MARIJUANA IN AMERICA

More Mainstream Than Ever, More Arrests Than Ever

Marijuana's Coming-Out Party Is Kicking into High Gear Across America
- -- but Way to Many People Still Are Getting Cuffed for It.

Need more evidence that marijuana has gone mainstream in America? This
morning on the Today show, Matt Lauer chatted up a piece on so-called
stiletto stoners -- educated, professional women with killer careers
and enviable social lives who favor marijuana as their intoxicant of
choice and are increasingly comfortable admitting it.

The TV piece draws its inspiration from an article titled "Stiletto
Stoners" in the current issue of Marie Claire magazine. The story
raises the question: Why are so many smart, successful women lighting
up in their off hours?

The sympathetic article and TV piece feature interviews with a wide
range of successful women who wind down at the end of the day with a
joint instead of a martini. The women see no need to apologize for
their drug of choice and offer various reasons for choosing pot over
booze: Some don't like alcohol, others say they enjoy more rewarding
conversations with friends when they are indulging in marijuana.

The coming-out party is happening in more and more
places.

The entertainment newspaper Variety recently ran a feature story on
the depiction of marijuana as an everyday, normal occurrence on TV
shows and in movies. The story references NBC's Parks and Recreation,
the CBS pilot, Accidentally on Purpose and AMC's Mad Men -- all
portraying marijuana use matter-of-factly, without the "reefer
madness" storyline.

There's more: Emblazoned on the cover of the September issue of Fortune
magazine is a photo of actress Mary Louise Parker, star of the popular
Showtime hit series Weeds, teasing the lead story: "How Marijuana Became
Legal: Medical Marijuana Is Giving Activists a Chance to Show How a
Legitimized Pot Business Can Work. Is the End of Prohibition Upon Us?"

And let's not forget what President Barack Obama, New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger all have
in common: They are all elected officials who have admitted to smoking
marijuana, and it didn't hurt their political careers.

In fact, their candor may have even helped boost their appeal in some
way by making them seem more approachable and hip, whether by writing
about it in memoirs (Obama), being featured in marijuana-reform-organization
advertisements (Bloomberg) or being shown enjoying marijuana in
documentary films (Schwarzenegger).

While these examples of public figures owning up to past drug use
without suffering adverse consequences are a sign of progress toward
overcoming the "couch potato" stereotypes of marijuana users, we sadly
still have a ways to go when it comes to public policy.

You might be surprised to learn that in the United States more than
750,000 people are arrested every year on marijuana possession. In New
York, under "moderate" Bloomberg, there were 40,000 pot arrests last
year, and the city now has the unfortunate distinction of being the
marijuana-arrest capital of the world.

While marijuana use doesn't discriminate, our marijuana policies do.
Nationally and in New York City, marijuana arrests show stark racial
disparities. In 2008, 87 percent of those charged with pot possession
in New York were black or Latino. These groups represent only about
half of the city's population, and U.S. government surveys
consistently find that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than
blacks and Latinos.

Yet blacks and Latinos are arrested for pot at much higher rates, in
part because officers make stop-and-frisks disproportionately in
black, Latino and low-income neighborhoods.

I applaud the stiletto stoners who are admitting to their families and
friends that they smoke marijuana. It is brave to "come out" and cast
aside shame and shatter stereotypes about who is a "pothead." But we
need to remember that the war on people who use marijuana is all too
real and has not ended.

In November, more than 1,000 people from across the country and around
the world -- including drug-policy experts, health care and
drug-treatment professionals, elected officials and people who were
formerly incarcerated -- will meet in New Mexico to organize,
strategize and promote alternatives to the failed war on drugs.

The Today show said 8 million women tried marijuana in the last year.
We need them to join the movement to end marijuana
prohibition.