POLICE TOLD TO IGNORE POT POSSESSION DURING CONVENTION

DENVER - A city drug panel has voted to urge police to refrain from
arresting adults for marijuana possession during next week's
Democratic National Convention, but the cops aren't necessarily on board.

Lt. Ernie Martinez, the police department's representative on the
panel, said police, bracing for potentially tens of thousands of
protesters during the Aug. 25-28 convention, would have more pressing
duties than rounding up pot smokers.

At the same time, he said, authorities wouldn't ignore blatant
flouting of the law. "If something occurs in front of us, we're going
to act," he said.

The Denver Marijuana Policy Review Panel, appointed by Mayor John
Hickenlooper, voted 5-3 at its Wednesday night meeting to issue a
recommendation discouraging police from "arresting, detaining or
issuing a citation" to any adult caught with up to one ounce of
marijuana during the four-day convention.

Denver voters have twice approved initiatives calling on police to
overlook adult marijuana possession but police, citing state and
federal laws, have continued to make marijuana-related arrests. A
department spokesman yesterday said it was reviewing the panel's
recommendation.

Mason Tvert, a panel member and pot-legalization activist, Thursday
delivered a copy of the panel's recommendation to Mr. Hickenlooper
and police Chief Gerry Whitman, saying that "we expect police to
abide by this very logical recommendation."

"If police expect the taxpayers to cover their $1.2 million in
overtime during the DNC, it is only fair that they respect the laws
adopted by those taxpayers," said Mr. Tvert, leader of Safer
Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation. "There will be plenty for
police to do during the DNC aside from arresting or citing adults who
are simply making the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol."

Mr. Tvert told the panel Wednesday that authorities have actually
increased their enforcement of marijuana laws since the 2005 and 2007
votes. Based on current numbers, he said, the city is on track to
prosecute 1,900 marijuana-related cases this year, up from 1,600 last year.

In 2005, Denver voters approved a measure legalizing adult possession
of up to an ounce of marijuana. Two years later, an initiative making
adult marijuana possession the city's lowest law enforcement priority
also won at the ballot box.

Mr. Tvert said he hoped the police would give the panel's
recommendation the same weight as if it were issued by the mayor.

"There's no way for the recommendation to be binding, but it was
issued by a panel appointed by the mayor, so we would expect it to be
treated as a pronouncement from the mayor," said Mr. Tvert.

The Denver County Sheriff's Office gave a media tour earlier this
week of its temporary holding cell, a renovated warehouse intended to
house anyone arrested during the convention.

The facility, equipped with a photo station and 18-by-18 holding
cells, can process 60 people an hour and hold up to 400 detainees.

Local activists have already dubbed the facility "Gitmo by the
Platte," referring to the nearby Platte River, but it could have been
worse. Officials abandoned earlier plans to line the top of the cells
with razor wire after objections from the community.

Authorities are bracing for potentially tens of thousands of
protesters during the Aug. 25-28 convention. Demonstrators will be
fenced in at a designated protest area in the vicinity of the Pepsi
Center, the site of most convention events.

The protesters, affiliated with groups like Recreate 68 and the
Alliance for a Real Democracy, are expected to demonstrate against
the Iraq war and in favor of social-justice issues.

One anti-war organization, Tent State University, has estimated that
its group alone will attract 50,000 demonstrators. The group had
hoped to camp overnight at a local park until city authorities nixed the idea