POT DRAWS A MISPLACED FOCUS

Despite the nearly 30 years that have passed since The Clash first sang, "I
get violent when I'm fucked up/I get silent when I'm drugged up," the song
"Cheat" still offers a telling insight into the contrasting effects of
different substances. Case in point: a recent study by researchers at the
Robert Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at the University of
California at Riverside indicated that alcohol is more closely connected
with violence than illegal drugs, according to AScribe.

Researchers found that 25 percent of violent assaults were linked to
alcohol, compared to fewer than 10 percent that were connected to drugs
like cocaine, heroin, and PCP. When it came to homicide, alcohol was
"overwhelmingly" the most frequently mentioned drug. "The stereotype is of
the drug-crazed criminal," sociology professor Robert Nash Parker, the lead
investigator in the study, said in an article distributed by Join Together
(www.jointogether.org), a Boston-based group working to reduce substance
abuse and gun violence. "The reality is something quite different."

Parker adds, "If you really want to have effective policies related to
drugs, if you want to have fewer bad outcomes in terms of health, welfare
and violence, the drug you want to focus on is alcohol. The evidence is
pretty powerful and pretty convincing if someone wants to look at it."

Despite the more harmful impact of alcohol, the federal government
continues to target marijuana -- arguably the most benign of the illegal
drugs. According to the pro-pot NORML Foundation, marijuana offenders are
referred to US attorneys for prosecution in larger numbers than any other
drug offenders. Citing Justice Department figures, NORML says that
one-third of 38,288 drug offenders referred to federal prosecutors in 1999
were involved with marijuana, compared to the 28 percent suspected of
powdered cocaine violations, 15 percent each for crack and speed, and seven
percent for opiates.

"Despite the government's denials, these statistics show that America's
'War on Drugs' is primarily a war on marijuana smokers," R. Keith Stroup,
NORML's executive director, says in a statement. The Bush Administration,
meanwhile -- at a time when the $19 billion federal anti-drug budget has
climbed to an unprecedented high -- is targeting otherwise law-abiding pot
smokers for what it calls "compassionate coercion."