POT PRINCESS CLEARS AIR

Decries Reefer Madness

"Pot Princess" turned would-be pop princess Julia Diaco is singing the
blues about her notorious reputation.

In an interview with "Inside Edition," Diaco - who got a slap on the
wrist for selling drugs out of her NYU dorm room - said she still
considers herself a "normal" college student.

"I got into selling marijuana because I was smoking marijuana,"
Diaco, 20, said in her first interview since her infamous 2003
arrest. "There were other people doing the same thing . . . I'm just
trying to say that, in some sense, it was almost normal."

The Post reported last week that Diaco is trying to make herself over
as a pop singer named "J-Dia," but was playing up her criminal past
on her racy official Web site and MySpace page.

Her Web bio crowed that she was "one of the decade's most infamous
drug dealers," but also whined that she was the victim of a "flawed"
NYPD investigation.

Diaco, who could have faced up to 25 years in prison had she been
convicted of drug sale charges at trial, pleaded guilty to reduced
charges and was sentenced to five years probation in March.

Diaco, who grew up in a mansion in tony Rumson, N.J., said she's
troubled by the perception that she's a rich girl who got away with
something.

"It bothers me, in that I know there's more to me than that," she
said.