S.F., AMSTERDAM SIMILAR IN POT USE

As Oakland considers whether to vote on decriminalizing marijuana, a
new study comparing patterns of use has found little difference
between Amsterdam where it's decriminalized and San Francisco, where
recreational use remains a crime.

In fact, the study in the American Journal of Public Health's May
issue found more use of "hard drugs" such as powder or crack cocaine,
opiates, amphetamines or Ecstasy among San Francisco's marijuana users
than among Amsterdam's.

"Dutch decriminalization does not appear to be associated with greater
use of other illicit drugs," wrote researchers Craig Reinarman,
chairman of the University of California, Santa Cruz's Sociology
Department, and Peter D. A. Cohen and Hendrien L. Kaal of the Centre
for Drug Research at the University of Amsterdam, the
Netherlands.

"Indeed, to judge from the lifetime prevalence of other illicit drug
use, the reverse may be the case."

A group called the Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance has proposed a
ballot measure directing the city to move toward regulating, licensing
and taxing marijuana sales as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the city
would lobby for changes in state law to allow this, and would make
private adult marijuana offenses the police's lowest priority,
although public dealing and consumption would remain illegal.

Backers now are trying to gather at least 19,948 signatures from the
city's registered voters by mid-June to put the measure on November's
ballot. Campaign spokeswoman Clare Lewis said they expect to meet the
deadline with no problems.

"People believe that the federal government's war on drugs isn't
working, and what we were told has turned out to be inaccurate," she
said.

Lewis cited the long-held idea that marijuana must be criminalized
because it's a "gateway drug" to other, more dangerous substances -
an idea undermined by the Santa Cruz-Dutch study.

That study's researchers interviewed hundreds of randomly chosen
marijuana users - people who've used it at least 25 times - in
Amsterdam and San Francisco, noting details such as their age when
they started using it, frequency and quantity of use, duration of
intoxication, use of other drugs and other factors.

"There's a lot of evidence that supports the view that criminalization
doesn't really decrease use and decriminalization doesn't really
increase use," Reinarman said Tuesday. "It can't be considered
definitive proof that the same thing would be found under all
conditions in all societies and communities ... but it does add
support to the idea that decriminalization isn't going to be a dam
that breaks and all hell breaks loose."

Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Washington, D.C.-based
Marijuana Policy Project, said the study refutes the federal
government's claims that marijuana is a "gateway drug" and that
prohibition curbs use.

"A system of responsible regulation can break the link between
marijuana and far more dangerous substances," he said.