MARIJUANA MOVEMENT ROLLS INTO THE MAINSTREAM

One is a retired judge who says he has never smoked marijuana in his
life. Another is an economist who says he last touched the drug
decades ago, in college, and didn't like it. Yet another is a lawyer
who acknowledges that he ''absolutely'' smokes pot. James W. Dolan,
Jeffrey Miron, and Michael Cutler are the white-collar public face of
the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts, a newly formed group that
helped put a nonbinding initiative to decriminalize marijuana on the
ballot in 19 legislative districts across the state.

The initiative, which proposed making possession of a small amount of
marijuana a civil offense - punishable by a $100 fine similar to a
parking ticket - passed everywhere it appeared on the ballot,
including nine districts in Greater Boston. Bolstered by a Boston
University study that calculated the state could save $24 million if
the initiative were enacted, the measure passed with roughly 70
percent approval of voters in four districts that include parts of
Brookline, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale.

''This vote shows that these attitudes are mainstream,'' said Cutler,
interim director of the Drug Policy Forum, which commissioned the BU
study.

Now the group hopes to work like a think tank, not a grass-roots
coalition. Its members strive for a board of directors filled with
professors, not potheads. While their friends who put on the annual
Freedom Rally focus on the right to smoke, the Drug Policy Forum
champions fiscal savings.

Antidrug activists say they've noticed that the marijuana movement has
gotten a makeover and has seen widespread success among mainstream
voters, but they warn the public should still be wary.

''It's a very smart political move on the part of marijuana
lobbyists,'' said Maria Cheevers, executive director of the Boston
Coalition Against Drugs and Violence. ''The group that is coming at
this from a professional perspective, arguing that this is saving
money on the war on drugs, can sound much more credible than the old
potheads' argument ... But it's a slippery slope. Before you know it,
it's OK to sell [marijuana] in the stores, and the kids aren't showing
up at school any more because they're stoned.''

For 13 years, the flag-bearer of the movement to reform marijuana laws
was the annual Freedom Rally, put on by the Massachusetts Cannabis
Reform Coalition.

But some argue that the rally's thousands of stoned youths in ripped
jeans hurt the cause more than helped it. In 1998, a Globe article
called the rally's participants 1960s ''throwbacks.'' In 1999, a
Herald editorial called them ''burned-out relics.'' Perhaps the height
of negative publicity came when the coalition's president, Bill
Dowling, was arrested for donning a pig's snout and oinking at
undercover police.

''I think the public gets alarmed by people who show up at the rallies
and flout the law,'' said Dolan. ''The rally doesn't do much to change
people's minds on the issue. It may have to some degree the opposite
effect.''

Two years ago, a group of coalition volunteers diverted their efforts
from the rally to a signature-collecting push to put decriminalization
on the ballot in three legislative districts. Decriminalization, they
argued, would not change much: While those found guilty of possessing
marijuana can face up to six months in jail, the vast majority of
cases only result in a fine. Changing the law - which 13 states have
already done - would be more efficient and would not risk a young
offender's access to jobs and student loans, activists argue. Critics
counter that it would send the wrong message to teenagers and could
bring a dramatic increase in drug use.

But in 2000, the measures passed in all three districts, including the
communities of Somerville, Framingham, and Ipswich. That victory
prompted 180-degree policy shifts among some lawmakers. State Senator
Charles Shannon, a former police officer, sponsored a bill on Beacon
Hill that he would have once vehemently opposed.

''My constituents told me in overwhelming numbers that they support
the decriminalization of less than an ounce of marijuana,'' Shannon, a
Democrat from Somerville, told the Criminal Justice Committee in March
2001.

''Current law dictates that people who use marijuana on a purely
personal basis be classified as criminals. In the case of first-time
offenders, we are forcing them to relive their past mistakes every
time they apply for a job or every time they apply for a student
loan,'' he said.

Emboldened by their legislative successes, some Cannabis Reform
Coalition activists formed the Drug Policy Forum, which they hoped
would lobby for change in all drug policy.

''There's a bunch of us who ... thought that there needed to be
another face, besides what appeared at the Freedom Rally,'' said
Cutler, 53, who once helped organize the event.

While the coalition's members are known for eating hemp cereal,
reading the magazine High Times, and socializing with subgroups like
Jamaica Plain's ''Grannies for Ganja,'' the Drug Policy Forum has
sought support from academics and conservative think tanks. And while
the coalition survives off grass-roots membership dues, works out of
members' homes, and is barred by law from certain political
activities, the Drug Policy Forum has already received grant money,
laid groundwork for opening a full-time office, and commissioned
Miron, a BU economist, to study how much minor marijuana offenses cost
the state.

The forum also scored a major victory by recruiting Dolan as an
adviser. Years ago, Cutler was a young lawyer defending a marijuana
smoker and Dolan was the presiding judge who refused to dismiss the
case. But after years of presiding over drug-related homicide trials
in Dorchester, Dolan decided drug offenses should be treated as a
public health problem, not crimes. He helped found the state's drug
courts, which offer alternative sentences for addicts.

''I was a judge when all of the motor-vehicle offenses were criminal
matters - speeding, red lights,'' Dolan said, adding it is ''just a
matter of time'' before marijuana possession is also
decriminalized.

David Rosenbloom, a longtime critic of the marijuana movement who
heads Join Together, a drug prevention group, acknowledges that the
activists' new tactics are starting to tap into the concerns of
mainstream society by emphasizing cost savings and treatment.

Still, Rosenbloom wondered how new the Drug Policy Forum really
is.

''Is that a new organization or just a new name?'' he asked. ''I
suspect it's many of the same people who have been working on this
issue over the years.''

That's a question that even the activists themselves have yet to
answer.

Both the Cannabis Reform Coalition and the Drug Policy Forum sent out
news releases over this year's ballot success, praising the teamwork
that led to victory.

But privately, Dowling grumbles that the forum did not do as much work
as the coalition. ''They started late in the game and provided some
paid signature-gatherers, whose signatures were frankly not nearly as
quality as the ones our volunteers collected,'' he said.

Still, in this movement, there's no place for rivalry.

''It may be the public's perception that MassCANN is a bunch of freaks
and DPF is a strait-laced group, but that's not reality,'' Dowling
said. ''Everybody that's involved in the Drug Policy Forum met through
MassCANN ... We have always had more than one face.''