EXPECT THE WORST IF POT'S MADE LEGAL

I've smoked my share of dope.

I'm a baby boomer, a flower child of the '60s who danced with joy to
Dylan's jingle-jangle verse, "Everybody must get stoned." The tousle-haired
troubadour implored my generation to smoke marijuana, and I followed his
siren song. I got stoned in Pocatello, Idaho; Las Vegas; Ventura, Calif.;
and a dozen other towns and cities where a pothead, gypsy journalist could
find work.

I got stoned, and I got busted -- in Salt Lake City; Mesquite, Nev.; and
St. Paul, Minn. I smoked dope and wrecked cars, careers and my children's
childhoods as I careened around the country, stoned out of my mind.

I got stoned on marijuana, then I got addicted to the stuff. Then -- with a
little luck, a lot of tough love and strong laws that made getting stoned a
riskier proposition as I grew older -- I got straight.

Now, one way I stay straight is helping others do the same. That's why I
work for Oregon Partnership, the only statewide nonprofit organization that
provides both education on substance abuse prevention and treatment
referral services.

The pro-pot lobby argues that marijuana is a relatively harmless, natural
substance, and that legalizing and taxing it would create revenue for our
state's battered budget.

That argument doesn't hold water. Any tax revenue that might result from
marijuana's legalization would be swamped by increased health care, law
enforcement, and lost productivity costs that taxpayers and businesses
would have to swallow.

While the pro-legalization mantra remains the same, the types of marijuana
that have become available have not. Today's pot can be five times more
potent than the grass that baby boomers like myself smoked in the 1960s and
'70s. It is more mind-altering, more harmful and more addictive, especially
to youngsters whose brains are more vulnerable to the negative effects of
marijuana.

Given marijuana's potency, it makes sense to keep it illegal. When people
smoke this drug, they suffer memory loss, impaired coordination, distorted
perception, anxiety and paranoia. And they become dissociated from their
loved ones. People high on pot are a danger to themselves and to those
around them.

Imagine what would happen if marijuana was legalized. There would be more
stoned drivers causing wrecks on our highways, more impaired employees
having accidents in our workplaces and more spaced-out students dropping
out of our schools.

Marijuana legalization also would spawn myriad health problems. Marijuana
contains a higher concentration of the same cancer-causing chemicals found
in tobacco. Recent studies have determined that inhaling four joints a week
is equal to smoking one pack of cigarettes a day. Short-term pot use causes
lung and respiratory problems, and long-term use can be deadly. Heavy
marijuana users risk lung cancer, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, heart
problems and brain damage.

The pro-pot lobby maintains that marijuana is not addictive. That is pure
myth. If pot is not addictive, why do more than 100,000 adults in America
seek treatment for marijuana addiction each year? Why do studies show that
pot is the primary addictive illicit drug for the majority of teenagers in
treatment? And what about other studies that found regular marijuana users
experienced such withdrawal symptoms as craving, decreased appetite, sleep
difficulty, weight loss, increased anger, aggression, irritability and
restlessness?

Dope is called dope for a reason. When people smoke it, they do stupid
things. Legalizing marijuana would not only be bad public policy, but it
also would be very stupid.

Dylan's song has soured, and the dancing is joyless. Marijuana hurt too
many people of my generation; legalizing this drug would do even more
damage to the next.