BUDDING CAMPAIGN

Ads urge pot users to fight arrests, promote legalization

SAN FRANCISCO -- Show a little self-respect, potheads, urges an advertising
campaign begun Monday. It's time to come out of the closet and fight for
your right to party.

In a blitz of humorous ads designed to get marijuana users more politically
active in the struggle to legalize pot, the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, has begun placing 30 billboards at bus
shelters throughout San Francisco encouraging self-esteem for pot smokers
and protest of their arrests.

One says: ``Honk, If You Inhale.''

Another reads: ``A Pot Smoker is Busted Every 45 Seconds -- and You Wonder
Why We're Paranoid.''

Whoa. Heavy. Both messages include the tag line: ``Stop Arresting
Responsible Pot Smokers.''

Unlike most recent marijuana campaigns, this one isn't about legalizing pot
for medical use; it's simply about fighting for the right to get stoned.

The pot advocacy group is using San Francisco as a test market for the
$30,000 campaign and hopes to roll out the ads in other cities in the
future.

``Our constituency is largely in the closet,'' said Keith Stroup, founder
and executive director of NORML, ``and when you're in the closet you're
invisible to elected officials and have very little power.''

Why San Francisco?

``We obviously thought we should play to our strength,'' he said, referring
to the city's liberal bent.

So guess who's not too high on the idea of pro-pot ads? The Partnership for
a Drug-Free America. They think it's dopey, if not a little dangerous.

Executive Vice President Steve Dnistrian got a nice chuckle when he heard of
the billboards but said he'd be concerned about sending the wrong message to
kids.

``If this is going to resonate in a very negative way with kids --
contribute to a sense with some kids that marijuana is no big deal -- you've
got to be really concerned about that,'' he said. ``While no one billboard
is going to totally influence kids, it could be one of (many) messages that
does.''

The pot group is trying hard to make up for reverses suffered since the more
liberal 1970s, when 11 states decriminalized marijuana, said Stroup. Oregon
was the first, in 1973; California followed in 1976.

In this state, the penalty for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana
is a $100 citation. But cultivation of any amount is still a felony. Federal
law is the strictest: Possessing one joint can carry penalties of up to a
$10,000 fine and one year in prison, according to NORML.

Also in the 1970s, Stroup said, the drug debate almost always included
proposals -- often entered into Congress but ultimately defeated -- to
decriminalize marijuana nationally.

That changed with the stepped-up efforts against all drugs in the 1980s,
which led to more arrests for pot.

``Then all we heard was `Just say no,' mandatory penalties and zero
tolerance,'' he said.

Using statistics from the office of the federal drug czar, Stroup says
one-third of American adults have tried pot, and 18 million to 20 million
have smoked it within the past year.

Most of those, he said, are not a bunch of shaggy Grateful Dead followers
wearing tie-dyed shirts and quoting Cheech and Chong.

``The reality is the average marijuana smoker is a middle-aged person who
puts on a coat and tie and goes to work and raises a family,'' he said,
explaining that the pot smoker chooses to unwind with a joint instead of a
drink.

Most alarming for marijuana advocates, however, are the rising numbers of
users and sellers winding up in jail.

According to 1997 FBI data, roughly 695,000 Americans, the highest number
ever recorded, were arrested on various marijuana charges, NORML reports.
The number was about 300,000 in 1993, the year President Clinton took
office.

According to the state Department of Justice, felony arrests for marijuana
have actually dropped in California since 1989, from 16,325 to 14,344 in
1998, the latest numbers available.

But the rise in misdemeanor arrests here is enough to have pot smokers
looking over their shoulders: They jumped from 25,825 in 1989 to 46,600 in
1998.

As the 1970s head-shop poster used to read: ``Just because you're paranoid
doesn't mean they're not out to get you.''

Contact Dan Reed at dreed@sjmercury.com or (415) 434-0371.