STRAIGHT DOPE ON DRUGS

WASHINGTON -- When it comes to marijuana, youthful indiscretion has come of
age.

Lots of politicians, including three of the Democratic presidential
candidates, show no fear of fessing up to lighting up in their wild-oats
days. Indeed, some who deny dabbling in illegal drugs give the impression
that instead of feeling self-righteous, they're a little nervous about
coming across as dishonest or just square.

Times have changed since one of President Reagan's Supreme Court nominees
was jettisoned because of pot smoking in his past, and even over the decade
since candidate Bill Clinton felt obliged to equivocate about whether he
inhaled.

"We're just facing reality. People do a lot of things when they're young,"
said Joseph Califano, chairman of Columbia University's National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse and a former U.S. health secretary.

As young people who were part of the explosion in drug use in the 1970s
matured and moved into public service, voters of all ages gradually have
become more accepting of drug transgressions.

"If we disqualified guys that had used drugs in those years, we'd probably
eliminate half the potential candidates or more," Califano said.

In addition to former President Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore,
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich,
R-Ga., and several past senators and Cabinet secretaries have admitted to
at least trying marijuana. New York Gov. George Pataki says he inhaled, as
did New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Eight candidates at a recent Democratic presidential debate were asked
whether they ever had used marijuana. Three of them - Sen. John Kerry, Sen.
John Edwards and Howard Dean - each answered with an unadorned "yes,"
drawing enthusiastic applause from the "Rock the Vote" event's youthful
audience. It was candidates who said they hadn't smoked pot who felt the
need to elaborate.

"I grew up in the church. We didn't believe in that," Al Sharpton explained.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he never tried marijuana, "but I think it ought
to be decriminalized."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman offered a joking apology: "Well, you know, I have a
reputation for giving unpopular answers in Democratic debates. I never used
marijuana, sorry."

Only Wesley Clark offered a straightforward, "Never used it."

The candidates' admissions caused barely a ripple in the media, launched no
significant Republican attacks and no signs of public outrage. But
conservative moralist Bill Bennett, co-chairman of Partnership for a
Drug-Free America, said he was disappointed by "this kind of tee-hee, ha
ha, winking and nodding at marijuana." "It's not a lighthearted issue. It's
a serious issue," said Bennett, who served as director of drug control
policy under the first President Bush. "They wouldn't joke like this about
smoking cigarettes."

It was Bennett, as Ronald Reagan's education secretary back in 1987, who
pushed Douglas Ginsburg to give up his Supreme Court nomination. While
Bennett says past marijuana use should not automatically bar an individual
from high office, he still believes Ginsburg's use of the illegal substance
while a serving as a Harvard law professor made him unfit.

Would such a past damage a Supreme Court nominee today?

"Probably less so," Bennett said. "The bright line is dimming, that's for
sure."

Advocates of marijuana, who have had some success promoting medical use of
the drug, are encouraged by the more casual attitude, even though most of
the politicians who tried marijuana years ago don't support legalization today.

"Given the fact that we have so many prominent people in this country who
have acknowledged using marijuana and didn't become junkies, derelicts,
have their lives ruined, we are at a point where we need to have a
conversation about do these laws that criminalize marijuana make any
sense," said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project,
which seeks to ease marijuana laws.

For parents, the proliferation of "everybody did it" excuses among the
nation's leaders raises the question of how to convince teens that
marijuana is risky. After all, Partnership for a Drug-Free America
estimates that about 60 percent of parents have tried marijuana themselves.

Bennett recommends describing the dangers honestly, in the same vein as
warning against speeding or drunk driving.

"If you smoke marijuana once or twice, probably nothing is going to
happen," he said. "But you never know." You could end up a junkie. Or a
president.