TALKING TOUGH ON POT

Parents Warned Of Lax Attitude Toward Marijuana

You may start noticing - if you haven't already - a new campaign warning
parents and children about an increasingly popular drug on the streets
these days: marijuana.

Despite the rising popularity of "designer drugs" such as Ecstasy, there is
once again a focus on marijuana. And pot is arguably as controversial today
as it has ever been.

Medical groups and leaders in the nation's war on drugs are so worried that
marijuana is becoming trivialized that the federal government has rolled
out a new campaign starting this fall to convince parents and children of
its dangers.

Moreover, there's concern the growing debate over medical marijuana and
talk about legalizing the drug in some states, as well as across the border
in Canada, have only blurred the issue for young people.

"You cannot meaningfully address the drug problem in the United States
without focusing on marijuana use," said Jennifer de Vallance, spokeswoman
for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"People in the United States, especially kids, are getting the wrong
message about marijuana," said de Vallance, a former Western New Yorker.
"They're learning it's harmless, that you can't get addicted to it. And a
lot of parents believe experimentation with marijuana is inevitable for kids."

The nation's top drug officials hope this renewed crusade injects stiffer
opposition into what has been a gradual softening of public attitudes
toward marijuana since its days from the 1960s counterculture.

Consider a USA Today/CNN/-Gallup Poll taken last year: 34 percent favored
legalizing marijuana. That's the most support for legalization since
pollsters began asking the question in 1969, when 12 percent said marijuana
use should be legal.

Law enforcement has sensed this.

"We're seeing an awful lot of open use," said Amherst Detective Lt. Donald
Wright, who said today's marijuana is more potent than the drug was years
ago. "The patrols are getting it on car stops. We're getting calls of
parked cars, and it's kids smoking up. It's all different age groups."

Drug counselors see it, too.

"There are more parents smoking marijuana and approving marijuana use for
their kids than before," said Eleanore Martinez, director of Renaissance
Campus in West Seneca, which treats adolescent substance abusers.

And some youths even say it's easier for them to get their hands on
marijuana than alcohol or cigarettes.

"I started smoking marijuana the same time I started smoking cigarettes,"
said Katie, an 18-year-old who is in substance abuse treatment at the West
Seneca facility. "So I always associated it with smoking cigarettes."

Critics, however, wonder if the government's new campaign to educate the
public about marijuana will do any good.

Instead, they see issues like medical marijuana slowly relaxing public
attitudes even more.

"I think the fact you're seeing the medicinal marijuana issue really taking
hold, probably for the first time, has gotten the average person thinking
about marijuana policy in the United States," said Paul Armentano, a
spokesman for the the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws, or NORML, a lobby group based in Washington, D.C.

Focus On Specific Drug

Recent findings about attitudes toward marijuana worry the nation's top
medical professionals and drug officials.

For instance: Teenagers say marijuana is easier to buy than cigarettes or
beer, according to a recent poll by the National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse.

Today, one out of five eighth-graders has tried marijuana - twice as many
as had tried it a decade ago.

And more young people are now in treatment for marijuana dependency than
for alcohol and all other illegal drugs combined, according to the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration.

That said, the Office of National Drug Control Policy - part of the White
House Cabinet - signed onto the new campaign along with 17 education,
public health, anti-drug and family advocacy groups.

In the past, said de Vallance, anti-drug efforts such as the "Just Say No"
campaign have been general, focusing on all drugs.

"This is kind of an unprecedented effort to focus on a specific drug," she
said.

The national effort will include advertisements on television, on radio and
in print media, along with ads that will air in National Football League
stadiums and inside game programs.

The goal is to make sure the anti-marijuana message trickles down to
teachers, parents and adults who work with youth. Studies show early
parental involvement is a key in determining whether kids will begin
experimenting with alcohol and drugs, de Vallance said.

Local law enforcement echoed those sentiments, reminding parents that
drastic changes in their teenagers' attitude, friends, grades and work
habits are signs of possible use.

Cheektowaga Lt. M. James Starr, who heads the department's Vice, Gambling
and Narcotics Squad, knows that's not the guidance all kids are getting at
home.

"We have had some cases where some of the elderly have been in possession
of it," Starr said. "And generally, these are people who have allowed their
children and grandchildren to smoke it."

Heated, Complex Debate

But the issue over how harmful marijuana is has long been a heated, complex
debate with both sides citing medical research.

If there is one thing both sides on the legalization issue can agree on,
it's keeping marijuana out of the hands of youths.

Marijuana becomes habit-forming for 9 percent of those who try it at least
once, according to a 1994 study quoted by anti-drug officials.

That's who's at the 62-bed Renaissance Campus, an adolescent treatment
facility operated by Alcohol & Drug Dependency Services.

"If there's one myth they all come in here with, it's that marijuana is the
one drug that's OK," said Martinez, the director. "It's like the alcoholic
who says, "If I switch to beer, I'll be fine.' "

Among them were five teenagers sitting around a table last week in an
office on campus, where they shared their stories.

There were four boys - Mike, Mike, Jim, Willie - and one girl, Katie, all
from ages 16 to 18. They've been here anywhere from a few months to more
than a year.

Their stories are similar. They were introduced to marijuana by friends or
older siblings by age 12 or 13.

Their grades began slipping. They started skipping school. They fought with
their parents or got kicked out of the home. They had run-ins with the law.

"After that, it was as much as I could for as long as I could," said Mike,
16. "The goal for the day was just to stay high."

It was accessible, and they knew how to find it. And often a hit was
cheaper than beer or cigarettes.

"Marijuana wasn't hard to find, at least for me. It was generally
accepted," said Willie, 17, who said he started using after seeing his
friend's stepmother smoking marijuana. "In my town, it was cool for all the
40-year-olds to get the little kids high."

Actually, there wasn't a lot of coaxing. Katie associated a joint with a
cigarette. Others tried the drug even after warnings from parents.

"My dad used to tell me how he smoked pot and did drugs, so I knew it was
something I shouldn't do," Mike said. "But all the stories I heard from my
dad about marijuana were funny stories. And all the bad stories were all
the other drugs."

"Scare Tactics' Decried

While drug officials try to dispel misperceptions, warn about the drug's
long-term health effects on the lungs and brain and argue it leads to use
of harder drugs, advocates of legalizing marijuana cry that the government
is using scare tactics.

For example, critics, like NORML, try to discredit statistics that show a
rising number of youths in treatment for marijuana use by pointing out that
many of them were given the choice to either seek treatment or go to jail.

For 32 years, the group has been lobbying that adults should be allowed to
legally use marijuana responsibly, while arguing that jails are being
filled with thousands of nonviolent marijuana offenders each year.

The move to legalize marijuana gained momentum during the mid-1970s, when
11 states eased penalties on pot, Armentano said.

Further efforts stalled when the mood of the country turned more
conservative, he said, but the group believes the issue is coming of age.

Marijuana will be a November ballot issue in at least three states, most
notably in Nevada, where voters will decide whether adults should legally
be allowed to possess up to three ounces of the drug in their homes.

"We're clearly seeing a second wave taking place not just here but in
Europe and Canada," Armentano said. "One could argue the U.S. is behind the
curve."

Western New York is close to the debate because it is next door to Canada,
where a Senate committee has recommended that marijuana be legalized and
amnesty granted to anyone previously convicted of pot possession.

Local narcotics detectives cringe over the thought of legalizing marijuana
across the border. Veteran detectives Wright and Starr believe more young
people likely would cross the border, as they do now because the drinking
age is lower. That could result in some trying to carry leftovers back into
New York.

But Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark - who thinks legalizing
marijuana would be foolhardy - believes legalization in Canada would set
off more of an attitudinal change here than anything.

"People will say, "If they can do it in Canada, why can't we do it here?' "
Clark said.