POT BACKERS CALL FOR REEFERENDUM

WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of drug war critics gathered here this weekend to
share political tips, marijuana cigarettes, pipes and bowls, and a growing
sense of optimism about the future of drug legalization.

The occasion was the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
convention, an annual event usually held around April 20, a date that has
the same kind of significance to cannabis users that, say, July 4 has to
patriots.

In the ranks of the legalize-weed movement, NORML has a venerable history.
It's been around since 1970, and has held 27 annual conventions so far --
only to see the drug war escalate during that time to include military
troops, longer prison terms, and the creation of a federal bureaucracy that
has become the arch-enemy of pot smokers.

So why were the roughly 250 conference goers sounding almost, well, happy?

It wasn't just the plentiful herb at the event. NORML believes that thanks
to pro-legalization politicians like Gov. Gary Johnson (R-New Mexico) and
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), state action on medical marijuana, and
the spread of the Internet, public opinion may be shifting.

"We don't live in an isolated world anymore," said Allen St. Pierre, the
executive director of the NORML Foundation. "We can be watching people
indulge in cannabis in an Amsterdam cafe via a webcam."

St.Pierre said Johnson and Frank's support is heartening. "We have not had
a major political figure since the '70s come out and endorse a departure
from the status quo. That's important and noteworthy to say the least."

St. Pierre is talking about what former President Carter said in 1977:
"Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual
than use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws
against possession of marijuana in private for personal use."

During a speech Saturday, Frank went even further. "We have the potential
to make American drug policy sufficiently less stupid," he told the NORML
conference. "Set that as an interim goal."

He echoed the usual refrain of pro-legalization politicos: I don't
recommend you smoke some reefer, but if you do, going to jail is probably
not in society's best interests.

(Frank has also introduced a bill, H.R. 786, to allow students with drug
convictions to continue receiving financial aid.)

The don't-ask-don't-tell-don't-prosecute idea seems to be gaining some
currency. Even former President Clinton told Rolling Stone that he thought
Americans possessing small amounts of pot should not go to jail.

Frank, an outspoken Democrat, used the opportunity to criticize Republicans
for supporting states' rights when convenient -- but ignoring them when
creating new federal crimes and bureaucracies to fight the so-called drug war.

"They are for states' rights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday," Frank said.
"They are for nationalizing on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. What they
do on Sunday I don't know," Frank said.

"Ninety-five percent of the examples we have of police practices that
violate privacy are because of the war on drugs," Frank said.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule this year on whether police may
conduct infrared surveillance of a home to look for hot areas that hint at
pot growing without having to obtain a warrant.

As evidence of the drug war run amok, Frank cited the example of the
Baptist missionary plane shot down on Friday after reportedly identified as
a drug-runner by the CIA.

But it is Gov. Johnson, a photogenic and affable politician, who has become
the de facto spokesman for the legalization movement.

He spoke to the NORML convention on Thursday, then showed up on NBC's Meet
the Press on Sunday. "Can we continue to arrest 1.6 million people a year
in this country on drug-related crime?" Johnson asked. "I don't think so. I
think that we need to legalize marijuana. We need to adopt harm reduction
strategies on all these other drugs."

"There's no question that this is going to happen," Johnson said. "The
question is: Is it going to take 80 years?"

Also on the show was Barry McCaffrey, the so-called drug czar under
Clinton, who predicted that legalization would never take place.

"It's simply not going to happen," McCaffrey said. "The innate good
judgment of the American people understands 'We don't want our employees
and our children using drugs. It's a disaster for us.'"

Salon's Dan Forbes reported last week that Bush is likely to appoint John
Walters, another hard-liner, as McCaffrey's successor.

On Friday, Clarence Page, a reporter at the Chicago Tribune and an
occasional panelist on The McLaughlin Group, said that his experiences
writing about marijuana suggest that there is a "disconnect between the
public and the government."

He said that during a meeting with his newpaper's editors, McCaffrey
claimed that nobody was arrested for marijuana anymore and that the United
States has no troops in Colombia. "This man thought we were idiots," Page said.

If McCaffrey sounded irate about the prospect of drug legalization, he
would have been apoplectic at what was happening at the NORML convention,
just a dozen blocks away from his old digs in the White House office complex.

From luncheon speeches and informal evening gatherings in hotel rooms to a
private party at the nearby Madam's Organ club, the atmosphere was
precisely what you'd expect at a NORML convention: thick with clouds of pot
smoke.

"Oh yeah, they've been passing in here," said J.F. Oschwald, a veteran of
the campaign to get medical marijuana legalized in Colorado. A spinal cord
injury has confined him to a wheelchair, and he smokes pot to avoid muscle
spasms.

"I think everyone should be able to have marijuana legally," Oschwald said.
"But that issue will be around for a long time. For now, we need
politicians of any party to take the lead on common sense."

The Libertarian Party, which supports full drug legalization, was also
present at the event, handing out literature in its booth.

On Friday evening, a NORML organizer made the rounds of the Madam's Organ
party to warn everyone to stop smoking pot in public after 10 p.m., since
the bar was about to open to the general public. "So hurry up and finish
now," he said, to a round of cheers.

Two students from the Florida State University NORML chapter said they
learned to practice what they preach during campus organizing meetings.
They said that after a smokeless kickoff meeting of about 50 students,
membership quickly plummeted to just five attendees.

"When we started actually smoking marijuana at our meetings, membership
took off," co-organizer Christopher Mulligan said. "We're now one of the
largest organizations at FSU."

Ryan Sager contributed to this report.