Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL) Copyright: 2002 Newsday(NY) Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419 Author: Sheryl McCarthy, Newsday LET'S FOLLOW BRITAIN'S LEAD AND RELAX MARIJUANA LAWS The British took a big leap forward recently, announcing a plan to downgrade marijuana's status as an illegal drug. Instead of treating pot like much harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will push a proposal to put it more on par with, say, steroids. Instead of arresting people who're caught with small amounts of marijuana, the police in most cases will simply confiscate the drugs and give the offender a warning. The point is to free the police to concentrate on more serious crimes, government officials said. With this latest move, Britain is finally getting more in step with the rest of Western Europe, where only a handful of Scandinavian countries still treat marijuana smoking as a crime. In Spain, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands, they don't arrest marijuana users; in Spain, and Portugal, not even hard-drug use is a crime. The United States should emulate its closest ally. Enough finger- pointing at the decadent Dutch, with their pot shops and needle parks. We'd be in the same league as the normally strait-laced Brits. A less flexible drug policy hasn't served the British well, as they have one of the highest drug-death rates in Western Europe. So it's time to try something more sensible. And because Blair cozies up to George W. Bush on most things, maybe he could whisper in the president's ear that we have one of the most senseless drug policies in the world. In 2000, the last year for which the FBI has crime statistics, 743,000 people were arrested for marijuana offenses, 88 percent of them for simple possession. Before Rudolph Giuliani became mayor, fewer than 800 marijuana arrests were being made in New York City each year. After his crackdown on so-called quality-of-life crimes, the number skyrocketed to 52,000. If, as current Mayor Mike Bloomberg admits, he has not only smoked marijuana, but really enjoyed it, should New York City continue arresting 50,000 people a year for doing the same thing? Marijuana does not have the same connection to violence and crime that alcohol has, or the link to addiction, sickness and death that tobacco does. Yet alcohol and tobacco are legal - because so many Americans like to smoke and drink, and because these drugs support huge industries. Yet marijuana, a mild intoxicant that's associated with teen-agers and younger adults, is treated like the drug from hell. Drugs are the third rail of U.S. politics, and few politicians are willing to call for changes in the current drug policy for fear of being called soft on drugs and soft on crime. Yet most politicians are out of step with the American public. A recent Zogby poll asked, in light of the more pressing concerns caused by Sept. 11, if Americans favored arresting and jailing people for smoking marijuana. Sixty-one percent said they do not. Twelve states have stopped arresting people who are caught with marijuana in public, and Nevada has a voters' initiative on the ballot this fall that could give it the most progressive marijuana policy in the nation. It would legalize possession of up to 3 ounces, authorize the state to open state-licensed marijuana shops and make marijuana available cheaply for medical purposes. The big obstacle is the federal law that forbids the use or possession or sale of marijuana, and even its use for medical reasons. The federal government should get out of the way and let the states adopt more reasonable policies, if they see fit. And the states, in short, should follow the Brits. - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFlorida)