UPSTANDING CITIZENS SMOKE POT

He lives with his wife and kids in a tidy, old neighborhood. His two
children, both in elementary school, play soccer. He takes them to games
on Saturdays in his minivan.

He also has a secret: Several nights a week, when the homework is finished
and the kids are in bed, he slips outside to the dark space between his
garage and his neighbor's hedge.

He plucks a dried, green marijuana bud from a Ziploc bag, packs a pipe and
inhales deeply. Then he goes upstairs, showers and changes his clothes so
the kids won't smell smoke if they wake up and want their daddy.

"In my social circle, lots of people smoke pot," sand the 40-something
communications executive from San Diego, who asked that his name not be
used because he's afraid of losing his job. "They are all
professionals. Most have children. If we go to a dinner party, a few of
us will go outside and have a toke."

Damon and Brenda van Dam's admission they smoked marijuana the night their
daughter, Danielle, disappeared ignited a debate in the courtroom and the
community about their fitness for parenthood. In his opening statement,
the defense attorney for Danielle's accused killer, David Westerfield, used
the van Dams' pot-smoking to create an image of a cavalier attitude toward
caring for their children.

But not everyone was shocked to learn a respectable telecommunications
engineer earning a good living enjoyed smoking dope in the evenings. The
van Dams are in the company of doctors, lawyers, stock brokers and even
members of law enforcement who furtively get high in their garages and on
their decks, all the while terrified they'll be found out by their
neighbors, employers and children.

They are America's most secretive potheads -- a vast underground of
otherwise upstanding citizens secretly subverting the nation's drug laws.

President Bush's television commercials link buying drugs with supporting
terrorism. The U.S. government spends hundreds of millions on border
patrols and overseas drug interdiction.

But to these upscale stoners, the drug war has nothing to do with them --
it's as remote from their Neighborhood Watch-protected streets as drug
cartel shootouts in Tijuana, Mexico.

They believe smoking weed is about as serious as fudging on their taxes, on
the level of claiming the computer you bought for your kid was a business
expense.

And scoring good pot is a lot like popping open a '94 reserve cabernet: a
harmless little indulgence that takes the edge off a stressful day.

"To me, casual marijuana use is really no different than the casual
drinking of hard alcohol," said the communications executive. "as long as
you're doing it responsibly, at times when you're not caring for your
children or driving, it's really no big deal -- other than that it's illegal."

Gauging the prevalence of marijuana-smoking among otherwise well-behaved,
middle-class adults isn't easy. Most current research focuses on usage
among teens or people arrested for other crimes.

In one recent survey by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, 15 percent
of couples with children admitted to smoking marijuana in the last year.

"We see the casual use of marijuana in all socioeconomic environments,"
said Alex Groza, a San Diego police sergeant and member of the Drug
Enforcement Agency's Narcotics Task Force. "...It's more accepted by
society than ever."

A 2000 Gallup pole found 34 percent favor legalizing marijuana, up from 12
percent when the question was first asked in 1969.

Voters in 8 states have approved medical marijuana initiatives. And polls
show that more than 70 percent support medical marijuana.

Has pot-smoking -- once feared as a dangerous habit of the counterculture
- -- become an unremarkable part of mainstream America?

Pot smokers would have you believe it.

"I mow my lawn on Saturdays. I put chlorine in the pool. I put gas in my
SUV. I go to my kid's plays at school and the stupid bake sales," said
Bob, a Web designer in his 40s from Vista, Calif. "I also happen to enjoy
marijuana. And there are a lot of people out there just like me."

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is
trying to prove it. Their goal: Get 100 prominent Americans -- CEOs, CPAs,
MDs -- to publicly proclaim they smoke pot in an open letter to major
newspapers. So far, few have agreed.

"Once people see how common it is, you are going to see marijuana legal in
very short order," said Dale Geirenger, president of the NORML's
California chapter. "The stereotype will fall away and people will realize
marijuana isn't the dire threat they think it is."

The trend toward marijuana acceptance troubles some doctors. A marijuana
joint has more cancer-causing compounds than a tobacco cigarette, said Dr.
Herbert Kleber, a professor of psychiatry and director of the division of
substance abuse at Columbia University in New York City. Studies show
heavy use can permanently impair the memory and that people who use
marijuana are more likely to try harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.

As many as 200,000 people a year seek treatment for marijuana addiction,
according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Pot smokers who contend that smoking a joint is the same as having a couple
of drinks are wrong, said Dr. Daniel Valentine, director of substance abuse
services at Sharp Vista Pacifica is San Diego.

The reason? Marijuana is illegal. Alcohol isn't. Whether or not you agree
with the law, "you're giving the message to your children that illegal drug
use is OK," Valentine said.

In 2000, there were 1,579,566 drug arrests nationwide, according to FBI
statistics. Nearly half -- 734,497 -- were for marijuana.

Of those, 646,042 people were arrested for possession.

But upper-middle-class users aren't worried about getting busted by
police. Police admit it: There's little chance they're going to arrest
suburbanites quietly smoking a joint in the privacy of their own home.

"The police department doesn't go around snooping in people's houses to see
if they're smoking a joint at the kitchen table," said Groza, the San Diego
sergeant.

Upstanding stoners are discreet. They don't buy dope on street
corners. They have connections -- friends or business associates who deal
or grow the marijuana themselves. To keep their risk down, they buy in
small quantities.

Nor do upscale marijuana connoisseurs smoke ordinary Mexican pot. They
smoke premium strains with names such as "Chronic" and "BC Bud" -- highly
potent pot that's often cultivated using a sophisticated system of
hybridized plants, artificial lights and a soilless growing system called
hydroponics.

"BC Bud" takes its name from British Columbia, where much of it comes
from. Premium pot can contain 15 percent to 25 percent
tetrahydracannabinol (THC), pot's psychoactive ingredient, compared with
about 2 percent for the marijuana available to their hippie forbears in the
'70s.

Primo pot can sell for as much as $6,000 a pound.

One former parole agent said he spends as much on marijuana as a car
payment: $400 a month. He lights up most mornings with his cup of coffee.

He and his wife, Tracy Johnson, a 40-year-old couple from a Portland
suburb, are among the few suburbanites actually trying to promote their pot
smoking.

They have a pro-pot Web site called jeffandtracy.com. Their motto: "We're
your good neighbors. We smoke pot."

The couple said they were turned down when they tried to buy pro-pot
advertising space on city buses, park benches and in the state's largest
paper, the Oregonian. Nor would any radio station in their area run their ad.

"We set out to counteract the propaganda put forth by the Partnership for a
Drug Free America that portray drugs in general and pot smokers in
particular as losers and bums," said Tracy, a homemaker.

Since he started his campaign, Jeff Jarvis, a self-employed software
engineer, said he hasn't lost a single client.

But others fear they have much to lose.

The communications exec believes he'd be fired if he made it known that he
smokes pot.

"If anyone found out, my life would be ruined," he said.

His paranoia is well founded. Corporate America, largely out of liability
concerns, does not tolerate drug use.

In 2001, 67 percent of companies surveyed by the American Management
Association tested their employees for drugs. Of those, 61 percent did
pre-employment testing of job applicants and 50 percent drug-tested employees.

Marijuana can be detected in the urine for two to four weeks, depending on
the potency and how much was smoked, Kleber said.

Phil Blair, executive officer of Manpower Staffing Services, which provides
some 15,000 workers to 600 companies, said he deals with only one company
that does random drug testing.

However, nearly every large firm he deals with has a "for cause"
drug-testing policy, enabling employers to test anyone who has an accident
on the job or who files a worker's compensation claim.

The punishment for people who test positive for marijuana is
straightforward: "if you're caught, you're instantly fired."

The communications exec believes there's almost no chance of that happening
to him. his company does not do random tests. He said he could, and
would, stop immediately if that was the case.

"It doesn't affect me as a husband or a father. It certainly doesn't
affect my job," he said. "It's just a way to relax and kick back for the night.