D.C. SET TO VOTE ON LEGALIZING MARIJUANA, ALREADY A WIDELY USED DRUG

Just after 11 one morning last week, two men and two women, all in
their early 20s, sat on a basketball court behind Dunbar High School
in Northwest Washington and filled an empty cigar with marijuana --
their first hit of the day.

Also that day, at a picnic table by the Oxon Run stream, east of the
Anacostia River, five men played dominoes and passed a joint.

And at an Adams Morgan park, as dog walkers and bicyclists wandered
by, a 23-year-old man in a Pittsburgh Pirates cap rolled a thick
joint using cherry-flavored paper. "This is hitting nice," he said
moments later, forecasting that he would smoke five or six more
before day's end.

The D.C. Council is set to vote Tuesday on legalizing medical
marijuana, thereby allowing the chronically ill -- including those
with HIV, glaucoma or cancer -- to buy pot from dispensaries in Washington.

Yet marijuana is already ubiquitous in many parts of the city, as
demonstrated by federal surveys showing that Washingtonians' fondness
for weed is among the strongest in the country -- and growing.

The popular image of the nation's capital leans toward the straight
and narrow, a town of over-achieving, button-down bureaucrats,
lawyers and lobbyists. But meander through any neighborhood from
Congress Heights to Friendship Heights, and Washingtonians across
race and class lines can be found lighting up.

"It's absolutely pervasive and accepted," said a 44-year-old sales
manager who lives with his wife and three children in the city's
Chevy Chase section. He estimates he spends $3,000 a year on pot.
After a recent pickup hockey game, he found himself sharing a joint
with a beer distributor and the vice president of a technology company.

"Everywhere you go, you meet someone who gets high or, if they don't,
knows someone who does," he said.

Federal surveys put the District among the nation's leaders in pot
consumption. More than 11 percent of Washingtonians older than 26
reported smoking marijuana in the past year -- the highest percentage
of any state in the nation, according to a 2007 survey by the U.S.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Vermont
and Rhode Island were second and third, each with more than 10
percent of respondents reporting marijuana use.

"Washington is among the areas in the country where marijuana use is
most," said Jon Gettman, a criminal justice professor at Shenandoah
University and a former leader of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws. "The number of colleges in the city is one
factor. Another factor, and a subtle one, is the degree that people
feel open enough to answer."

But because pot is illegal, many users are reticent to discuss their
habit at work, in social settings or with newspaper reporters. All of
the nearly two dozen pot smokers interviewed for this article spoke
on the condition that their names not be revealed.

High Rate of Arrests

A 50-year-old scientist who lives with his wife in Adams Morgan said
that if marijuana is ever legalized, he hopes to open a pot cafe
called Wakey Bakey. For now, though, he's discreet, preferring to
step away from the crowd at a party to smoke from a pipe shaped like
a cigarette. "I don't want people to think of me as a stoner," he
said. "It is, technically, illegal."

In the District, penalties for possession and distribution are strong
enough to encourage discretion but too weak to be much of a
deterrent. Those caught with small quantities could face up to a year
in jail and up to $1,000 in fines. Dealers risk a year in prison and
up to $10,000 in fines -- penalties that can double if sales take
place within 1,000 feet of a school, playground, library or public housing.

The District's arrest rate for marijuana possession, 677 per 100,000
residents in 2007, is among the nation's highest. Police say pot
accounts for so many arrests not only because it is so commonly used
but also because it's often easier to detect than crack cocaine or
heroin, with a distinctive odor that has a way of wafting out car
windows during traffic stops.

"You can drop a rock and run," said D.C. Assistant Police Chief Peter
Newsham. "If you drop a Ziploc bag of marijuana, you're going to
leave a big patch of green."

D.C. police seized about 840 pounds of pot last year, Newsham said.
"People don't feel marijuana is dangerous, but it is, because of the
way it is sold," he said. "We frequently recover weapons when serving
search warrants associated with the sale of marijuana."

Doing a 'Service'

Finding a marijuana dealer can be easy or hard, depending on how much
risk a buyer can tolerate. A 26-year-old man, unemployed and just
coming off probation for selling crack, said it took him all of about
15 minutes to find someone selling pot as he walked along Georgia
Avenue NW on a recent afternoon.

But a businessman in his mid-40s who is married with children and
lives in Northwest is too cautious to buy on the street. At parties,
he tries to figure out who smokes and who might help him buy pot. If
someone mentions, say, the pot-happy film "Fast Times at Ridgemont
High," his ears perk up. "You listen for the cultural references," he said.

Dealers don't exactly take out advertisements. A man in his late 40s
who has been selling pot full time from his Northwest home for more
than two decades said he has 30 to 50 regular clients, many of them
lobbyists, journalists, Capitol Hill staffers, artists and musicians.

"I'm in waste management" is among the answers he said he gives at
parties when asked how he makes a living. He makes about $50,000 a
year selling pot, he said, maintains regular business hours of 10 to
12 hours a week and takes time off, sometimes to the annoyance of his
clientele.

"They'll say, 'You don't need to go on vacation,' like I don't have a
job," he said during an interview at a restaurant near Dupont Circle.
"I do have a job. In fact, I have a career. I'm doing people a
service. I make them happy. People come to see me, and they leave
happier than when they came."

The dealer said that the legalization of medical marijuana would lift
some of the stigma attached to the drug and could be a step toward
making all pot legal. But he also said Congress's authority over the
District could make full legalization unlikely. "We'll be the last
place it happens," he said.

A Steppingstone

The bill before the D.C. Council would allow physicians to recommend
- -- but not prescribe -- up to two ounces of pot in a 30-day period
for patients with chronic, debilitating conditions. Fourteen states
have legalized medical marijuana.

Many pot smokers support the bill as a steppingstone toward broader
legalization, as a way to keep the drug away from minors and as
official recognition that their drug of choice has some beneficial effects.

"It calms you down," said Tyrone, a 26-year-old New Orleans
transplant, as he shared a joint with three friends on an empty
basketball court in Northeast. A resident of a homeless shelter, he
scrapes together an income helping to carry out evictions and said he
spends $10 a day on pot.

Sitting next to him, a woman who identified herself as Recee, 23, a
graduate of Ballou Senior High School, said, "I wake up the next day
looking for another 'J' because it's just that good."

Teenagers in parts of the city said they can buy pot more easily than
beer or cigarettes.

At Cardozo Senior High in Columbia Heights, teachers and students
said that a group of students has turned a secluded stairwell into a
smoking den. Sometimes the smell is so overwhelming that one teacher
keeps her classroom door closed. "There are a lot of jokes about
contact highs," the teacher said.

School administrators or security guards chase the tokers off, but
they always return.