POLICE FIGHT RESURGENT MARIJUANA TRADE

Marijuana Use Is On The Rise Again On Long Island.

After decades as the recreational drug of choice for the young, hip
and rebellious, marijuana appeared to go out of fashion about 15 to 20
years ago, at least to judge by law enforcement statistics. The number
of arrests in Nassau County for marijuana possession or sale fell from
864 in 1985 to 468 in 1990 as pot smoking was largely supplanted by
crack cocaine and synthetic party drugs like angel dust and Ecstasy.

But the figures now show sharp increases in marijuana arrests -- up to
1,179 in 2000 and 1,494 last year in Nassau. In Suffolk, 3,843 arrests
were made in 2003, up from 2,495 in 2000, the earliest year for which
figures are available. And officials in both counties say those
figures understate the trend.

Experts attribute much of the resurgence to the fact that dealing
marijuana is very profitable but not very risky: law enforcement
agencies concentrate on more powerful and dangerous drugs like heroin
and cocaine, and unless large quantities are involved, the state's
drug laws treat traffickers in those narcotics much more harshly than
marijuana dealers.

The Suffolk police narcotics unit's top priority is "long-term
investigations that involve cocaine, crack and heroin," said Detective
Sgt. Thomas Higgins. "We do get into marijuana, but that is more of a
street narcotics operation, until it gets into the pound category."

That is as it should be, say supporters of decriminalization of
marijuana. Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which has been lobbying
for legalization of the drug, said: "Children admit having more access
to controlled and unregulated marijuana than they do to taxed and
controlled drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco. If you are a parent and
you want your children to have minimal contact with marijuana,
prohibition is not the policy that is going to deliver that."

Most opposition to easing restrictions on marijuana focuses on the old
gateway-drug theory, which holds that people are more likely to try
stronger drugs if they have tried marijuana. A report by the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University said
that "statistically speaking, marijuana stands convicted as a gateway
drug. Twelve-to 17-year-olds who smoke marijuana are 85 times more
likely to use cocaine than those who do not."

But Dr. Andrea Barthwell, a deputy director of the White House Office
of National Drug Control Policy, said that because more marijuana is
being used at a higher potency and at a younger age, the discussion
had moved beyond the gateway-drug debate. "The gateway theory used to
be important because it suggested that using alcohol, tobacco, or
marijuana as a first substance will open the door to other substance
addiction," she said. "Our understanding today is the hard drugs are
no different. Marijuana is no longer a steppingstone."

Anthony Placido, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration's New York division, which includes Long Island, said
the marijuana seen on Long Island these days is more potent than it
was three or four decades ago. "It is hydroponically produced indoors
with selectively separated male and female plants, so they don't waste
energy germinating," he said. Referring to the active chemical in
marijuana, he said of today's marijuana varieties, "The THC is
doubled, and in some cases tripled, from the 60's."

Dr. Barthwell also pointed to recent medical studies showing that
marijuana can impair learning and memory. "When one initiates on
marijuana, it is strong enough to change the direction of a child's
life," she said. "The future harm is now."

Law enforcement officials said they are also seeing more examples of
marijuana laced with other drugs, like cocaine, a narcotic; LSD, a
hallucinogen; and PCP, a hallucinogen also known as angel dust.

Detective Lt. Kevin Smith, a Nassau police spokesman, said it was
unclear why Suffolk's marijuana arrest totals were more than twice as
high as his county's. "Perhaps they are seeing more marijuana-related
offenses than we are seeing here," Lieutenant Smith said of the
Suffolk statistics.

Thomas Willdig, president of the Nassau detectives' union, said the
reason was the county's budget straits, which have left the police
force with fewer officers on the street and fewer detectives on the
narcotics squad -- 31 in 2003, down from 55 in 1998.

Gary DeLaRaba, president of the Nassau police officers' union, said:
"It is obvious that dealing drugs is a lot easier in this county. We
are doing more with less, and they are selling more."

The Suffolk County chief of detectives, Kenneth Rau, said the number
of street officers and narcotics detectives has remained basically the
same over the past three years. He added that the Suffolk department
has made a concerted effort to arrest marijuana dealers.

But state and federal officials said marijuana dealers were in a
relatively invulnerable position. "Probably the most profitable niche
in the illicit-drug market is to be a marijuana dealer who is
sophisticated enough to foil local law enforcement and traffic in
amounts that are small enough that they are not of interest to the
federal government," Agent Placido said. "If you can occupy that
market, you can make an incredible amount of money."

Kevin Cavanagh, a senior New York State Police investigator, agreed
that the marijuana business was both very profitable and "an
increasing problem" on Long Island.

In one case last year, a task force seized 4,000 pounds of marijuana
at various locations on Long Island, along with $11 million in cash
that prosecutors said was receipts from marijuana sales. Mr. Cavanagh
said the case illustrated how big and lucrative the trade can be and
how unworried dealers have become about getting caught -- a view
echoed by Ricky Smith, a detective in the Hempstead Police Department
who is part of a federal drug task force on Long Island.

"Nobody is really afraid to sell marijuana, because they are not going
to be put away for a long time compared to other narcotics," Mr. Smith
said. "What we are seeing over the last couple of years," he said, is
crack cocaine dealers who "are getting out of jail and looking to sell
marijuana, because it is not as harsh a sentence. I've seen people who
are locked up, in the last two years, close to 10 times for the sale
of marijuana, and they are still back out on the streets."

New York State has decriminalized possession of small amounts of
marijuana. A first or second offense of possessing 25 grams or less is
treated as a violation, the least serious category of offense, similar
to a traffic ticket; conviction brings a fine of $100 to $200 but no
jail time.

Sale of such a small amount, or possession of 25 grams to 8 ounces, is
a misdemeanor, punishable by no more than a year in prison. Sale of
more than 25 grams is a felony; for up to 4 ounces, the maximum
sentence is four years.

By contrast, the mandatory sentence for selling 2 ounces of cocaine or
heroin or possessing 4 ounces of either drug is 15 years to life.

New York's sentencing laws for hard-narcotics convictions have often
been criticized as excessively harsh, and have been blamed for
crowding the state's prisons with nonviolent offenders serving long
terms. But law enforcement officials say it is the state's marijuana
laws that ought to be altered, because they are too lenient.

Problems with marijuana "will continue to grow until the Legislature
wakes up and starts changing some of the laws" to make the laws
governing marijuana dealing as strict as those dealing with cocaine,
Detective Ricky Smith said. "People who get locked up are in the
system no time at all."

Law enforcement officials said that on Long Island, marijuana users
range from junior high school students of 12 or 13 to retirees who
began smoking it in the 1950's and 1960's. Many more people of all
ages and backgrounds have tried marijuana than other illegal drugs,
they said.

"People look at marijuana as a harmless drug," said Sgt. Ed Fennesy, a
supervisor in the Nassau Police Department's narcotics bureau. "Now
you have a generation of parents who took drugs all along, who allow
their kids to do it."