ARRESTS SOARING AMID CONCERTED POLICE EFFORT

Marijuana Crackdown

WASHINGTON - More people were arrested for marijuana offenses last
year than at any time in U.S. history.

More than 770,000 people were cited for marijuana-related violations
in 2004, according to the FBI's latest annual uniform crime report.
Almost 90 percent of them were charged only with possession.

Federal officials said the local police actions reflect the importance
of waging a fight against marijuana as part of the overall war on
drugs. The FBI report showed that marijuana arrests have more than
doubled over the past 12 years.

"We think the use of marijuana is consequential, and there is a health
impact for the users," said David Murray, drug policy analyst for the
White House Office of Drug Control Policy. "We are saying, 'This is a
risk you are taking' if you use marijuana. It's a public health problem."

The increased arrests have prompted widespread criticism from groups
seeking to relax marijuana laws.

"This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that
diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing on serious and
violent crime," said Allen Pierre, executive director of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Even as the number of arrests is rising, people in some parts of the
country are sending mixed messages about how they want to enforce laws
restricting marijuana use.

Last Tuesday, Denver became the first city in the nation to eliminate
criminal and civil penalties for adults possessing a small amount of
marijuana. Oakland voters last year directed their officials to make
marijuana arrests the lowest city priority.

In San Diego, the controversy has revolved around the use of marijuana
for medical purposes.

In 1996, California voters approved the use of marijuana for patients
who have a doctor's recommendation, despite the fact that federal law
prohibits marijuana use under any circumstance. The result has been a
confusing pattern of enforcement. Federal agents still make arrests in
California, while cities and counties either follow the state law or
the federal mandate.

In San Diego County, the Board of Supervisors recently refused to
follow a provision of the state law and issue identification cards
that would help medical marijuana users avoid arrest. Last week, they
went a step further and said they will file a lawsuit to challenge the
state law.

The supervisors spoke about their objections to marijuana.

Several agencies are involved in finding, confiscating and removing
marijuana plants, including federal and local law enforcement, the
National Guard, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land
Management. "Marijuana is not beneficial," Supervisor Bill Horn said.
"It's dangerous and addictive."

"Frankly, I don't see any difference in the ID card and the handing
out of marijuana," Supervisor Dianne Jacob said. "The evidence is
overwhelming. Marijuana is addictive; it's a gateway drug that leads
to use of harder drugs."

The supervisors voted against the identification cards even after
being criticized earlier this year by the San Diego County grand jury.
The jury's report said the supervisors had ignored the will of
California voters and should take "all possible action" to promote
access to marijuana for seriously ill patients.

The FBI's annual uniform crime report doesn't give state-by-state
breakdowns for marijuana arrests. But other studies based on federal
figures show that in California arrests linked to simple possession or
sale rose from 21,000 in 1990 to 48,000 in 2003.

In San Diego County, there has been a 20 percent increase in marijuana
arrests over the past decade, according to the Sentencing Project, a
Washington-based group that seeks alternatives to incarceration.

"We're seeing a lot of marijuana, and a lot of seizures and arrests,"
said Lt. Richard Rotha, commander of the San Diego Police Department
narcotics enforcement unit. "It's probably the most available of any
of the illicit drugs. It's pretty consistent."

The rise in marijuana arrests can be linked to a concerted effort by
many local police agencies, encouraged by the White House, to target
the illicit substance. The White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy has spent billions of dollars over the years on educational
campaigns, some specifically targeting marijuana.

Within the past month, the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy awarded $17.1 million in matching grants to support coalitions
to establish drug-monitoring programs for youths and $7.2 million to
implement random drug-testing programs.

In addition, the federal office has launched ad campaigns specifically
targeting marijuana. One ad focusing on parents says, "Marijuana could
threaten your teen's success."

Despite the uptick in enforcement, marijuana use has declined only
slightly since 1997, according to federal data analyzed by the
Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project, which seeks to reduce
marijuana penalties. Marijuana availability and daily marijuana use
among 12th graders, for example, was the same as in 1975, despite a
tripling of the arrests since the 1980s, according to the Policy
Project and other groups working to legalize marijuana.

"Present policies have done little if anything to decrease marijuana's
availability or dissuade youth from trying it," said Pierre, the
executive director of NORML. He said a majority of young people in the
United States now report having easier access to pot than to alcohol
or tobacco.

White House officials said their anti-marijuana campaigns are paying
off, noting that only 12 percent of the drug arrests in the latest
report were of people under age 18.

"We believe it has been one of the most effective and valuable media
campaigns," said Murray of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
referring to a recent ad campaign targeting marijuana use. "It brings
out the risk of marijuana and the sense of responsibility needed and
prevents them from getting into trouble."

Overall, marijuana use declined by 7 percent among young adults
between 18 and 25 from 2002 to 2004, according to last year's federal
National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Those figures are a strong indication that marijuana arrests
eventually might decrease in coming years, Murray said.

Although there were more arrests of marijuana users last year than
ever before, Murray said population increases in the United States
suggest that the numbers have generally "stabilized over the years."

But Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy
Project, said the administration is trying to use law-enforcement to
do too much of the job against illicit drug use.

"If the goal is to reduce marijuana use, there's no solid evidence
that we can arrest our way out of the problem," Mirken said.

The FBI report said marijuana represented 44.2 percent of all drug
arrests in 2004, compared with 28 percent in 1993.

Other studies have also shown that marijuana arrests have overshadowed
other drug arrests over the past decade, including arrests for
methamphetamine, which ranks just behind marijuana as the drug of
choice in San Diego County and many other parts of the country.

A May study of FBI data showed that the proportion of heroin and
cocaine cases plummeted from 55 percent of all drug arrests in 1992 to
less than 30 percent 10 years later, according to the Sentencing
Project. Neither the Sentencing Project study nor the FBI report
offered a breakdown of methamphetamine arrests.

Drug-use reports show that marijuana remains, by far, the most
commonly used drug. While more than 12 million people age 12 and older
reported using methamphetamine at least once, at least 96.8 million
people in the same category reported trying marijuana at least once,
the White House Office of Drug Control Policy said.