POT PUSH REEFER MADNESS?

Critics: War's More Smoke Than Fire

Last week's wild police chase through a crowded Brooklyn schoolyard was
just one more incident in the Giuliani administration's longstanding - and,
some say, misguided - war on marijuana, which has netted more than 100,000
public pot smokers since 1994.

The undercover cops who shot and killed two robbers brandishing toy guns in
Bushwick, Brooklyn, Friday night were participating in Operation Condor,
the mayor's latest anti-drug initiative. They were backing up officers who
had just arrested three men on marijuana charges.

Most of the marijuana busts have come in the past two years as the cops
have dramatically escalated their enforcement against puffing in public. In
1992, only 720 people were busted for toking weed in the open. Last year,
33,471 offenders were arrested for smoking marijuana in city parks and
streets - a 4,549% increase. The busts represented 9% of all arrests made
in New York City in 1999.

Those arrested for smoking pot in public - like those arrested for violent
crimes - are handcuffed, booked and fingerprinted, and spend hours in jail.
Sometimes, it is days before they see a judge. Most are sentenced to time
served, receive a small fine and are released.

Mayor Giuliani has said that the key to fighting drugs in New York is to go
after marijuana use as a crime that leads to bigger crimes.

"The link between drugs and crime is well-documented," Giuliani spokesman
Matthew Higgins said. "The heightened enforcement of all drug laws in the
last few years has dramatically improved the quality of life in New York
City and is one of the prime reasons why overall crime is down over 55%
since 1994."

The war against pot smokers brings together two of the mayor's favorite
crimefighting strategies: eliminating public "nuisances," such as squeegee
people and panhandlers, and increasing misdemeanor drug arrests.

But Giuliani's aggressive pursuit of dopers is viewed by some as reefer
madness, a return of the demonization of marijuana that swept the nation in
the 1920s and 1930s.

"I don't think arresting people for possession of marijuana is going to
make the city safe," said City Councilwoman Ronnie Eldridge (D-Manhattan).
"It's just the wrong emphasis. All these operations - Condor and whatever -
these undercover or street operations the police are undertaking are
harassing people.

"And the best charge that they can get most often is for marijuana. That is
not what threatens this city, or people's lives."

Condor - not to be confused with the mayor's earlier and continuing
anti-marijuana drive - is the $20 million push against low-level drug
activity, including marijuana use, that began in January. Unarmed security
guard Patrick Dorismond was killed March 16 during a confrontation with a
team of undercover cops assigned to the initiative.

Although the mayor's campaign against pot seems to have had no formal
beginning, the effort really took off around 1996. That year, marijuana
collars increased to 9,144 from 5,541 the year before. The number of
arrests almost doubled in 1997, to 17,609 and nearly doubled again in 1998,
to 32,569.

While Condor has attracted the most attention, Giuliani's undeclared pot
offensive seems to be the front line in the city's war against drugs.

"The kind of money that we're spending on marijuana is outrageous," said
Angel Rodriguez, executive director of the Andrew Glover Youth Program,
which serves troubled youths on the lower East Side.

"The cops could be doing lots of other work that's really necessary in this
neighborhood," Rodriguez said. "They could be working on the hard drugs,
No. 1. There's plenty of heroin and cocaine around that is damaging our
children and creating problems for all the citizens."

Although arrests for smoking pot have soared in the last few years, arrests
for misdemeanor possession of controlled substances, such as heroin and
cocaine, actually have declined to 34,951 last year from 40,691 in 1995.

"The mayor's war on drugs is actually a phony war on drugs," said Tom
Leighton, chairman of the Marijuana Reform Party of New York. "In reality,
it's a war on marijuana smokers and low-level, nonviolent marijuana
offenders."

While total misdemeanor drug arrests climbed to 78,354 in 1999 from 27,447
in 1993, Leighton points out that pot-smoking arrests account for 61% of
the increase.

Leighton, who ran for Manhattan borough president in 1997 to publicize the
pot-arrest issue and garnered more than 24,000 votes, says there is no
evidence to support the mayor's contention that marijuana use is linked
with crime.

"Marijuana is not connected to violence and not connected to crime,"
Leighton said. "Except for the crime of having marijuana."

Police spokeswoman Marilyn Mode pointed out that in 1992, when there were
720 arrests for public pot smoking, there also were 1,995 murders and
626,182 major felony complaints in the city. In 1999, when pot-smoking
arrests topped 33,000, there were just 667 murders and 299,523 felony
complaints.

"Clearly there's a nexus with drug activity and crime," Mode said.

City Councilman Sheldon Leffler (D-Queens), chairman of the Council's
Public Safety Committee, has scheduled a public hearing for April 25 to
review police anti-drug strategies, including Operation Condor.

"One of the things that has to be gone into is whether there are
alternative strategies that make sense in this day and age, when crime has
been driven down a lot," Leffler said. "And I think there are other things
that New Yorkers would like to see besides these anti-narcotics efforts."

As serious crime has dropped in the city, minor offenders have been
targeted by cops, critics say. Legal Aid Society lawyer David Kapner says
pot smokers are easy pickings for the police and a convenient way for them
to keep their arrest numbers up.

"These aren't people who are going to run," Kapner said. "They are not
going to pull out weapons. They are not going to give you a hard time,"
Kapner said.

"If you are a police officer looking to fill a quota, marijuana is a really
easy way to do it, because it's also a group activity, people tend to smoke
marijuana with other people. Sometimes you get three arrests out of one
stop, so it's very efficient. It's not like people smoking crack, where
they go off on their own."

Almost one-third of those arrested for smoking pot are under 20, Leighton
said. And because the federal Higher Education Act, which will go into
effect this summer, prohibits federal college loans or financial aid to
anyone with a prior drug conviction, "a misdemeanor pot-smoking arrest can
spell disaster for college-bound youngsters from poor families," he said.

"We don't feel, as a city, as besieged by the drug problem as we did 10, 15
years ago," Leffler said. "And yet we are using more aggressive tactics
than ever. Does that really make sense?"