SPEAKER: MARIJUANA SMOKING VICTIMLESS

GRANVILLE -- Marijuana is about as harmless as a cup of coffee but far
less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco, an advocate for changes in
marijuana laws told a Denison University audience of about 200 Tuesday
night.

Allen F. St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, often used the alcohol analogy to
make his points favoring general decriminalization of marijuana.

St. Pierre, 40, drew a curious contrast between the friendly
neighborhood bartender pouring a beer and "pushers" who sell
marijuana. "There is no functional difference between a bartender and
a drug dealer," he contended.

"Some of the most imprudent decisions you make in your life are made
under the influence of alcohol," St. Pierre said, noting that alcohol
causes 120,000 deaths per year, compared to essentially zero for marijuana.

"If you abuse alcohol," he said, "you drink when you drive or pee in
somebody's front yard. In our society you have to do something to be
labeled as an abuser. This (abuse) doesn't happen with marijuana."

NORML, in existence for 35 years, lobbies its agenda chiefly through
education, legislation and litigation, but St. Pierre prefers the
first two, especially at the state level. It is his hope that change
"bubbles" up to the federal level through reforms among the states.

St. Pierre observed that use of tobacco, which still claims 400,000
lives a year, has plummeted in his lifetime through educational
efforts, not through the criminal justice system.

"The war on drugs is really a war on people," he said. "We don't have
wars against inanimate objects."

St. Pierre said a debate over changing marijuana laws can be won with
four words: "No victim, no crime."

"If you're smoking marijuana, who's the victim?" he
questioned.

Marijuana has a lethal-dose toxicity rating of 50, which mean's it's
not lethal, period, he said. But despite scientific evidence, he
continued, the federal government in 1970 gave the plant "Schedule I"
status along with pure forms of heroine and LSD, meaning that these
drugs are (1) high in potential for abuse, (2) addictive, and (3)
possess no medical utility. St. Pierre maintains that marijuana may be
psychologically addictive, but not physically so.

NORML favors changing marijuana to Schedule II status, having been
proven to be medically useful in treatment for glaucoma, AIDS, cancer,
multiple sclerosis and chronic pain.

For cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, he said marijuana's
tendency to give users the "munchies" helps them to keep down food and
remain healthy.

Two Denison students lauded St. Pierre's approach to his
subject.

"The basis of all this is logic and understanding law," rather than
emotion and ideology, said sophomore Mike Kalnins, an English
literature/history major. "Honest, intelligent discussion of issues is
what we need, rather than ridicule and Anne Coulter."

Junior media technology and arts major Amber Yoder
agreed.

"I liked that he approached it from an intelligent and scientific
basis," she said.