HOW TO LIGHTEN UP ON MARIJUANA LAWS

Imagine a time when police and prosecutors wouldn't eat up their limited
time and resources going after people who possess marijuana for personal
use only.

Imagine the serious wrongdoing that law enforcement agencies then could
devote themselves to countering.

Such a day soon will arrive -- in Great Britain.

Moves announced last week by Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will,
for all practical purposes, decriminalize the possession and use of
marijuana. People who use small amounts no longer will face arrest.

Other European countries are taking similar light-handed approaches.

"The message to young people and families must be open, honest and
believable," British Home Secretary David Blunkett said to Parliament.
"Cannabis is a potentially harmful drug and should remain illegal. However,
it is not comparable with crack, heroin and Ecstasy."

Britain will reclassify marijuana so that users only will face modest
fines, not arrest and prison terms.

The United States continues to list marijuana under the Controlled
Substances Act as a Schedule 1 drug, the category for drugs with "no
acceptable medical benefits."

Cocaine doesn't even rate a Schedule 1 classification.

Federal drug officials and Congress ignore the government's own studies
indicating that marijuana helps ease the suffering of many seriously ill
patients, such as cancer victims.

This hypocrisy makes clear that the path to European-style enlightenment in
the United States will be long and uphill.

Britain's new policy comes after a successful test in the South London
neighborhood of Brixton. The police chief there said marijuana arrests
amounted to a "waste of time" and directed beat cops to combat the hard drugs.

Such a national policy will take effect by next summer.

It's earned the support of police chiefs and police associations across the
country. Notes a news story on Britain's past marijuana laws, "Law
enforcement officials have argued that it was unrealistic to expect young
people to respect a legal system that permitted tobacco and alcohol use but
treated marijuana as a life-threatening substance."

This is the kind of realistic attitude that law enforcement officers and
political leaders in this country ought to adopt.

But voters probably will need to lead the way in this country. Californians
in November 2000 went to the polls to approve Proposition 36, which
requires judges to put people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses in
treatment programs rather than in jail cells. New York and Arizona have
similar laws.

These measures are only the start of the reforms.