Pubdate: Sun, 30 Oct 2005
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: B - 1
Column: Matier and Ross
Copyright: 2005 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Authors: Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
Note: Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear 
Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays.
Note: Relevant section of a longer column.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

SMOKIN' STEVES

Travel writer and public television star Rick Steves is in the Bay
Area this weekend with a special tip: Lay off marijuana smokers.

Steves, whose European guides have made him a near-household name in
the Bay Area, is also a board member of NORML, the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He'll be making an
address in that role at this weekend's Wonders of Cannabis Festival in
Golden Gate Park.

"Society has to make a choice to tolerate other lifestyles or build
more prisons," Steves told us in a phone interview from his Seattle
office.

Citing what he called the "European perspective," Steves said
decriminalizing weed doesn't necessarily mean that use goes up.

"I'm not going to tell you that people should smoke pot or that I
smoke pot in America," Steves said, "but I will tell you that I think
our drug policies are laughable."

As for Steves himself?

"I smoked when I went to Nepal in the '70s -- everyone did," Steves
said. "It was very casual. And you know what they say ... when in Rome.

"I don't hide it from my kids," Steves added. "I even had the
president of NORML over for dinner so my kids could meet him. It's
good to be honest about it, be credible and honest because there's a
real serious problem with hard drugs out there."

As for why he's taking such a high-profile position on
pot?

"I know a lot of people who smoke, but who would rather hide in the
closet and be ashamed than speak out and say these laws are stupid,"
Steves said. "I mean, 8 million people have smoked -- some of them
must have inhaled." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake