THE TIMES MAY BE CHANGING ON THE MARIJUANA ISSUE

A few years ago, politicians who dared to suggest anything other than
jail time for marijuana users were considered pro-drug fringe candidates.

Not anymore. Now all the major Democratic presidential candidates are
offering more lenient stands on medical marijuana, and White House
hopeful Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, has made ending the federal
drug war a centerpiece of his campaign.

"There has definitely been a change in the political climate for
liberalization," said Tim Lynch, a criminal justice expert at the
Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank. "I think the people
are ahead of the politicians, especially of the Washington, D.C.,
politicians, on this issue."

Polls have consistently shown that Americans support marijuana for
medicinal purposes: a whopping 80 percent said so in a 2002 Time/CNN
survey. In the same poll, about a third approved total legalization,
but 72 percent said recreational users should be fined, not incarcerated.

Even in Texas, where medical marijuana legislation has never gotten
off the ground, the Legislature recently passed a law that allows
prosecutors to bypass the jail booking process for certain marijuana
offenses. It doesn't change the penalty, but the legislation marks
Texas' first lenient approach to marijuana in years.

Experts say the more tolerant approach has its origins in California,
where in 1996 voters made it legal for people to smoke marijuana with
a doctor's recommendation. More than a decade later, 12 states permit
some use of medical marijuana, and several others, including
Michigan, Arizona, New York and Illinois, are likely to consider
initiatives in 2008, said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana
Policy Project. A ballot initiative in Massachusetts aims to go
further by decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana,
making it similar to a traffic ticket.

"I think in 10 years, people will look back at the laws that
prevented people from using marijuana as a medicine and say, 'What
the hell were they thinking?'" Mirken said.

Of course, not everybody is leaping on the bandwagon. All of the top
Republican presidential candidates have expressed opposition to the
use of medical marijuana, and the White House drug czar continues to
sound the alarm about making it legal under any circumstance, much as
it was before California voters approved the landmark referendum.

Research has shown that teen drug use has declined steeply
nationwide. A study released in December showed that illicit teen
drug use has dropped sharply from levels a decade earlier, with
marijuana use in particular showing steep declines.

In testimony before Congress last summer, Dr. David Murray, chief
scientist in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy,
hailed the positive trends among teens but said medical marijuana had
sparked violence and robberies in California. He also warned about
the negative health effects from inhaling smoked marijuana.

Murray described marijuana as "a substance without medical utility"
and expressed concern about the wave of state referenda allowing its use.

"The medical marijuana movement is at best a mistake, at worst, a
deception," Murray said. "The people pushing for this are cynically
manipulating tragic tales of suffering."

Don't tell that to Tim Timmons. The Garland resident, who has
multiple sclerosis, says politicians are the ones manipulating the
marijuana issue to appear tough on crime.

Though he takes $3,000 worth of prescription drugs a month -- between
18 and 23 pills a day -- he says marijuana is the only thing that
calms the debilitating spasms in his legs and lets him sleep at night.

Timmons has sent scores of letters to state lawmakers, inviting them
to see for themselves how marijuana visibly calms his spasms.

Otherwise, he has repeatedly issued this public challenge to state
lawmakers who oppose medical marijuana: take him to jail themselves
if they think what he's doing is wrong.

"Come arrest me. I'm here waiting for you," Timmons said in the
presence of a Star-Telegram videographer, after smoking marijuana
from a pipe at his home. "You can put the handcuffs on me."

State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, has twice failed to pass a
bill designed to help seriously ill people who use marijuana for
things such as pain and nausea relief.

Last year, the politics of the issue were so toxic in the Legislature
that Naishtat didn't even get a public hearing on his bill.

The lawmaker stresses that his bill would "not legalize anything"
Instead, it would give an affirmative defense in court for people who
use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

That way, courts could release those who have a medical reason to smoke it.

"It gives these individuals, if they happen to get arrested, a chance
to go before a jury and say, 'I'm not a criminal. I'm sick. My doctor
recommended it. It helps me live. Please let me go home.' And juries
could say, 'Go home.'"