REBELS AGAINST DRUG WAR

A low-key rebellion against the excesses of the war against drugs has been
simmering at the state level, particularly in the West.

Since 1996, voters in Alaska, California, Colorado, the District of
Columbia, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have voted in favor of
ballot initiatives to remove criminal penalties for seriously ill people
who grow or possess medical marijuana.

Now, the rebellion has reached a second stage in Nevada, where voters
approved the use of medical marijuana in 2000. This time, pot fans have
dropped the pretense of "medical necessity" in favor of legalizing
recreational use of the drug and gathered 74,740 valid signatures in
support of a intiative to allow adults to possess up to 3 ounces of the drug.

For the legalization proposal to become law, it must be approved by Nevada
voters this November and again in 2004. The proposal would still make it
illegal for minors to possess the drug or for anyone to sell marijuana to
minors, and drivers could still be punished for driving under the influence
of marijuana. It also would be illegal to use marijuana in public.

The proposal calls for marijuana to be taxed like cigarettes and other
tobacco products and sold in state-licensed shops. A distribution system
would be set up to provide low-cost medical marijuana.

Even if Nevada voters do give their blessing, don't look for legal
marijuana sales soon. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court held that there is
no medical exemption to the federal controlled substances act, which
prohibits the possession, use and distribution of marijuana. Federal drug
warriors, armed with that decision, have done their best to block sales and
distribution in jurisdictions that have legalized medical use of the drug.
The feds could be expected to fight even more fiercely against recreational
use of marijuana.

For our part, The Post doesn't support recreational use of marijuana - and
we're deeply skeptical about the alleged medical benefits of smoking
anything, be it tobacco or cannabis. But we suspect the popularity of such
measures simply means that voters are wearying of the perfervid excesses of
the drug war - which once led former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to
demand the death penalty for bringing an ounce of marijuana into the
country. Such grotesque bombast only undermines serious efforts to educate
youths about the dangers of drug abuse - including alcohol and marijuana.
Until the federal drug warriors substitute facts for frenzy, the public
will continue to lose confidence in their prohibition campaign.