Double standard persists on marijuana

At a recent backyard barbecue in Miami's Upper Eastside, a group of middle-age, middle-class folks tamely sipped berry cocktails and beers. Among them: a couple of lawyers, a couple of city administrators and an arts administrator. Somewhere between the skirt steak and the apple pie, somebody lit a joint and passed it around.

Nobody blinked. Even in mainstream, white-collar settings, smoking marijuana can be commonplace and unremarkable, like having a little wine with dinner.

Once a stamp of the arty, the marginal and the counterculture, today marijuana's popularity cuts across social boundaries. Yet several high-profile marijuana arrests have recently made headlines, highlighting the hazy double standard that exists around an illegal, potentially harmful drug that continues to encroach into the mainstream:

• In March, Lawrence Korda, 59, a Broward Circuit Court judge, was charged with openly smoking marijuana in a park in Hollywood. Korda completed a drug and alcohol program to erase the misdemeanor charge, and must take monthly random drug tests for six months and perform 25 hours of community service.

• Last month, Utpal Dighe, 31, a prosecutor in the Miami-Dade state attorney's office, was fired after police charged him with buying marijuana from a street dealer in Coconut Grove.

• Also last month, Ricky Williams, 30, erstwhile superstar running back for the Dolphins, probably ended his Miami career by testing positive for marijuana for the fifth time.

For good or ill, people from all walks smoke weed. In fact, 40.1 percent of all Americans 12 years old and up admit having tried marijuana at least once -- and 6 percent acknowledge having used it in the past month, federal drug surveys show. The FBI says 786,500 people were arrested for it in 2005, the latest figures available.

One group at least modestly turning away from marijuana is middle- and high-schoolers, ages 12 to 17. The percentage who have used pot at least once dropped from more than 20 percent in 2000 to about 17 percent in 2005, federal researchers say.

''I don't know if more people are smoking or more people are admitting it,'' said Betsy Wise, a Miami stand-up comic. Wise recently started to freelance for a New York ad agency. She confided in a co-worker that a friend was delivering pot brownies to the office -- and told him to help himself.

''When I got to the agency, all but a few of the brownies were gone,'' Wise said. ``Pretty much everyone partook, right in the office. They all greeted me with smiles. I thought that was remarkable. I would have expected maybe one or two people would have been simpatico.''

More and more, weed is cropping up in the popular culture. It isn't just the domain of hip-hop records with parental-guidance labels. On cable-TV shows like Six Feet Under,The Sopranos,Entourage and The L Word, characters have sparked up casually, the way they might sip merlot, without their marijuana use being part of any plot development or morality tale.

And it isn't just cable. On ABC's Brothers & Sisters, Sally Field's character gets high. The kids on That '70s Show often emerged from clouds of funny smoke.

''I think there is more of a laissez-faire attitude these days about smoking pot,'' said Jenji Kohan, creator of Showtime's Weeds, about a mother who sells marijuana to make ends meet after her husband dies unexpectedly. 'One of the things that I find interesting is that there are boutique farms that are really into their strains. It reminds me of when wine started to become really popular and people started talking about this vine and that grape. Marijuana has become more upscale. In L.A., dealers have full menus of `unique teas.' ''

For $20 on the street, a buyer can score one-eighth ounce of low-grade marijuana from Mexico, Belize or Jamaica -- enough for four or five cigarettes. For $800, the connoisseur can acquire an ounce of exotic, extra-potent marijuana grown from modern hybrids in hydroponic labs or special soil indoors in ''grow-houses'' from Pompano Beach to Coral Gables, said James Hall, director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse at Nova Southeastern University.

''It's like wine; you can buy an expensive one or you can buy the jug stuff,'' Hall said.

The truth is, for all of the marijuana possession arrests, police often look the other way, or let smokers go with friendly warnings.

At a Snoop Dogg concert at a Fort Lauderdale club a while back, a uniformed officer stood by unflinchingly as Snoop, and dozens in the audience, sent up telltale clouds.

''It's selective enforcement,'' said Miami musician Todd Thompson, who doesn't have a problem admitting that he gets high. ``At Langerado [a Broward outdoor music festival], there was smoking going on everywhere. I wouldn't do it in front of a cop, just in case. But cops don't always do something about a little marijuana smoke.''

Marijuana laws are a mishmash among the 50 states. It isn't entirely legal anywhere, but 12 states have at least partly decriminalized it, to the point that in Alaska there is no penalty for possessing an ounce or less at home.

In Florida, possession of 20 grams or less -- 28 grams would be an ounce -- is a misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine; having more than 20 grams is a felony worth five years and/or a $5,000 fine.

Over the decades, debate about whether marijuana should be legalized has remained lively.

Said Howard Finkelstein, Broward County public defender and legal guru of the ''Help Me Howard'' segment on WSVN-Fox 7: 'We're making war on our own people. We take good fathers and lawyers and doctors and wives and make them outlaws. We're playing a stupid and harmful game of `gotcha.' ''

Some support for legalization comes from the belief that it's not dangerous to health, says Dr. J. Bryan Page, professor of anthropology and psychiatry and an expert on substance abuse in the University of Miami Department of Psychiatry.

