MARIJUANA POLICY REFORM CROSSROADS

In news reports across the country, drug czar John Walters and other
prohibitionists have been verbally high-fiving each other, declaring the
defeat of my organization's ballot initiative in Nevada to be the death
knell for efforts to reform our nation's marijuana policies.

Actually, the November 5 results were more ambiguous -- and encouraging --
than the prohibitionists would have us believe.

Our Nevada initiative was the boldest marijuana policy measure ever
proposed. It would have:

(1) Removed the threat of arrest for adults who use and possess up to three
ounces of marijuana.

(2) Required the state government to bring marijuana out of the criminal
market and regulate it.

(3) Maintained criminal penalties for driving under the influence of
marijuana, distributing or selling marijuana to minors, and smoking
marijuana in public.

This dramatic break from marijuana prohibition received 39 percent of the
vote -- only 11 percentage points away from setting up a system that would
have allowed police to focus on violent crime and terrorism rather than
chasing down tens of thousands of nonviolent marijuana users.

Meanwhile, 63 percent of San Francisco voters passed an initiative
directing their city government to grow and distribute medical marijuana in
defiance of federal law. And voters in all 19 legislative districts in
Massachusetts passed marijuana "decriminalization" initiatives, directing
their legislators to enact a statewide law that would impose fines rather
than jail time for marijuana possession.

In politics, you win some and you lose some: Overall, we have won seven
out of seven state medical marijuana initiatives since 1996. In 1998
alone, voters passed our initiatives in Alaska, Nevada, Oregon, Washington,
and the District of Columbia. Yet you didn't hear the drug warriors
declaring their war on drugs to be doomed.

And we didn't declare absolute victory in 1998 either, because we know that
undoing our government's destructive marijuana policies is a long-term,
difficult struggle.

Make no mistake: The "noble experiment" of marijuana prohibition that was
enacted in 1937 has been an abysmal failure. The goal of marijuana
prohibition was to prevent people from using marijuana. Yet, according to
government figures, only a tiny percentage of Americans had tried marijuana
in 1937, but as of last month, a Time magazine poll indicated that 47
percent of adults -- an astounding 98 million people -- have used marijuana.

Relegating marijuana sales to street corners and schoolyards guarantees
that adolescents have easy access. According to the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, 88.5 percent of high-school seniors find
marijuana "fairly easy" or "very easy" to get. After all, drug dealers
don't card; regulated sellers of alcohol and cigarettes do.

If marijuana prohibition were any other government program, the Republican
Party would be clamoring to abort it. Thankfully, good, consistent
Republicans like Rep. Ron Paul from Texas, William F. Buckley, and George
Shultz have called for an end to the war on marijuana users.

So what does the future hold?

- - On December 4 we launch our "War on the Drug Czar." During the Nevada
campaign, drug czar John Walters declared war on the law and on the
truth. He violated both federal and state law by using his office to
conduct a dishonest, misleading campaign against our ballot initiative
while failing to file any campaign finance reports for his activity. We are
calling him to account by filing complaints with the federal Office of
Special Counsel and Nevada's secretary of state.

- - We will be sponsoring more statewide medical marijuana ballot initiatives
in the West and Midwest, while lobbying for medical marijuana bills in
state legislatures in the East. According to the Time poll, 80 percent of
Americans believe adults should be legally permitted to use marijuana for
medical purposes.

- - We will continue to educate the American people about why prohibition
doesn't work. The Time poll -- like the two most recent USA Today / Gallup
polls -- shows that 34 percent of the American people want to "legalize"
marijuana, and a majority say adult marijuana users should not go to jail.

We aren't as far away from ending marijuana prohibition as the drug
warriors would have us believe.

ROB KAMPIA

Executive director, Marijuana Policy Project