Pubdate: Sat, 20 Apr 2002
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2002 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Clarence Page
Note: Page is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist specializing in 
urban issues. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

HIGH TIME TO OPEN UP 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.
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