Pubdate: Fri, 25 Jul 2014
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2014 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Richard Leiby, The Washington Post
Page: 17

POT OPPONENT NOT READY TO ROLL OVER

But D.C. Man Finds It's A Lonely Fight As Drug Gains Ground

WASHINGTON - As pro-marijuana forces deployed their sidewalk soldiers 
to gather signatures to put pot legalization on the District of 
Columbia's November ballot, Aaron McCormick, a 47-year-old city 
native and father of three, watched with growing alarm.

Somebody must stop this scourge, he decided. But how? McCormick says 
he knew of no group fighting the initiative, heard no opposition to 
it in his church and got no traction with his views on his Twitter 
account, where he opines on local affairs.

McCormick, a construction project manager, considered challenging the 
ballot initiative himself, but he ultimately realized the futility of 
fighting an army of marijuana advocates.

Such is the lonely lot of today's pot opponent.

Parents like McCormick find themselves outgunned: The anti-marijuana 
movement has little funding or staff, little momentum and, it 
appears, little audience.

Decriminalization went into effect this month in the District of 
Columbia, setting a $25 penalty for possession of up to an ounce of weed.

Earlier in July, pro-marijuana activists scored another victory, 
submitting 57,000 voter signatures, more than double the number 
required, to bring the ballot measure, which could add the District 
of Columbia to the vanguard of legalization along with Colorado and 
Washington state.

"I hope and pray that Congress will step in and shut it all down," 
McCormick said, noting federal lawmakers' penchant for trying to 
block marijuana initiatives in the District of Columbia. "To me, we 
just came out of the crack epidemic and are still seeing its effects. 
Now we want to allow people to smoke marijuana 24/7?" It would seem 
so. More than half of Americans support legalization, various polls 
show. The Pew Research Center has found that 48 percent have tried 
pot. Seventeen states plus D.C. have eliminated jail time for 
possession, and medical marijuana is now OK in 23 states plus the 
District of Columbia.

"Interestingly, whenever we have a debate on TV, we hear the producer 
asking, 'Who can we get to debate against marijuana?' " says Tony 
Newman, spokesman for the reformist Drug Policy Alliance.

"It's unbelievable what's happened," says Robert DuPont, a 
psychiatrist who was the first director of the National Institute on 
Drug Abuse in the 1970s. "You can't find anybody to speak on the 
other side. ... The leaders in both parties have completely abandoned 
the issue."

DuPont, an addiction specialist, could hold his own in any debate 
about drugs. He and other experts point to research showing that 9 
percent of marijuana users become addicted, a figure that rises to 16 
percent when use begins in teen years. In various studies, weed also 
is linked to lower academic performance and mental illness and other 
health problems.

The marijuana normalization movement bats back such findings by 
citing the devastating results of alcohol and tobacco dependency and 
abuse, for example, and the palliative effects of marijuana as 
medicine. And they say the disproportionately higher rate of 
minorities' arrests and incarceration for pot-related offenses have 
caused greater social harm, which became a major selling point for 
decriminalization in D.C.

Backed by deep-pocketed funders, the legalizers deploy lobbyists, 
spokesmen and researchers from well-staffed organizations like the 
Marijuana Policy Project, the Drug Policy Alliance, Americans for 
Safe Access and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana 
Laws. They even have their own business alliance: the National 
Cannabis Industry Association.

"These guys are in a full-court press coming at you from every 
angle," says DuPont, 78, who runs the Institute for Behavior and 
Health, a small organization based in Rockville, Md. "They have a 
bench 1,000 people deep."

Promoting a message of compassion for the sick, medical marijuana 
advocates led the way in the 1990s to a more accepting public view 
toward recreational pot. The number of pro-pot groups began to surge.

In the District of Columbia, the legalizers are predicting success.

So where that leave does concerned residents like McCormick, who has 
6 and 7-year old daughters and a 14-year-old son?

Even if pot is legal, he has told his teen, think of career 
consequences: If you want a good job, you're still going to have to 
pass a drug test.

In the Navy, where McCormick served six years, regular drug testing 
was part of the drill.

"I have never smoked it," he said. "My kids know that daddy is 
definitely a hardnosed person. I don't give any slack on this marijuana issue."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom