Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jun 2009
Source: Monterey County Herald (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.montereyherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/273
Author: David Crary, Associated Press
Cited: Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org/
Cited: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition http://www.leap.cc/
Cited: NORML http://www.norml.org/
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?161 (Marijuana - Regulation)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Marijuana - Popular)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

MOMENTUM ROLLING TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

Backers See Change At State Level

NEW YORK -- The savage drug war in Mexico. Crumbling state budgets. 
Weariness with current drug policy. The election of a president who 
said, "Yes -- I inhaled."

These developments and others are kindling unprecedented optimism 
among Americans who want to see marijuana legalized.

Doing so, they contend to an ever-more-receptive audience, could 
weaken the Mexican cartels profiting from U.S. pot sales, save 
billions in law enforcement costs, and generate billions more in tax 
revenue from one of the nation's biggest cash crops.

Said a veteran of the movement, Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy 
Alliance: "This is the first time I feel like the wind is at my back 
and not in my face."

Looking for change

Foes of legalization argue that already-rampant pot use by 
adolescents would worsen if adults could smoke at will.

Even the most hopeful marijuana activists doubt nationwide 
decriminalization is imminent, but they see the debate evolving 
dramatically and anticipate fast-paced change on the state level.

"For the most part, what we've seen over the past 20 years has been 
incremental," said Norm Stamper, a former Seattle police chief now 
active with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "What we've seen in 
the past six months is an explosion of activity, fresh thinking, bold 
statements and penetrating questions."

Some examples:

Numerous prominent political leaders, including California Gov. 
Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Mexican presidents, have suggested 
it is time for open debate on legalization.

Lawmakers in at least three states are considering joining the 13 
states that have legalized pot for medical purposes. Massachusetts 
voters last fall decided to decriminalize possession of an ounce or 
less of pot; there are now a dozen states that have taken such steps.

In Congress, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., 
are among several lawmakers contending that marijuana 
decriminalization should be studied in re-examining what they deem to 
be failed U.S. drug policy. "Nothing should be off the table," Webb said.

National polls show close to half of American adults are now open to 
legalizing pot -- a constituency encompassing today's college 
students and the 60-something baby boomers who popularized the drug 
in their youth. In California last month, a statewide Field Poll for 
the first time found 56 percent of voters supporting legalization.

That poll pleased California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco 
Democrat who introduced a bill in February to legalize marijuana in a 
manner similar to alcohol -- taxing sales to adults while barring 
possession by anyone under 21. Ammiano hopes for a vote by early next 
year and contends the bill would generate up to $1.3 billion in 
revenue for his deficit-plagued state.

Ammiano, 67, said he has been heartened by cross-generational and 
bipartisan support.

"People who initially were very skeptical -- as the polls come in, as 
the budget situation gets worse -- are having a second look," he 
said. "Maybe these issues that have been treated as wedge issues 
aren't anymore. People know the drug war has failed."

Obama and Clinton smoke

A new tone on drug reform has sounded more frequently in Congress.

At a House hearing last month, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., challenged 
FBI Director Robert Mueller when Mueller spoke of parents losing 
their lives to drugs.

"Name me a couple of parents who have lost their lives to marijuana," 
Cohen said.

"Can't," Mueller replied.

"Exactly. You can't, because that hasn't happened," Cohen said. "Is 
there some time we're going to see that we ought to prioritize meth, 
crack, cocaine and heroin, and deal with the drugs that the American 
culture is really being affected by?"

Kucinich noted that Obama and former President Bill Clinton 
acknowledged trying marijuana.

"Apparently that didn't stop them from achieving their goals in 
life," Kucinich said. "We need to come at this from a point of 
science and research and not from mythologies or fears."

Gil Kerlikowske, chief of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 
has not endorsed the idea of an all-options review of drug policy, 
but he has suggested scrapping the "war on drugs" label and placing 
more emphasis on treatment and prevention. Attorney General Eric 
Holder has said federal authorities will no longer raid medical 
marijuana facilities in California.

Nonetheless, many opponents of pot legalization remain firm in their 
convictions.

"We're opposed to legalization or decriminalization of marijuana. We 
think it's the wrong message to send our youth," said Russell Laine, 
police chief in Algonquin, Ill., and president of the International 
Association of Chiefs of Police.

Billions in savings

Marijuana, though considered one of the least harmful illegal drugs, 
consumes a vast amount of time and money on the part of law 
enforcement, accounting for more than 40 percent of drug arrests 
nationally though relatively few pot-only offenders go to prison.

According to estimates by Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron, 
legalization of marijuana could save the country at least $7.7 
billion in law enforcement costs and generate more than $6 billion in 
revenue if it were taxed like cigarettes and alcohol.

Pot usage is pervasive. The latest federal survey indicates that more 
than 100 million Americans have tried it at some point and more than 
14 million used it in the previous month.

Testifying recently before Congress, Arizona Attorney General Terry 
Goddard said U.S. demand for pot is a key factor in the Mexican drug war.

"The violence that we see in Mexico is fueled 65 percent to 70 
percent by the trade in one drug: marijuana," he said. "I've called 
for at least a rational discussion as to what our country can do to 
take the profit out of that."

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency remains on record against 
legalization and medical marijuana, which it contends has no 
scientific justification.

"Legalization of marijuana, no matter how it begins, will come at the 
expense of our children and public safety," says a DEA document. "It 
will create dependency and treatment issues, and open the door to use 
of other drugs, impaired health, delinquent behavior, and drugged drivers."

The DEA also says marijuana is now at its most potent, in part 
because of refinements in cultivation.

Even in liberal Vermont, with the nation's highest rates of marijuana 
usage, many substance-abuse specialists are wary of legalization.

Annie Ramniceanu, clinical director at Spectrum Youth and Family 
Services in Burlington, Vt., said her agency deals with scores of 
youths each year whose social development has been hurt by early and 
frequent pot smoking.

"They don't deal with anything," she said. "They never learned how to 
have fun without smoking pot, never learned how to deal with conflict."

Legalization proponents acknowledge that pot use by adolescents is a 
major problem, but contend that decriminalizing and regulating the 
drug would improve matters by shifting efforts away from criminal gangs.

"The notion that we have to keep something completely banned for 
adults to keep it away from kids doesn't hold up," said Bruce Mirken, 
communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project.

As for Obama, the activists don't expect him to embrace the cause at 
this point.

"Obama's got two wars, an economic disaster. We have to realize 
they're not going to put this on the front burner right now," said 
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML, or the National 
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "But every measurable 
metric out there is swinging our way."

On the Net:

Marijuana Policy Project: www.mpp.org

Drug Enforcement Agency: www.usdoj.gov/dea
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom