OFFICIAL URGES POLICE OFFICERS TO OPPOSE MARIJUANA PLAN

Mary Anne Solberg, deputy director of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, urged police officers Tuesday night to actively oppose
Nevada's marijuana ballot initiative.

"Nevada is a state that is facing a crisis: the legalization of
marijuana," she told about 2,000 officers who teach the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education program to schoolchildren across the United States.

Speaking at the Las Vegas Hilton for the national DARE conference, she
said decriminalization of marijuana "is a bad idea," and that
increasing availability to pot would hurt the nation's youth, likening
it to relaxed access to alcohol and tobacco for children.

The initiative, on the Nov. 5 ballot, would legalize possession of as
much as 3 ounces of the drug. Possession of any amount by minors would
remain a crime. The use of marijuana in public and by drivers would
also be prohibited.

Solberg said powerful men with "more money than we've ever seen" were
lobbying to ease pot laws across the nation, and that it was up to the
nation's police officers to campaign vigorously against that effort.

"You need to get involved with this issue," she said, encouraging
officers to write letters to the editors of their hometown newspapers.
"Educate your parents. You need to educate your community... We cannot
sit back and say this is a terrible thing and somebody better do
something about it."