IS IT TIME TO DECRIMINALIZE POT?

Other states are moving that way, and science appears to be on their side

First the bad news, pot smokers. If you smoke daily, you have a 19 percent
greater chance of visiting a doctor for respiratory problems than nonsmokers.

You probably shouldn't drive while high, and it's a bad idea to smoke if
you're pregnant or mentally ill.

But long-term use won't kill you. That's the conclusion of the
most-detailed study of pot smokers and mortality ever done.

Completed in June 1996, the study of 65,171 patients by insurer Kaiser
Permanente found that pot-smoking women and men had a lower mortality rate
than cigarette smokers or people who drank at least three beers a day.
(Men with AIDS who smoked pot had a higher mortality rate, but research
concluded there was insufficient evidence to establish a causal link.)

"Marijuana isn't the killer drug that some people make it out to be," says
Kaiser Permanente's Stephen Sidney, the study's lead researcher. "Nor do I
think it is entirely harmless. You have to look at a balance of evidence if
you want to make claims."

Balance isn't something Iowa is noted for when the issue of drugs is
raised. It is considered one of the most punitive states for pot
possession, mostly because of the backward logic of the drug tax stamp,
which asks someone to pay tax on something they shouldn't own.
(Twenty-eight other states have a tax stamp.)

Thankfully, some states have moved pot to a more rational legal category.
Thirteen states now allow marijuana for medicinal use, a trend that began
only in the last five years.

States like New Hampshire and Arkansas have begun efforts to join the likes
of California, Mississippi, Nebraska and Minnesota in decriminalizing
marijuana. Being punished for owning pot in these states is similar to
getting a traffic ticket. Ohio has the least punitive laws: You can
possess up to three ounces and receive no more than a $25 ticket.

State Rep. Tim Robertson has introduced two marijuana bills into New
Hampshire's General Assembly, one that legalizes pot for medical purposes
and one that decriminalizes it. He says stigmatizing pot smoking with
misdemeanor convictions is unnecessary, counterproductive and even reckless.

"We're doing this to our kids and our friends' kids. Marijuana is not a
deadly drug. It's not in the ballpark of cocaine or heroin, but we're
punishing it like it is. And I certainly wouldn't put it in the same
category as alcohol. It doesn't make you violent like alcohol does."

Law enforcement officials and county attorneys, however, are still in the
catch-and-punish mode. In 1997, the largest number of people in history,
604,650, were arrested for possession of pot, according to FBI figures.

In Iowa that year, 5,260 people were convicted of possessing or using
marijuana. An estimated 933 received jail time. In 1988, only 1,083 pot
smokers were arrested, 275 of whom received jail time, according to figures
supplied by Lettie Prell, a state policy analyst.

John Wellman, Polk County's chief public defender, estimates his caseload
for possession has doubled from 10 cases per week a decade ago to 20 today.

Wellman says most people don't realize that the police will arrest you even
if you're carrying only non-smokable seeds and stems or if you have residue
in a pipe.

"The law makes no distinction between a molecule of marijuana and an
ounce," says Wellman, adding that most of his possession cases do not
involve other drugs or crimes.

The first time you're busted with under an ounce of pot in Iowa, you won't
likely see jail time. But you probably will have to pay a $100 fine, $300
in court costs, $60 for drug treatment and, perhaps - worst of all, have
your driver's license suspended for six months.

This will probably happen to you, that is, unless you're a prominent member
of our community.

In February 1997, John Gillotti, a member of the county's planning and
zoning commission, was arrested for possessing more than three ounces of
pot cut into 17 baggies.

Gillotti received a $6,000 fine, 10 days in jail and two years probation.
He could have been sent to prison for a mandatory five-year sentence. But
county attorney Jaimie Bowers felt Gillotti's stash was for personal use.
Meanwhile, some of Wellman's clients receive prison time the second time
they're caught with weed.

Since Iowa has no referendum form of government, which has helped states
like Oregon to decriminalize pot, state lawmakers must introduce a
pro-marijuana bill through the Judiciary Committee. In the current
anti-drug environment, chances are unlikely any decriminalization efforts
will bud here.

"I think that it would be sending the wrong message to our kids and
grandkids," says Keith A. Kreiman, D-Bloomfield, an attorney and ranking
member of the Judiciary Committee. "It's like a lot of substances. It can
be used or it can be abused. I think there's a lot of abuse going on."

Kreiman's concern for kids is laudable - but apparently unfounded. A 1981
study by the University of Michigan examined the attitudes, beliefs and
behavior of high school students in states that have decriminalized
marijuana, then compared them with students in states where possessing pot
is a felony or misdemeanor.

"The preponderance of evidence ... points to the conclusion that
decriminalization has had virtually no effect either on the marijuana use
or on related attitudes and beliefs about marijuana use among American
young people."

New Hampshire's Robertson believes a younger generation will eventually
have the wisdom today's lawmakers don't. "When the children of the '60s
and '70s come into power, we'll legalize it," says Robertson, a retired
businessman.

"I don't have any doubt about it. If you see what's going on in other
countries, marijuana is not considered a problem. They have better things
to do than send policemen chasing people who smoke wacky tobacky."

Maybe Iowa lawmakers will learn that one day. Till then, Ohio might not be
a bad place to live.