D.C. BUD?

The White House Drug Czar Blows Into Town To Talk Tough, But He Also
Signals A New Attitude Toward Discussing Pot.

EVERY SO OFTEN, you can see a new rip, however small, in the American
cultural fabric, a subtle sign that what was once presumed to be a settled
issue is now up for grabs. Last week there was a moment at a drug treatment
center in Rainier Valley that was one of those times.

That's when John Walters, the White House "drug czar," came to Seattle
backed by a platoon of bodyguards--and unwittingly admitted that the feds'
60 Years War on marijuana didn't have the grip on the American public that
it once did.

Walters' announced purpose in coming to town was to stand before the
assembled media and say that federal, state, and local agencies should work
hand in hand in combating drug use in Seattle, and that more resources
should be devoted to the treatment of drug addicts (though he offered no
new money for local treatment programs).

Walters decried general drug use (heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine),
and then he got down to the real reason for his trip: to inveigh against
Seattle's I-75, which was before voters Tuesday, Sept. 16. The local ballot
measure would make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority of
Seattle police and the city attorney's office, which is responsible for
prosecuting misdemeanor pot cases.

Walters called I-75 the result of "living in the past and ignorance, a wink
and a nod, 'Let's play dumb'" on marijuana. It's not the first time Walters
has traveled outside the D.C. Beltway and tried to bigfoot a local measure
that would soften, however imperceptibly, marijuana laws. He did it last
fall in Nevada, and earlier this year officials from his Office of National
Drug Control Policy campaigned against a local measure in Missouri. In both
cases, he won.

But the Emerald City is harder slogging for the czar than the Silver State.

This week, the measure was winning overwhelmingly before all absentee votes
were counted. Surprisingly, Seattle's media, even the usually pliant
television news, largely declined to help Walters make his case to the
public. Only KOMO-TV sent a cameraperson to the press conference, but it
didn't air any footage that evening. Other than that, there were only a few
print and radio reporters, and their subsequent coverage was hardly the
level of drum banging Walters' visits have generated elsewhere.

But the Seattle media also missed a shift in the pot war. You had to listen
hard, but it was there: Deep in his remarks about I-75, Walters made an
admission you wouldn't have heard from federal drug enforcement officials
even during the Clinton administration.

"The real issue is should we legalize marijuana," Walters said. "Let's have
a debate about that."

Ever since the 1930s and propaganda films such as Reefer Madness, the feds
have waged a multibillion-dollar war on marijuana use. Rarely have they
acknowledged that millions of Americans actually like pot and use it
responsibly, let alone that there might be a need for a national debate on
how America should treat marijuana under the law.

ASKED WHAT FORM the debate would take and how the White House would kick
start the process, Walters--usually a polished, intelligent advocate for
his position--went into duck-and-cover mode. He blamed marijuana advocates
and their financial backers like billionaire George Soros, who supported
last year's failed legalization initiative in Nevada, for stifling debate
and for preventing "clear information" from reaching the American public.
He also accused them of risking youngsters' lives in the deal. Walters had
nothing to say about the estimated 700,000 Americans sitting in state and
federal prisons on marijuana charges or about the more than 700,000
Americans arrested each year because of pot--each of whose lives and
well-being is at risk for partaking of a substance that millions in this
country (and a country to the north) have accepted as not being the Demon
Weed the feds claim it to be.

All the same, what Walters said was an admission pot advocates found amazing.

"That is fascinating to hear from the man who on every occasion refuses to
debate us," said Bruce Mirken, spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy
Project, who added that his group, partially funded by billionaire Peter
Lewis, has offered before to square off with the czar. "He flat-out
refuses. I'll debate John Walters anytime he wants."

Mirken might want to think about warming up with Tom Carr, Seattle city
attorney. Carr ran for office in 2001 as the liberal answer to years of
civil-rights-abusing Mark Sidran. But in introducing Walters at the press
conference, Carr sounded like he was applying to become deputy drug czar.

Saying that he was "proud" to stand shoulder to shoulder with Walters, Carr
said that I-75 would "have us look away from the marijuana problem."

But in an interview last month, Carr described his opposition to I-75 as a
5 on a scale of 1 to 10 and never portrayed marijuana as a sizable problem
in Seattle.

Many Seattleites would seem to agree, based on this week's vote. The tally
late Tuesday night had I-75 winning by more than a 15 percent margin.