''A student I knew claimed to be part of a group who all had grade-point averages over 3.6 who were very regular users,'' he said. 'She wanted me to study them to counter all the `Just say no' stuff.''

White House drug czar John Walters, not surprisingly, sees it differently. In April, his office released an analysis from the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project that said the level of THC -- the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana -- has more than doubled since 1983, from 4 percent to 8.5 percent.

''This new report serves as a wake-up call for parents who may still hold outdated notions about the harms of marijuana,'' his announcement said.

The increased potency is from the exotic new hybrids and sophisticated indoor growing techniques, says Nova Southeastern's Hall.

Marijuana-related emergency-room visits increased from 45,000 in 1995 to 119,000 in 2002, the most recent comparison available, federal drug officials say.

Added Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse: ``Science has shown that marijuana can produce adverse physical, mental, emotional and behavioral changes, and -- contrary to popular belief -- it can be addictive.''

Norman Kent, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer and board member of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, scoffed: ``More people died last year from eating spinach than smoking pot.''

SO, lets get this straight, 60% of the people have never touched the stuff, and 94% of the people have not touched it in the last month.. but its use is as common as Beer? Oh I don't think so, this story is a complete sham.

Someone lights up a joint at my dinner party, they are promptly asked to leave and will never be at my home again. The only places I've been where pot is found are parties with people you are absolutely unsuprised if they didn't light up.

I've never looked to my left or right and seen someone I would not expect smoking pot, dragging on a J.

Like sex (between consenting adults), drinking, and smoking (tobacco), MJ should be fine as far as the government is concerned if smoked on private property (including businesses, both as per the rules of the proprietor). IMO, public parks, sidewalks, roads, publicly financed stadiums, and so on, are fair game for selective prohibition of substances and activities as determined by popular local standards (as imperfect as democracy is) - it becomes our business only when they make it our business; actions performed in public space are involuntarily foisted upon other individuals. That is to say, the WOD should be ended, but the change should be short of full legalization.

And before some ~~moron~~ confused individual states that the above implies that rape should then be legal if committed on private property: rape, murder, theft, assault, etc are crimes with real victims (having had their negative rights infringed) regardless of location, and the role of the state to help protect individual liberty supersedes private property rights and freedom of voluntary association in such circumstances. When you endorse the notion that the government should play a role in securing POSITIVE rights, you are endorsing Marxism. If you cannot formulate a rationale for a particular law or regulation in terms of the protection of individual negative rights, the law has no place in society.

For historic reasons (mankind discovered fermentation 10,000 years ago), alcohol has wound itself so thoroughly into our culture that we cannot ban it.

I assume you are talking about Western Culture. In China, marijuana has been referred in documents going back 2400 years BC as a cureall medicine.

That doesn't mean we should embrace and legalize every other vice.

The way this war on drugs is being waged, the cure is worse than the disease. From no-knock searches, the militarization of the police, the corruption of police and public officials, we are basically in Prohibition II. This war of the last thirty five years has been fruitless and has endangered the freedoms of future generations.

‘I agree with you — I think they lie. They lie and say they’ve used it when they really haven’t to look cool.

So that number’s probably high.’

‘Who broke the lamp?’

“I dunno....”

The defense rests, your honor....(chuckle)

I just read a story about some kids in a traffic accident who they think were smoking pot. I couldn’t find it on the google search though.

It’s like trying to find stories about people using guns to save themselves. It happens all the time, but if you don’t pick up the local papers you’ll never know about it, because the national news doesn’t care to let people know about it. Maybe the national news doesn’t care to let people know about pot smoking dangers.

Given that you do smoke pot, and that the act of inhaling any burning fumes into your lungs increases your chance of lung cancer, above and beyond the specific tar problems with tobacco, it’s just wrong to say nobody dies from smoking pot.

Of course, people don’t smoke joints like they do cigarettes, but that’s because they are illegal and expensive.

If you made pot legal, it would be cheap because everybody can grow it, and people would smoke all the time and everybody would wander around high and causing accidents and being unproductive and boorish. :-)

But the argument that alcohol is bad, alcohol is legal, therefore marijuana should be legal, is equally silly.

No it is not.

Freedom does not need to be justified. Restrictions on freedom need to be justified.

Unless the government can provide solid reasoning why something should be illegal, they have no reason banning it.

Our society has decided that some recreational drug use is acceptable. Unless the government can say how allowing pot use causes more harm than already allowing alcohol use, they have no business banning it.

For historic reasons (mankind discovered fermentation 10,000 years ago), alcohol has wound itself so thoroughly into our culture that we cannot ban it.

We, as a nation, did ban it at one time. Then after seeing the effects of the ban, we changed our minds. We can ban alcohol, we simply choose not to do so because our society felt that the benefits of banning it did not justify the constrains on people's freedom.

