POLS BUSTED FOR HYPOCRISY

WASHINGTON -- My thanks go out to New York City Mayor Michael 
Bloomberg for clearing away some of the smoke in the marijuana debate.

It was not his idea. He was drafted by a $500,000 print, broadcast 
and bus ad campaign by the National Organization for the Reform of 
Marijuana Laws Foundation (NORML).

As part of NORML's campaign against the city's policy of arresting 
and jailing public pot smokers, the ads feature a photo of Bloomberg 
next to a quote he gave last summer as a mayoral candidate. New York 
magazine asked whether he had ever smoked pot and he responded 
cheerfully, "You bet I did. And I liked it."

NORML's ad praises Bloomberg's candor. "At last, an honest 
politician," it says. With that, Bloomberg joins such other political 
notables as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Newt Gingrich and Bill Bradley who 
have admitted to partaking of the demon weed in their youth.

Bloomberg did not back away from his now-famous pot quote, although 
he told reporters that he wishes he had not answered it in a way that 
has come back to bite him.

He's not going to sue over the use of his likeness, ("Number one, I 
don't know that it would help. And number two, I think my ego 
probably would keep me from doing that.")

But he's not going to change the city's pot policy, either. Some 
52,000 people were arrested and jailed for smoking marijuana in 
public last year, up from 720 in 1992.

A lot of seemingly knowledgeable folks will tell you, "Oh, nobody 
gets busted for pot anymore." Not quite. Nationwide, the numbers of 
arrests and incarcerations have climbed from the hippie 1960s right 
through the Reagan ("Just say no") era and that of Bill ("I didn't 
inhale") Clinton.

In 1970, when the marijuana legalization issue was just taking hold, 
there were 188,903 arrests, according to FBI Uniform Crime Reports. 
In 2000, the number had climbed to a record 734,498, of which 88 
percent were for simple possession, not sale or manufacture. More 
than 59,000 people are in federal, state or local prisons for 
marijuana offenses, including more than 15,000 for possession--not 
trafficking--according to the Marijuana Policy Project, based on 
Bureau of Justice and Statistics reports.

So while late night comedians have a high time at Bloomberg's 
expense, among those who are not laughing so hard are the thousands 
who have been busted for doing what the mayor and numerous other 
prominent oldsters can shrug off as a youthful indiscretion.

That's why I thank Mayor Bloomberg for exposing--albeit 
involuntarily--our national hypocrisy over marijuana. The same 
lawmakers who dismiss their own past pot-smoking often turn amazingly 
self-righteous when it comes to enforcing marijuana laws with regard 
to other people.

I'm not ready to join NORML in calling for elimination of laws 
regarding public marijuana smoking. There are many public places 
where it simply does not belong any more than drinking or tobacco 
smoking. But I am hardly alone among Americans who would like to see 
the debate opened up so that marijuana might be regulated like other 
legal drugs.

Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and 
Washington have legalized possession of marijuana for medical 
purposes. But the Clinton and Bush administrations have overruled 
them. Voters in the District of Columbia overwhelmingly passed a 
similar measure, which was overruled by Congress.

Polls indicate that most Americans (73 percent in a 1999 Gallup Poll) 
favor legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. But Washington's 
political leaders insist that their consciences should be our guides. 
I wonder what they've been smoking.
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