Posted on 09/18/2003 6:58:11 AM PDT by MrLeRoy
EVERY SO OFTEN, you can see a new rip, however small, in the American cultural fabric, a subtle sign that what was once presumed to be a settled issue is now up for grabs. Last week there was a moment at a drug treatment center in Rainier Valley that was one of those times.
That’s when John Walters, the White House “drug czar,” came to Seattle backed by a platoon of bodyguards—and unwittingly admitted that the feds’ 60 Years War on marijuana didn’t have the grip on the American public that it once did.
Walters’ announced purpose in coming to town was to stand before the assembled media and say that federal, state, and local agencies should work hand in hand in combating drug use in Seattle, and that more resources should be devoted to the treatment of drug addicts (though he offered no new money for local treatment programs).
Walters decried general drug use (heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine), and then he got down to the real reason for his trip: to inveigh against Seattle’s I-75, which was before voters Tuesday, Sept. 16. The local ballot measure would make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority of Seattle police and the city attorney’s office, which is responsible for prosecuting misdemeanor pot cases.
Walters called I-75 the result of “living in the past and ignorance, a wink and a nod, ‘Let’s play dumb’” on marijuana. It’s not the first time Walters has traveled outside the D.C. Beltway and tried to bigfoot a local measure that would soften, however imperceptibly, marijuana laws. He did it last fall in Nevada, and earlier this year officials from his Office of National Drug Control Policy campaigned against a local measure in Missouri. In both cases, he won.
But the Emerald City is harder slogging for the czar than the Silver State.
This week, the measure was winning overwhelmingly before all absentee votes were counted. Surprisingly, Seattle’s media, even the usually pliant television news, largely declined to help Walters make his case to the public. Only KOMO-TV sent a cameraperson to the press conference, but it didn’t air any footage that evening. Other than that, there were only a few print and radio reporters, and their subsequent coverage was hardly the level of drum banging Walters’ visits have generated elsewhere.
But the Seattle media also missed a shift in the pot war. You had to listen hard, but it was there: Deep in his remarks about I-75, Walters made an admission you wouldn’t have heard from federal drug enforcement officials even during the Clinton administration.
“The real issue is should we legalize marijuana,” Walters said. “Let’s have a debate about that.”
Ever since the 1930s and propaganda films such as Reefer Madness, the feds have waged a multibillion-dollar war on marijuana use. Rarely have they acknowledged that millions of Americans actually like pot and use it responsibly, let alone that there might be a need for a national debate on how America should treat marijuana under the law.
ASKED WHAT FORM the debate would take and how the White House would kick start the process, Walters—usually a polished, intelligent advocate for his position—went into duck-and-cover mode. He blamed marijuana advocates and their financial backers like billionaire George Soros, who supported last year’s failed legalization initiative in Nevada, for stifling debate and for preventing “clear information” from reaching the American public. He also accused them of risking youngsters’ lives in the deal. Walters had nothing to say about the estimated 700,000 Americans sitting in state and federal prisons on marijuana charges or about the more than 700,000 Americans arrested each year because of pot—each of whose lives and well-being is at risk for partaking of a substance that millions in this country (and a country to the north) have accepted as not being the Demon Weed the feds claim it to be.
All the same, what Walters said was an admission pot advocates found amazing.
“That is fascinating to hear from the man who on every occasion refuses to debate us,” said Bruce Mirken, spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project, who added that his group, partially funded by billionaire Peter Lewis, has offered before to square off with the czar. “He flat-out refuses. I’ll debate John Walters anytime he wants.”
Mirken might want to think about warming up with Tom Carr, Seattle city attorney. Carr ran for office in 2001 as the liberal answer to years of civil-rights-abusing Mark Sidran. But in introducing Walters at the press conference, Carr sounded like he was applying to become deputy drug czar.
Saying that he was “proud” to stand shoulder to shoulder with Walters, Carr said that I-75 would “have us look away from the marijuana problem.”
But in an interview last month, Carr described his opposition to I-75 as a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 and never portrayed marijuana as a sizable problem in Seattle.
Many Seattleites would seem to agree, based on this week’s vote. The tally late Tuesday night had I-75 winning by more than a 15 percent margin.
Kinda like telling someone that you're buying a bong to smoke tobacco.
Yep, let's legalize marijuana and make it as "hard to get" as alcohol. What a joke.