That doesn't mean we should embrace and legalize every other vice.

Legalize does not mean embrace. There are a great many things I don't agree with that I strongly feel that the government has no right to criminalize.

Is our government there to tell us what we are allowed to do, or is our government there to place only what restrictions on us that are necessary for a reasonably functioning society and to protect members of our society from abusing acts by others?

It is the difference between having a government that serves it's people and in being ruled.

Pot Smoking linked to fatal car crashes

Driving under the influence of cannabis doubles the risk of being involved in a fatal road crash. Research in France has found that even small amounts of cannabis could double the chance of a driver suffering an accident, while larger doses could more than triple the risk.

The latest research, by the French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research, looked at 10,478 drivers who were involved in fatal crashes between October 2001 and September 2003. All the drivers had compulsory tests for drugs and alcohol. The researchers found that 681 drivers tested positive for cannabis (7%) and 2,096 were found to have alcohol in their blood (21.4%). In total, there were 285 drivers who tested positive for both substances (2.9%).

The argument is similar to the one made against tobacco -- companies were intentionally increasing the nicotine content to "hook" teens. There was even talk at that time about regulating nicotine content.

I never really bought into that argument against tobacco companies either.

People smoked because they enjoyed the effect that nicotine provides in such quantities. Higher nicotine levels might make cigarettes more addictive, but they also make the product more appealing to some customers even without the addictive qualities.

The argument is basically that cigarettes are evil, therefore any efforts the tobacco companies to make their products more appealing to their customers must be evil.

It is spin to justify regulation.

If marijuana is ever legalized, I wouldn't be surprised to see THC content regulated by the government as an appeasement to concerned parents.

It would be sold to concerned parents as a way to protect their kids and to protect others from harming themselves. However, since they could simply smoke more, it's really a false argument to justify control.

They need to justify controlling the THC content, so they can ban people from simply growing their own which would harm their ability to tax the crap out of it.

The researchers found that 681 drivers tested positive for cannabis (7%) and 2,096 were found to have alcohol in their blood (21.4%). In total, there were 285 drivers who tested positive for both substances (2.9%).

I note that they fail to mention that you "test positive" for cannibis for a month. How does someone having smoked a joint two weeks ago affect their driving in a measurable way today?

I just read a story about some kids in a traffic accident who they think were smoking pot. I couldn’t find it on the google search though.

Yes, but wasn't the pot that hurt or killed them, it was their inability to operate a motor vehicle in a safe and responsible manner.

I disagree---if the government could point to a specific example of a person dying as a direct result of smoking marijuana, they'd trumpet it far and wide. Because otherwise, all they have to convince us of marijuana's evils is that it causes black men to rape white women, and oh yeah, today's pot is stronger than hippie pot.

Of course, people don’t smoke joints like they do cigarettes, but that’s because they are illegal and expensive.

No, it's because the pot smoker does not need to smoke as much of a joint to get the desired effect of the THC as a cigarette smoker does to get the desired effect of the nicotine. A person with a decent cigarette habit might smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. There's no way in hell a person with a decent pot habit could smoke 20 joints a day.

"Unless the government can say how allowing pot use causes more harm than already allowing alcohol use, they have no business banning it."

First of all, are you saying pot is harmless? Second, are you saying that alcohol users will switch to pot if pot is legal? Third, are you saying that pot use will stay the same if it is legalized?

Since the answers to all three are "no", then legalizing pot will cause additional harm. Therefore, by your own logic, the government is justified in keeping it illegal.

"Legalize does not mean embrace."

Legalization, in today's society, implies societal acceptance. How often have you heard, "It's legal so I can do it and don't you dare impose your standards on me"?

"Is our government there to tell us what we are allowed to do"

We are a self-governing nation, not a dictatorship. We the people run the country. Every two years we have an opportunity to start fresh, electing all the representatives who write the laws.

“No way you can get an 8th for 20. Not even dirt weed. Coupla grams will cost you 50...er, according to information I read somewhere.”

Where I live Mexican goes for maybe $60 to $80 an ounce (28 grams), sometimes even $50. Our local drug task force can buy pounds all day for $400 to $600, but they focus their attention on meth. From what I hear the fancy indoor grown stuff, the Blueberry, White Widow, etc., goes for anywhere from a $100 a quarter ounce on up, but I’ve never heard of anyone paying anywhere close to $800 and ounce for any kind of pot. Most everyone appears to be smoking the dirt cheap Mexican in my little part of the South. I’m in court all the time and I see lots of little evidence bags of seized marijuana. It’s always seedy compressed bud, Mexican. Either almost no one is smoking the really expensive stuff, or maybe there are quite a few who smoke it but they don’t tend to be the sort of folks who come under police radar.

I think prices vary a lot depending on what part of the country you live in, and who you know. I’ve heard of people paying as much as $40 a quarter ounce for Mexican where I live, but most pot smokers around here would think that was a rip off price.

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