Pubdate: Thu, 18 Apr 2002
Source: The Dominion Post (WV)
Copyright: 2002 The Dominion Post
Contact:  http://www.dominionpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1426
Author: Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

IT'S HIGH TIME WE OPENED UP THE POT-LAW DEBATE

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

It was not his idea. He was involuntarily drawn into it by a $500,000 
print, broadcast and bus ad campaign by the National Organization for 
the Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation.

As part of NORML's campaign against the city's policy of arresting 
and jailing public pot smokers, the ads feature a blown-up photo of 
Bloomberg next to a quote he gave last summer as a mayoral candidate.

A New York magazine writer asked whether Bloomberg 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. Some others, like 
President Bush, have simply refused to answer questions about such 
possible youthful indiscretions.

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 says he's not going to sue over the use of his likeness. (''Number 
one, I don't know that it would help,'' he says. ''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.

Yes, a lot of seemingly knowledgeable folks will tell you, ''Oh, 
nobody gets busted for pot anymore.'' But quite a few people do.

Nationwide, the number of arrests and incarcerations has climbed from 
the hippie 1960s right through the eras of President Ronald Reagan 
who advised ''Just Say No'' and President Bill Clinton who ''didn't 
inhale.''

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 climbed to a record 734,498, of which 88 percent 
were for simple possession, not sale or manufacture.

More than 59,000 inmates are in federal, state or local prison for 
marijuana offenses, including more than 15,000 for possession, not 
trafficking, according to Marijuana Policy Project estimates based on 
Bureau of Justice 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, if involuntarily, 
how our national hypocrisy over marijuana works. The same lawmakers 
who treat their own pot smoking lightly often turn amazingly 
self-righteous about enforcing pot laws on everyone else.

Even more sinister is the unequal way the laws are enforced. When the 
children of the big shots have a drug problem, there's a good chance 
that they will be sent to a clinic where their problem can be 
properly treated as the health problem that it is. When the children 
of the less fortunate have a drug problem, there's a better chance 
that they will be sent to jail.

I'm not ready to join NORML in calling for elimination of laws 
regarding public marijuana smoking. There are many places where it 
simply does not belong any more than public drinking or public 
smoking of tobacco does. 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 are.

Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and 
Washington have enacted laws legalizing possession of marijuana for 
medicinal purposes. But the Clinton and Bush administrations have 
overruled them. Voters in the District of Columbia overwhelmingly 
passed a similar local measure, which was overruled by Congress, 
where the District's ''delegate'' does not have a floor vote.

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.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh