Pubdate: Thu, 11 Apr 2013
Source: Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
Copyright: 2013 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/about/feedback/
Website: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/339
Author: William Bender
Page: 4

IN A 1ST, MAJORITY BACKS LEGAL POT

LAST WEEK was the tipping point: For the first time in more than four 
decades of polling, a majority of Americans say that marijuana should 
be legalized, the Pew Research Center announced.

It's a slim majority - 52 percent to 45 percent - but the trend is 
undeniable. Smoking pot will not be a crime forever in America, where 
someone is arrested for marijuana possession every 42 seconds, on average.

The polls found that 32 percent still believe that smoking marijuana 
is morally wrong, but that's an 18-point drop from 2006. Seventy-two 
percent said enforcing marijuana laws costs more than it's worth.

"Marijuana is objectively less harmful than alcohol, and it simply 
does not make sense to punish adults who are making the choice to use 
a less-harmful product," said Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy 
Project. Tvert co-directed last year's successful ballot initiative 
in Colorado to legalize and regulate cannabis like alcohol.

Marijuana-legalization and -decriminalization bills are pending in 
state legislatures and organizing is underway for ballot initiatives 
in the 2014 and 2016 elections. Tvert expects voters in at least four 
more states to legalize the drug in 2016.

Pennsylvania isn't there yet, politically. But state Sen. Daylin 
Leach, who has introduced bills in Harrisburg to legalize marijuana 
for recreational and medicinal purposes, said the state will join 
Colorado and Washington eventually - and reap the financial benefits.

"It's inevitable. Prohibition is a policy that's becoming harder and 
harder to sustain," said Leach, a Democrat who represents parts of 
Montgomery and Delaware counties. "This will pass. Now, it may take a 
couple of sessions."

Kate Auerhahn, a Temple University criminologist who teaches classes 
on drug laws, predicted that relaxing marijuana laws would lead to a 
temporary spike in usage, then probably a leveling off, perhaps 
slightly above current levels.

"I don't think that's a sign of the apocalypse," Auerhahn said, 
noting that a majority of the 18.1 million Americans who admit to 
using marijuana in the past month do not use any other illicit drugs 
and are not likely to commit crimes.

But many law-enforcement officials, such as Delaware County District 
Attorney John Whelan, are convinced that the country is heading in 
the wrong direction.

"It'd be ridiculous to make it legal," Whelan said. "The easiest way 
to explain marijuana is, it makes you stupid. If you talk to someone 
who's on marijuana, you' re going to say, 'They're stupid.'"

For Mike Whiter, 36, a Marine combat veteran from South Philly who 
served in Kosovo and Iraq, the plant has medicinal value. Over five 
years, doctors had prescribed him dozens of medications, including 
antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opiates, for posttraumatic 
stress disorder and chronic pain. He discovered nine months ago that 
cannabis works much better.

"They give you these pills that have suicide as a side effect," 
Whiter said. "I'm not on any more pills. I just smoke pot. It saved my life."

Whiter recently founded Pennsylvania Veterans for Marijuana 
Legalization. It doesn't matter if it's for medicinal or recreational 
use, he said. Smoking pot just shouldn't be a crime.

"Before, I was a recluse. I stayed in my house, scared to leave. I 
would never have done this had it not been for cannabis," Whiter 
said. "I'm returning the favor. If I get in trouble for returning the 
favor, so be it."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom