REHASHING POT POINTLESS

It's time to declare a cease-fire in the unwinnable marijuana conflict that
has become the Vietnam of our national War on Drugs.

Our government wastes taxpayers' money and limited police and court
resources going after Americans whose only crime is smoking pot.

"I don't see why they don't decriminalize it," concurs Wheaton lawyer
Jeffrey B. Fawell, a member of the legal committee for the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Fawell, 47, says he doesn't use pot but was drawn to the cause in the course
of defending folks he doesn't consider criminals.

"I think there's a huge closet group out there of marijuana smokers," Fawell
says, adding, many are "productive people."

NORML needs those responsible adult users of marijuana to come out of that
closet and force our government to grant pot-smokers the same freedoms given
Americans who choose to use deadly tobacco or drink mind-numbing alcohol.

(NOTE: I think NORML would be taken more seriously with a new acronym. The
current one gives the impression some stoner printed up all the stationery
before anyone noticed, "Oh, wow, man, we forgot the A, man. Bummer.")

The pro-pot group kicked off a new campaign in San Francisco this week with
billboards reading "Honk if You Inhale" and "A Pot Smoker is Busted Every 45
Seconds - and You Wonder Why We're Paranoid."

An estimated 70 million Americans have tried pot, including as many as 12
million otherwise law-abiding adults who currently smoke pot and still
manage to hold down jobs, pay taxes and rear families.

Al Gore has admitted smoking pot - Al Gore.

Pot remains the third most popular recreational drug in the nation (behind
tobacco and alcohol) despite the billions and billions of dollars taxpayers
and private organizations have spent fighting marijuana.

"Marijuana is much more akin to beer than cocaine or heroin," Fawell says.

Marijuana is subject to some of the same problems caused by alcohol and
tobacco. Smoking anything can't be good for you and pot can make people do
things they wouldn't normally do, impair judgment and mental abilities, even
ruin lives.

But Fawell argues many pot-smokers are hard-working, peaceful, bright
professionals who sometimes sit on the couch to watch a ball game with a
joint instead of a beer. These users aren't a public risk or a drain on
society, but "the trend in the last few years has been to punish the user,"
Fawell notes.

Under Bill Clinton, a one-time pot-smoker wannabe who claims to have been
unable to master the physics of a bong, the FBI has waged a costly battle to
arrest a record number of Americans on marijuana charges. Of the 695,200
people arrested on pot charges in 1997, 604,824 were for possession,

What some states consider a minor pot offense merits prison in others.
Mandatory sentencing laws and property seizures add to the dubious legal
nightmares.

Legalizing marijuana would end that losing battle while doing away with
criminals who now make money off pot just as Al Capone once got rich and
powerful off beer, Fawell says.

NORML argues legalizing pot would create a hemp fabric industry and also cut
through the medical haze in which patients in pain get morphine while being
denied pot.

But the marijuana revolution will never succeed as long as the vast majority
of pot smokers refuse to go public. Allen St. Pierre, 34, executive director
of NORML, which is based in Washington, D.C., likens the effort to our
forefathers fighting for independence by sending King George letters from
"anonymous in Philadelphia."

Decriminalize pot, regulate it and we end all this silliness.

Normally, I don't get this riled up on behalf of a drug I've never tried.
Perhaps, it's the caffeine in my thermos of coffee talking.