SNAP, CRACKLE, POT?

Drink and drive and it's grrrrrrrr-eat! Smoke pot and your flakes are
frosted, dude. So seems the message from Kellogg, which has decided
not to renew its sponsorship contract with Michael Phelps after the
Olympian was photographed smoking marijuana at a party in South Carolina.

That's showbiz, of course, but the cereal and munchie company had no
problem signing Phelps despite a prior alcohol-related arrest. In
2004, Phelps was fined and sentenced to 18 months of probation and
community service after pleading guilty to driving while impaired.

The silliness of our laws -- and the hypocrisy of our selective
attitudes toward mood enhancers -- needs no further elaboration. Even
so, things are getting sillier by the minute.

Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff Leon Lott made eight pot-related
arrests as of Friday based on the snap that shot around the world.
Seven were for possession and one for distribution, after deputies
used warrants to enter the house where Phelps allegedly was
photographed.

In an earlier column, I gave Lott the benefit of the doubt, suggesting
that his hands were tied given the laws of the land and South
Carolina's political climate. I retract the benefit.

Sheriffs, though elected and therefore political, have great latitude
as to what crimes they pursue. In a state that recently ranked among
the most dangerous in the nation, one would think South Carolina's law
enforcement officials have better things to do.

Indeed, they do. In our peculiar obsession to track down the Willie
Nelsons, Rush Limbaughs and now Michael Phelpses of society --
nonviolent, victimless imbibers of drugs -- we've actually made
society less safe. That's the conclusion of 10,000 cops, prosecutors,
judges and others who make up the membership of Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition.

Howard Wooldridge, LEAP's Washington, D.C., representative, is a
former cop and detective who lectures civic clubs and congressional
staffers on the futility of drug laws that reduce public safety by
wasting time and money. He points to child pornography as just one
example.

As of last April, he said, law enforcement had identified 623,000
computers containing child pornography, including downloadable video
of child rape. Only a fraction of those have been pursued with search
warrants, thanks to limited resources and staff shortages. What's
worse, Wooldridge said, is that three times out of five a search
warrant also produces a child victim on the premises.

Another example: Last year, Human Rights Watch reported that as many
as 400,000 rape kits containing evidence were sitting unopened in
criminal labs and storage facilities. Between the Los Angeles Police
Department and the L.A. County Sheriff's Office, nearly 12,000 kits
were unopened, according to an NPR report in December.

No one is saying that drugs aren't dangerous. Alcohol and tobacco are
also dangerous.

And no one thinks children should have access to harmful substances,
though they already do. Parents who recoil because their child became
an addict should note that prohibition didn't help.

What prohibition did was criminalize what is essentially a health
problem -- and overcrowd prisons. In 2007, there were 872,720
marijuana arrests in the United States. Of those, 775,137 were for
possession. South Carolina just added eight to this year's roster.

I'm not convinced that all drugs should be legalized, but we should at
least put prohibition on the table to take another look.

Kathleen Parker is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.