MARIJUANA ADVOCATES PLAY IT STRAIGHT IN D.C.

'Pothead' Stigma Makes Lawmakers Wary, Lobbyists Know

Washington -- Hundreds of suit-and-tie-clad marijuana advocates feasted on
chicken Kiev and Petite Sirah on Capitol Hill on Wednesday night in what
may have been the most button-down gathering of pot enthusiasts in history.

The music was contemporary jazz, not reggae. The dessert was a caramel
parfait with chocolate drizzle, not Oreos. And the featured Cheech and
Chong video was a snippet of a documentary on actor Tommy Chong's recent
imprisonment.

The event, a strictly nonsmoking affair that drew members of Congress, a
prominent television talk show host, and seasoned Washington operatives,
was a mainstream coming-out of sorts for the Marijuana Policy Project, the
nation's pre-eminent marijuana lobbying organization.

The sober organizers -- who insist the greatest danger associated with
smoking pot is jail time -- are intent on being taken seriously in this
serious town.

"We decided from the outset, no scrungie beards. No ponytails. We'd be
mainstream and professional. We'd try to look like Republicans as much as
we could," said Rob Kampia, the group's executive director who got a
significant haircut when he helped found the group 10 years ago. "I don't
mind having short hair if it can help change the world."

Neither Congress nor the Justice Department has shown much sympathy for the
organization's agenda of legalizing the use of medicinal marijuana and
reducing penalties for recreational use. A study released this week found
that nearly half of all federal drug arrests were for marijuana.

"We try to make it very clear that we are not pro-marijuana," said Steve
Fox, the Marijuana Policy Project's clean-cut director of government
affairs. "We are anti-jail. We are not out there celebrating marijuana use.
We're just saying it's insane to send people to jail for making the
personal choice of using marijuana."

The organization has worked hard to be taken seriously on Capitol Hill,
where lobbyists representing the alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical
industries are familiar, but where the pot lobby is still making itself known.

Fox recalled the start of a meeting with a member of Congress, in which a
senior aide opened the member's door and announced: "The potheads are here."

In order to bridge the gap with lawmakers, the group distributed $50,000 in
campaign contributions to members of Congress during the last election -- a
sure way to make friends in Washington -- and Wednesday night honored Rep.
Sam Farr, D-Carmel, for his work promoting legislation in Congress.

"Often people joke about marijuana, but due process and respecting state
laws is a serious issue," Farr said. "Beyond that, I think it's high time
the federal government recognized that one of the best ways to prevent
recreational use of a drug is to let doctors prescribe it in closely
regulated ways." Farr was joined at the gala by Reps. Barney Frank,
D-Mass., Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood (Los
Angeles County).

Intellectually, it's very easy," Frank said of convincing his colleagues.
"Politically, it's hard."

Nearly 100 million Americans have tried marijuana, according to estimates
by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and nearly 15 million use it
regularly. Still, its mention rarely fails to draw snickers in Washington,
forcing lobbyists to be vigilant about cleaning up their act.

A column in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, noted that Farr and
Sanchez were expected at Wednesday night's gala and suggested that they
might be forgiven if they were spotted giggling and munching cookies the
following day in the halls of Congress.

"The puns and jokes deter members of Congress from embracing the issue,"
said Eric Sterling, one of the group's founders and the president of the
Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. "They are genuinely afraid of the issue.

"The Marijuana Policy Project from day one has been very professional in
its presentation. There is an insistence at not having people come in
tie-dye shirts, and there won't be pot smoking. It's a serious issue that
deserves to be taken seriously."

Among the group's top legislative authorities is a bill to bar the Justice
Department from spending money to raid and prosecute pot-using patients and
caregivers in states such as California where voters have approved the use
of medical marijuana. They are also seeking to overturn rules that forbid
students with marijuana convictions from receiving college loans.

"We've come a long way," Kampia told the gathering. "But we're not blind to
the fact that the members of Congress who have to get elected every few
years are reluctant to work with an organization with the 'm-word' in the
title."

Though most of the support comes from Democrats, there are nearly two dozen
Republicans who consistently support the group's agenda on libertarian grounds.

"My position is that people ought to make their own decision on almost
anything if it doesn't hurt anybody else," said Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas
Republican who said his support for medicinal marijuana had not cost him
votes in his "conservative, Bible-belt district."

"Perceptions on the House floor are very different from the perceptions
around the country," Paul said.

Television talk show host Montel Williams, who spent years speaking out
against drug use at high schools, has been vocal in his support for medical
marijuana, which he uses regularly.

Williams, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, said he had
tried many legal painkillers, which left him in a stupor and still in pain.
Then, at his doctor's recommendation, he tried pot, which worked.

"It's been a hard day, a real hard day," Williams told the dinner crowd,
breaking into tears. "I've been chasing my pain all day."

Williams described the nation's refusal to legalize medicinal marijuana as
"so simple, it's ignorant."

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which describes
marijuana as a "greenish-gray mixture of the dried shredded elves, stems,
seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant," takes a less upbeat view. The
government Web site describes impaired cognitive functions from smoking
marijuana and says the drug can impair memory and learning skills, lead to
addiction and increase the risk of cancer.

The Marijuana Policy Project has 18 full-time staffers in Washington, one
in San Francisco and another in Los Angeles. It boasts 17,000 dues-paying
members and more than 150,000 e-mail subscribers and has an annual budget
of more than $2.5 billion.

At Wednesday night's event, just one man sported dreadlocks in crowded
ballroom three blocks from the Capitol. There were no marijuana leaf
banners or signs of paraphernalia. And not a wisp of smoke.

Still, the references to the less serious sides of pot smoking were inevitable.

When Frank asked to speak early in the program so he could get home, Kampia
explained to the crowd: "If we're not following the agenda, it's not that
we're stoned. We're being accommodating."