MARIJUANA -- A GATEWAY DRUG TO POLITICS

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become the latest leader to gain
prominence for having smoked marijuana. On April 9, the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (www.NORML.org) unveiled a
$500,000 ad campaign that highlights what Bloomberg said when New York
magazine asked him last summer if he ever smoked grass: "You bet I
did. And I enjoyed it."

NORML's ads lampoon the War on Marijuana, a big-government debacle that
deserves to be laughed into oblivion. Fittingly enough, many politicians
grin at their own marijuana use.

Ex-president Bill Clinton famously yucked it up when he revealed that he
smoked pot, "but I didn't inhale."

As the April 9 New York Daily News noted, Gov. George Pataki (R, New York)
said, "yes, I did inhale," after he and some Columbia Law School pals
toked up. Previously, they had eaten baked beans cooked with marijuana.

Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R, California) quipped on "Politically Incorrect"
that in the 1960s, "I did everything but drink the bong water."

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R, Georgia) told The Economist that he
smoked pot while studying in the 1970s. To do so, Gingrich said, "was a
sign that we were alive and in graduate school in that era."

Despite drug warriors' claims, marijuana does not necessarily demolish
young people's life prospects. In fact, Americans evidently can smoke
grass, then wind up in governors' mansions, the U.S. Congress and even the
White House. Bloomberg, who was a multi-billionaire media tycoon before
Gotham's voters sent him to City Hall, recalled his zany days at a Johns
Hopkins University fraternity in the early 1960s. As he explains in his
autobiography, "Bloomberg by Bloomberg:" "Maybe all that enjoyable 'wasted'
time had long-term benefits after all."

While politicos chuckle at their own "youthful experimentation" with
marijuana, it's no laughing matter for many Americans who conduct such
"experiments" today. They often suffer, though less from hemp than from
handcuffs.

The NYPD's arrests for possession and/or public smoking of marijuana have
swelled from 1,362 in 1993 to 50,830 in 2000, equal to 15 percent of that
year's total arrests. (NORML correctly prefers citations and fines to
apprehension for public smoking.) In 2000, 734,498 Americans were arrested
nationwide for breaking marijuana laws, 646,042 of them for mere possession.

Using U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics data, the Marijuana Policy Project
calculates that 37,500 federal, state and local inmates were imprisoned for
cannabis violations in 1998, 15,400 of them for possession alone. At an
average cost of $20,000 each, government spent $750 million to incarcerate
these offenders. The project estimates that the War on Marijuana costs
taxpayers $9.2 billion annually.

This shopworn policy devours scarce public resources, even as authorities
struggle to prevent future airline hijackings, bioterrorist attacks or even
the detonation of a "dirty nuke" in Times Square.

Every law enforcement asset arrayed against non-violent potheads is one
less asset that can be deployed against al-Qaida sleeper cells.

Officials high and low should accept a simple fact: U.S. adults enjoy
marijuana. Some 69.7 million Americans over 18 at least have tried it,
while 19 million adults say they have smoked pot within the last year.

And why not? Marijuana can enhance music, fine dining and long walks on
secluded beaches. If consenting adults wish to spark up and watch "The
Simpsons" inside a private home, that should be as lawful as doing so after
sipping red wine.

Naturally, those who light up, then head for the highway should be
prosecuted for driving under the influence. Ditto those who operate heavy
machinery while stoned.

But when it comes to policing grown-ups at leisure, the War on Marijuana is
sillier than a weed-fueled giggle. The same government that permits
Americans to soften the edges of modern life with Xanax, Tylenol PM, Lotto
and Jagermeister immediately should put a match to the entire anti-pot
project. If marijuana amuses the mayor of America's premier city, it
should be available to entertain adults in Anytown, USA.