PUFFING POLS BUSTED FOR HYPOCRISY

WASHINGTON -- My thanks go out to New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg for clearing away some of the smoke in the marijuana debate.

It was not his idea. He was drafted by a $500,000 print, broadcast
and bus ad campaign by the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws Foundation (NORML).

As part of NORML's campaign against the city's policy of arresting
and jailing public pot smokers, the ads feature a photo of Bloomberg
next to a quote he gave last summer as a mayoral candidate. New York
magazine asked whether he had ever smoked pot and he responded
cheerfully, "You bet I did. And I liked it."

NORML's ad praises Bloomberg's candor. "At last, an honest
politician," it says. With that, Bloomberg joins such other political
notables as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Newt Gingrich and Bill Bradley who
have admitted to partaking of the demon weed in their youth.

Bloomberg did not back away from his now-famous pot quote, although
he told reporters that he wishes he had not answered it in a way that
has come back to bite him.

He's not going to sue over the use of his likeness, ("Number one, I
don't know that it would help. And number two, I think my ego
probably would keep me from doing that.")

But he's not going to change the city's pot policy, either. Some
52,000 people were arrested and jailed for smoking marijuana in
public last year, up from 720 in 1992.

A lot of seemingly knowledgeable folks will tell you, "Oh, nobody
gets busted for pot anymore." Not quite. Nationwide, the numbers of
arrests and incarcerations have climbed from the hippie 1960s right
through the Reagan ("Just say no") era and that of Bill ("I didn't
inhale") Clinton.

In 1970, when the marijuana legalization issue was just taking hold,
there were 188,903 arrests, according to FBI Uniform Crime Reports.
In 2000, the number had climbed to a record 734,498, of which 88
percent were for simple possession, not sale or manufacture. More
than 59,000 people are in federal, state or local prisons for
marijuana offenses, including more than 15,000 for possession--not
trafficking--according to the Marijuana Policy Project, based on
Bureau of Justice and Statistics reports.

So while late night comedians have a high time at Bloomberg's
expense, among those who are not laughing so hard are the thousands
who have been busted for doing what the mayor and numerous other
prominent oldsters can shrug off as a youthful indiscretion.

That's why I thank Mayor Bloomberg for exposing--albeit
involuntarily--our national hypocrisy over marijuana. The same
lawmakers who dismiss their own past pot-smoking often turn amazingly
self-righteous when it comes to enforcing marijuana laws with regard
to other people.

I'm not ready to join NORML in calling for elimination of laws
regarding public marijuana smoking. There are many public places
where it simply does not belong any more than drinking or tobacco
smoking. But I am hardly alone among Americans who would like to see
the debate opened up so that marijuana might be regulated like other
legal drugs.

Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington have legalized possession of marijuana for medical
purposes. But the Clinton and Bush administrations have overruled
them. Voters in the District of Columbia overwhelmingly passed a
similar measure, which was overruled by Congress.

Polls indicate that most Americans (73 percent in a 1999 Gallup Poll)
favor legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. But Washington's
political leaders insist that their consciences should be our guides.
I wonder what they've been smoking.