Pubdate: Mon, 16 Nov 2009
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: B01
Copyright: 2009 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Steve Hendrix, Washington Post Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)

BOOMERS SEE VIEWS RELAXING ON MARIJUANA

Health, Law Enforcement Officials Bemoan Greater Public Tolerance of Drug

Smoking pot isn't what it used to be for Joe Lee, a 62-year-old 
vintage-record dealer in Rockville.

Back in the late 1960s, as an art student in Baltimore, he kept his 
landlord in a constant state of suspicion, with clouds of marijuana 
smoke poorly masked by clouds of incense.

These days, after four decades of regular use, cannabis is a smaller 
deal. Lee takes a few hits every other day or so, when he wants to 
listen to music or laugh with a few friends on the porch. And he's 
happy to talk about it.

"There's gotten to be greater tolerance, that's for sure," said Lee, 
the son of one-time acting Maryland governor Blair Lee III. "I know 
literally hundreds of people my age who smoke. They are upright 
citizens, good parents who are holding down jobs. You take two or 
three puffs, and you're good to go. I'm not a Rastafarian; I don't 
treat this as some holy sacrament. But pot is fun."

A federal survey of Americans' drug use shows that Lee and his 
friends are not the only baby boomers approaching the age of 
retirement much as they departed the Age of Aquarius -- with an 
occasional case of the munchies. The government's most recent survey 
showed that the share of marijuana users ages 50 to 59 increased from 
5.1 percent in 2002 to almost 10 percent in 2007.

Some of those users are empty-nesters, returning to the drug decades 
after their pot habits gave way to raising children and building 
careers. Others, like Lee, have kept using pot all along, researchers said.

"We're concerned by the public health impact of this," said Peter 
Delany, who heads the office in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
Services Administration that conducts the survey. Marijuana could 
present special problems for older users, he said, including unknown 
interactions with prescription drugs. "Doctors need to be more 
sensitive to it," he said. "They may ask older patients about alcohol 
now but not think to ask about illicit drug use."

But some older marijuana users say they are living evidence that 
smoking pot does not preclude a normal life, and more older smokers 
seem more comfortable than at any point since their teen years with 
going public -- a tribute, they say, to a big boost in public 
tolerance of marijuana use.

Mainstreaming Marijuana

In parts of California, licensed medical marijuana dispensaries have 
become as common as In-N-Out Burger stands. At least 13 other states 
allow some form of pot use for medicinal purposes, and the Obama 
administration announced last month that federal prosecutors would no 
longer go after medical users in those states, a policy shift that 
activists hailed as a watershed.

Last week, in a reversal, the American Medical Association called for 
a review of marijuana's status as a Schedule 1 hard drug alongside 
LSD and PCP and for more study of its medicinal potential.

In May, California's Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said 
it was "time for a debate" on the merits of legalizing and taxing the 
drug. Nationally, support for legalization has jumped to its highest 
level in 40 years, up in a Gallup poll from 31 percent in 2000 to 44 
percent last month.

In much of American pop culture, the taboo against smoking pot lies 
largely in ashes -- in ubiquitous references in hip-hop music and in 
TV programs such as Showtime's "Weeds." Even iconic potheads Cheech 
Marin and Tommy Chong are in vogue again, back on the road with their 
22-city "Light Up America" comedy tour.

All of which adds up to what some commentators see as marijuana's 
steady march into the mainstream. Conservative pundit George Will 
recently declared the drug "essentially legalized" in California and 
predicted that the rest of the nation would follow suit.

That shift in atmosphere has encouraged more older users to take 
their pot habits public.

"I don't think more people in their 50s are smoking marijuana. I 
think we are just more comfortable talking about it," said Rick 
Steves, who writes travel guidebooks and hosts a public TV series on 
travel. At 54, the clean-cut guru of mass-market European tourism has 
begun to present himself as the hard-working, successful face of the 
longtime smoker.

"Even my pastor knows I smoke pot," said Steves, who was recently 
named Lutheran activist of the year for his work on international 
poverty relief.

"It's just not that big a deal anymore. It's another recreational 
drug, like alcohol."

For Steves, the starkest sign of pot's growing acceptance is the 
annual Hempfest, which draws tens of thousands of marijuana 
enthusiasts each summer to a park in his home town of Seattle. But he 
said he has detected a change in more straitlaced cities, including 
the District, which he visited last week to see his daughter at 
Georgetown University.

"When I stepped out of my daughter's apartment, a couple of guys were 
passing a bong on the front stoop," Steves said. "They weren't 
self-conscious at all."

Although young users generally go to some lengths to keep their pot 
use under wraps, those of a certain age -- especially those not in 
danger of being kicked out of school or subjected to workplace drug 
tests -- seem more likely to talk about their usage.

"It seems the stereotype of the marijuana user as a goofy teenage boy 
has begun to change," said Shelby Sadler, 48, a freelance editor from 
Rockville. She described a wide circle of professional friends in the 
Washington area, many of them women, who use the drug socially. "They 
are less inclined to hide it now. The kids are gone, and they no 
longer have to worry about losing their jobs because they're the ones 
doing the hiring."

Sadler, who was journalist Hunter S. Thompson's longtime editor and 
works on books with historian Douglas Brinkley, said she smokes a few 
times a month, usually with friends. The only difference now, 
compared with when she started at Cornell University, is the clothing.

"Then, it was Crazy Horse crewneck sweaters and oxford shirts," said 
Sadler, who is editing a history of pot by Keith Stroup, founder of 
the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Now I 
dress like Hillary Clinton."

Police, Others Disagree

Drug counselors bemoan the softening views on marijuana, saying that 
it complicates their efforts to steer addicts away from illicit substances.

"It's more of a struggle for us when the parents just see heroin or 
cocaine as the dangerous drugs and sort of turn their heads with 
marijuana," said Carol Porto, who runs an inpatient drug treatment 
center in Calvert County.

Most Washington area police departments enforce the laws that make 
marijuana illegal, officials said. A Montgomery County police 
spokesman would not comment other than to say that the department has 
seen no spike in marijuana use by older residents and is not 
targeting those users.

One older smoker who doesn't mind outing herself is Florence Siegel, 
an 88-year-old artist from New York who has been smoking regularly 
since her early 50s. That's when the family's pediatrician suggested 
they try marijuana together to see "what the kids were so excited 
about." The pediatrician didn't feel a thing. Siegel said she never stopped.

Now her routine is to sit in her favorite chair each evening, listen 
to Bach and take a few hits from one of her many pipes. Marijuana 
boosts her creativity and helps with joint pain that has come with 
aging, she said.

Siegel smokes occasionally with her daughter Loren Siegel, 64, a 
recently retired lawyer. But does her 93-year-old husband ever join her?

"Oh, no," she said. "Well, only very rarely."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake