SMOKING IN THE BOARDROOM

From Corporate America to Suburbia, Pot Makes Its Mark On The
Mainstream

He lives with his wife and kids in an tidy, old San Diego
neighborhood. His two children, both in elementary school, play
soccer. He takes them to games on Saturdays in his minivan.

He also has a secret: Several nights a week, when the homework is
finished and the kids are in bed, he slips outside to the dark space
between his garage and his neighbor's hedge.

He plucks a dried, green marijuana bud from a Ziploc bag, packs a pipe
and inhales deeply. Then he goes upstairs, showers and changes his
clothes so the kids won't smell smoke if they wake up and want their
Daddy.

"In my social circle, lots of people smoke pot," said the 40-something
communications executive who asked that his name not be used because
he's afraid of losing his job. "They are all professionals. Most have
children. If we have a dinner party, a few of us will go outside and
have a toke."

Damon and Brenda van Dam's admission they smoked marijuana the night
their 7-year-old daughter, Danielle, disappeared ignited a debate in
the courtroom and the community about their fitness for parenthood. In
his opening statement, David Westerfield's defense attorney used their
pot-smoking to create an image of a cavalier attitude toward caring
for their children.

But not everyone was shocked to learn a respectable telecommunications
engineer earning a good living enjoyed smoking dope in the evenings.

The van Dams are in the company of doctors, lawyers, stock brokers and
even members of law enforcement who furtively get high in their
garages and on their decks, all the while terrified they'll be found
out by their neighbors, employers and children.

They are America's most secretive potheads - a vast underground of
otherwise upstanding citizens secretly subverting the nation's drug
laws.

President Bush's TV commercials link buying drugs with supporting
terrorism. The U.S. government spends hundreds of millions on border
patrols and overseas drug interdiction.

But to these upscale stoners, the drug war has nothing to do with them
- - it's as remote from their Neighborhood Watch-protected streets as
drug cartel shootouts in Tijuana.

They believe smoking weed is about as serious as fudging on your
taxes, on the level of claiming the computer you bought for your kid
was a business expense.

And scoring good pot is a lot like popping open a '94 reserve
cabernet: a harmless little indulgence that takes the edge off a
stressful day.

"To me, casual marijuana use is really no different than the casual
drinking of hard alcohol," said the communications exec. "As long as
you're doing it responsibly, at times when you're not caring for your
children or driving, it's really no big deal - other than that it's
illegal."

Social acceptance Gauging the prevalence of marijuana-smoking among
otherwise well-behaved, middle-class adults isn't easy. Most current
research focuses on usage among teens or people arrested for other
crimes.

In one recent survey by Partnership for a Drug Free America, 15
percent of couples with children admitted to smoking marijuana in the
last year.

They're not all mean-street dysfunctionals or '60s burnouts. "We see
the casual use of marijuana in all socioeconomic environments," said
Alex Groza, a San Diego police sergeant and member of the Drug
Enforcement Agency's Narcotics Task Force. " ... It's more accepted by
society than ever."

A 2000 Gallup poll found 34 percent favor legalizing marijuana, up
from 12 percent when the question was first asked in 1969.

Voters in eight states have approved medical marijuana initiatives.
And polls show more than 70 percent support medical marijuana.

Has pot smoking - once feared as a dangerous habit of the
counterculture - become an unremarkable part of mainstream America?

Pot smokers would have you believe it.

"I mow my lawn on Saturdays. I put chlorine in the pool. I put gas in
my SUV. I go to my kid's plays at school and the stupid bake sales,"
said Bob, a 40-something Web designer from Vista. "I also happen to
enjoy marijuana. And there are a lot of people out there just like
me."

The National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML) is trying
to prove it. Their goal: get 100 prominent Americans - CEOs, CPAs, MDs
- - to publicly proclaim they smoke pot in an open letter to major
newspapers. So far, few have agreed.

"Once people see how common it is, you are going to see marijuana
legal in very short order," said Dale Gieringer, president of the
NORML's California chapter. "The stereotype will fall away and people
will realize marijuana isn't the dire threat they think it is."

The trend toward marijuana acceptance troubles some doctors. A
marijuana joint has more cancer-causing compounds than a tobacco
cigarette, said Dr. Herbert Kleber, a professor of psychiatry and
director of the division of substance abuse at Columbia University in
New York City. Studies show heavy use can permanently impair the
memory and that people who use marijuana are more likely to try harder
drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

As many as 200,000 people a year seek treatment for marijuana
addiction, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"The data is increasingly clear that marijuana can cause physical
dependence and there is a withdrawal syndrome," Kleber said.

Not only that, pot smokers who contend smoking a joint is the same as
having a couple of drinks are wrong, said Dr. Daniel Valentine,
director of substance abuse services at Sharp Vista Pacifica in Kearny
Mesa.

The reason? Marijuana is illegal. Alcohol isn't. Whether or not you
agree with the law, "you're giving the message to your children that
illegal drug use is OK," Valentine said.

Risk management In 2000, there were 1,579,566 drug arrests nationwide,
according to FBI statistics. Nearly half - 734,497 - were for marijuana.

Of those, 646,042 people were arrested for possession.

But upper-middle-class stoners aren't worried about getting busted by
police. Police admit it: There's little chance they're going to arrest
suburbanites quietly smoking a joint in the privacy of their own tract
home.

"The police department doesn't go around snooping in people's houses
to see if they're smoking a joint at the kitchen table," said Groza,
the San Diego police sergeant.

Upstanding stoners are discreet. They don't buy dope on street
corners. They have connections - friends or business associates who
deal or grow the marijuana themselves.

To keep their risk down, they buy in small quantities. Possession of
less than an ounce marijuana in California is a misdemeanor that
carries little more than a $200 fine. (The fine for running a red
light is higher.)

Nor do upscale marijuana connoisseurs smoke ordinary Mexican pot. They
smoke premiums strains with names such as "Chronic" and "BC Bud" -
highly potent pot that's often cultivated using a sophisticated system
of hybridized plants, artificial lights and a soil-less growing system
called hydroponics.

"BC Bud" takes it's name from British Columbia, where much of it comes
from. Premium pot can contain 15 to 25 percent tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), pot's psychoactive ingredient, compared with about 2 percent
for the marijuana available to their hippie forebears in the '70s.

Primo pot can sell for as much as $6,000 a pound.

One former parole agent said he spends as much on marijuana as a car
payment on a Beemer: $400 a month. He lights up most mornings with
his cup of coffee.

He and his wife frequently host parties attended by prominent members
of San Diego government and business. The former parole agent supplies
the pot. Whoever wants it simply smokes it discreetly in the back
yard, out of respect for those who don't.

Jeff Jarvis and his wife, Tracy Johnson, a 40-year-old couple from a
Portland suburb, are among the few suburbanites actually trying to
promote their pot smoking.

They have a pro-pot Web site called jeffandtracy.com. Their motto:
"We're your good neighbors. We smoke pot."

The couple said they were turned down when they tried to buy pro-pot
advertising space on city buses, park benches and in their state's
largest paper, the Oregonian. Nor would any radio station in their
area run their ad - even the station that carries the "Howard Stern
Show."

"We set out to counteract the propaganda being put forth by groups
like the Partnership for Drug Free America that portray drugs in
general and pot smokers in particular as losers and bums," said Tracy,
a homemaker.

Since he started his campaign, Jeff Jarvis, a self-employed software
engineer, said he hasn't lost a single client.

But others fear they have much to lose.

The communications exec believes he'd be fired if he made it known
that he smokes pot. "If anyone found out, my life would be ruined," he
said.

His paranoia is well-founded. Corporate America, largely out of
liability concerns, does not tolerate drug use.

In 2001, 67 percent of companies surveyed by the American Management
Association tested their employees for drugs. Of those, 61 percent did
pre-employment testing of job applicants and 50 percent drug-tested
employees.

Marijuana can be detected in the urine for two to four weeks,
depending on the potency and how much was smoked, Kleber said.

Phil Blair, executive officer of Manpower Staffing Services, which
provides some 15,000 workers to 600 companies, said he deals with only
one company that does random drug testing.

However, nearly every large firm he deals with has a "for cause"
drug-testing policy, enabling employers test workers suspected of
using drugs. It's also routine to drug test anyone who has an accident
on job or who files a worker's compensation claim.

The punishment for people who test positive for marijuana is
straightforward: "If you're caught, you are instantly fired."

The communications exec believes there's almost no chance of that
happening to him. His company doesn't do random tests. He said he
could, and would, stop immediately if that was the case.

"It doesn't affect me as a husband or a father. It certainly doesn't
affect my job," he said. "It's just a way to relax and kick back for
the night."