PUSH TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA IS DANGEROUS

The good citizens of Nevada are about to make a decision which, if they
vote the wrong way, has risky consequences for their state, and possibly
significant consequences for the country at large.

They are being asked to vote on a ballot initiative that would legalize the
possession of marijuana.

Nevada already has legalized gambling and prostitution, and the state
Legislature moved last year to decriminalize marijuana, making possession
of an ounce or less of the drug a misdemeanor instead of a felony. Now the
pro-marijuana forces want to go the extra step, from decriminalization to
legalization.

Fortunately, the outcome is not foregone. Though voters earlier this year
seemed to be evenly split on the issue, latest polls suggest the opponents
of the proposal are gaining ground over the supporters. The shift comes
after a major outcry against the proposal from law-enforcement officers.

If the pro-pot forces prevail, it would set a bad precedent for other
American states and undercut U.S. international drug interdiction efforts.
How can Washington prevail on other countries to crack down on drug
shipments to the United States if a hitherto illegal drug like marijuana is
now legal within U.S. borders?

Much of the drug flow comes from Mexico and the south. But even such a
usually intelligent country as Canada is considering decriminalizing
marijuana. That sends shivers up the spines of drug-enforcement officials
in Washington. The Bush administration's drug czar, John Walters, hopes the
Canadian government "does not head down the risky path of decriminalization
or legalization." The United States, he says, has learned through hard
experience that marijuana is a dangerous drug with serious public health
and social consequences.

Indeed, decriminalization of marijuana in Canada could lead U.S. lawmakers
to tighten border controls. Indiana Republican Rep. Mark Souder told the
Toronto Globe and Mail last week it would likely cause the Bush
administration and Congress to take tougher measures to prevent illegal
drugs moving from Canada into the United States. That might slow down
border traffic. Souder is chairman of the House subcommittee on criminal
justice, drug policy and human resources.

The pro-marijuana forces will of course scoff at all this, suggesting that
marijuana is merely a "recreational" drug without harmful effects, and does
nothing like the damage inflicted by heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and
the new range of synthetic drugs used at "rave" parties that now go beyond
Ecstasy to include DXM, AMT, 2-CB, ketamine, Oxy-Contin and nitrous oxide.

I have a special point of view about all this, for some 30 years ago as a
correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, I was dispatched on a
major investigation of international narcotics traffic. For five months I
traveled around the world, probing the seedy world of drug production,
trafficking and use. I checked out illegal opium production in Turkey,
Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Thailand, and heroin labs in Marseilles and
Mexico. I could have bought cocaine in Beirut and heroin in Hong Kong. I
could have bought hashish and marijuana as easily as toothpaste throughout
much of Asia, the Middle East and parts of Mexico. Marijuana grew untended
like a weed in dozens of countries.

The ultimate end of drug usage was often widespread misery. It ranged from
family breakups to suicide to American hippies found guilty of drug
possession and tossed into Middle Eastern jails that were such hellholes
that they bribed their way into mental institutions for better treatment.

In the course of this investigation I worked with many longtime
drug-enforcement agents. One of the most chilling comments came from one
undercover U.S. agent in Lebanon. "I can't say that everyone who starts on
marijuana ends up on the hard stuff," he told me. "But I can say that in
all my years in this work, I never met an addict on the hard stuff who
didn't start on pot."

I wound up my investigation in Geneva, talking to a seasoned narcotics
expert at the European headquarters of the United Nations. "Programs to cut
back drugs are important, but this is cops-and-robbers stuff," he said
reflectively. "It all ends up with the user, the addict." The crux of the
problem, he suggested, was the education and regeneration of the user --
and perhaps of the society that contributes to the user's degradation.

Thirty years later, I am not cheered by the progress we have made in this
area. It would be too bad if a state like Nevada makes a decision that
endorses, rather than discourages, drug usage.
- --
John Hughes is editor and chief operating officer of the Deseret News. He
is a former editor of the Christian Science Monitor, which syndicates this
column.