NORML CHIEF URGES LEGALIZATION

Keynote speaker Keith Stroup laid it on the line when he introduced himself
yesterday to students, academics and other Columbians gathered for the
Missouri Marijuana Law Reform Conference.

"I've been a marijuana smoker for 30 years," said Stroup, founder and
director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
"... It's time we stopped arresting responsible marijuana smokers."

More than 40 people filed into Room 7 of MU's Law School building to listen
to the 57-year-old activist who has also served as director of the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Stroup's talk was one of about half a dozen addresses focusing on the
economic, medicinal and social benefits that supporters believe
decriminalization and legalization of marijuana would bring.

All the speakers panned the United States' war on drugs. Stroup, who quoted
statistics saying 76 million Americans have smoked marijuana, urged people
to use the political process to achieve legalization. "The vast majority of
marijuana smokers are good people, and it's incredibly unfair to them and
us to treat responsible marijuana smokers as criminals," he said. "It's
time to let go of 'reefer madness' and deal with marijuana policy in a
responsible way."

Stroup, along with Washington University economics professor Fred Raines,
lamented the amount of governmental resources dedicated to fighting
marijuana use.

"We're wasting law resources that should be focused on violent and serious
crime," Stroup said. "We fill our jails and prisons with 400,000
non-violent offenders."

Raines, executive director of the NORML chapter in St. Louis, said a single
marijuana conviction could reduce a person's lifetime earnings by 5 percent
to 10 percent.

John Galliher, an MU sociology professor and chairman of the Mid-Missouri
chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, traced the lineage of
marijuana decriminalization in the United States.

"I wake up every morning wondering why marijuana isn't legal," he said to
resounding applause. "Our falling economy is going to make it difficult to
lock up Americans. But in 35 years of teaching, I've had more trouble
advocating for marijuana reform than for the abolishment of the death penalty."

Stroup and his organization lobbied 11 states to decriminalize marijuana
during the 1970s. The activist said the pendulum of public opinion has
swung against reform legislation since the late 1970s, but is heading back
"in our direction."

"Six out of 10 Americans say they don't want to send marijuana smokers to
jail," he said. "Incredibly negative stereotypes of marijuana smokers still
exist. But there's a gap between public opinion and what we hear from
public officials."

Legalization is a simple matter of civil liberties, he said.

"The government has no right to know what kind of books we read, if we
should have a marijuana cigarette or a drink of alcohol when we relax in
our homes in the evenings," he said. "They're needlessly destroying the
lives and careers of genuinely good people for no good cause."