Why not own the limited legal marijuana-only store?
Adults use alcohol 11:1 over marijuana; the legal-for-adults drug is proportionately less used by teens.
I've often wondered why this is, especially for conservatives. They want to say it will open a 'floodgate'. huh? Who do you think runs this place??? We The People.
Why have the conservatives who see the fallacy of treating marijuana and meth as, basically, one in the same kept so quiet???? Why do conservatives and my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ fear mere discussion of this issue so much?? I may enjoy A mixed drink once in a blue moon... it taste good and sure can take the edge off. If I enjoyed smoking A joint once in a blue moon am I suddenly one to be crushed under your heel??
What irrates me the most about those commercials are the parents who allow their kids enough freedom that they are smoking marijuana IN THE HOUSE!
How many of you let your kids bring alcohol into your house? Or their boy/girlfriend into their bedroom??
Parents? where are you??? {this thing on??} Doesn't it tick you off that this crap is trying to portray ALL parents too dumb to PARENT THEIR OWN CHILDREN!?
We're talking about teens, not adults.
So what? It's to be expected, in that alcohol is legal for adults -- they'd use it in a higher ratio.
If the only explanation for the disparity in the two alcohol-to-marijuana ratios is that adults steer away from the illegal substance, then it would follow that if marijuana was relegalized for adults, the adult alcohol-to-marijuana ratio would become the same as for teens---that is, adult marijuana use would increase more than fivefold.
That seems clearly ludicrous---leaving only the conclusion that the adult legality of alcohol does make it less used by kids than it otherwise would be.
Only to the ignorant. Your ratio hides the fact that majuana use drops off dramatically after age 30. Why does this happen? Illegality?
If so, then adult use could be expected to increase if marijuana is legalized.
Legal alcohol is used by twice as many teens as marijuana. Despite the fact that alcohol is harder to get.
So, legalizing marijuana and making it as hard to get as alcohol holds no weight with me. The facts speak for themselves.
You think fear of arrest rises dramatically after age 30? I don't recall that happening to me when I turned 30.
Where did you get the idea that anyone in government feels constrained by the constitution?
Like alchohol, we could make it illegal for the store to sell to anyone under the age of 21. IMHO, distribution by anyone other than an authorized dealer licensed by the Govt. should also be illegal. The financial gains for the Justice system would also be significant...no more prosecutions for possession by adults will clear up the courts and jail systems of these non-violent offenders, thus saving the states money.
I'm stunned ... I can't wait to hear the FR Holy Warriors weigh in on that!
ASKED WHAT FORM the debate would take and how the White House would kick start the process, Walters—usually a polished, intelligent advocate for his position—went into duck-and-cover mode. He blamed marijuana advocates and their financial backers like billionaire George Soros, who supported last year’s failed legalization initiative in Nevada, for stifling debate and for preventing “clear information” from reaching the American public.
Bobbing and weaving, and dropping George Soros' name: Hey Dane - are you really the Drug Czar?
He also accused them of risking youngsters’ lives in the deal.
"For the children". How rich.
Walters had nothing to say about the estimated 700,000 Americans sitting in state and federal prisons on marijuana charges or about the more than 700,000 Americans arrested each year because of pot—each of whose lives and well-being is at risk for partaking of a substance that millions in this country (and a country to the north) have accepted as not being the Demon Weed the feds claim it to be.
That, of course, is the REAL issue, and it's the primary danger to "the children" and everyone else.
Nope. I said that in Hawaii, when the addicted marijuama smokers couldn't get their fix (due to a government crackdown on local growers), they switched to methamphetamine.
That's the point -- it's not working with alcohol, why do you think it would work with marijuana?
Also, legalizing marijuana gives it legitimacy. It says that it's OK, and the kids will pick up on that (as they do with alcohol and cigarettes).
IMO, with legalization, usage among teens would increase as it did in Alaska:
"The consequences of legalization became evident when the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that the state could not interfere with an adult’s possession of marijuana for personal consumption in the home. The court’s ruling became a green light for marijuana use. Although the ruling was limited to persons 19 and over, teens were among those increasingly using marijuana. According to a 1988 University of Alaska study, the state’s 12 to 17-year-olds used marijuana at more than twice the national average for their age group. Alaska’s residents voted in 1990 to recriminalize possession of marijuana, demonstrating their belief that increased use was too high a price to pay."
-- usdoj.gov
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