RESEARCH: A study finds, however, that legalizing marijuana wouldn't
necessarily lead to more users.

WASHINGTON The number of marijuana smokers in the Netherlands didn't
immediately change in the 1970s when police stopped enforcing laws against
the drug. But when it was sold openly at coffee shops in the 1980s, pot use
almost tripled, according to a new study.

Robert MacCoun of the University of California, Berkeley, said the research
suggest that the lack of marijuana penalties may not cause more people to
seek the drug, but being able to buy it easily could trigger wider use.

"What the Dutch experience shows is that deciding not to throw drug users
into prison is a very different issue from deciding to make commercial
sales of the drugs available," said MacCoun, coauthor of a study being
published today in the journal Science.

Other experts cautioned that the Dutch culture and attitudes toward drug
use are so different from the United States that the experience in the
Netherlands may not apply to America.

"There is great danger in extrapolating from one country to another," said
Lloyd D.Johnson of the University of Michigan.

The study comes in the midst of a growing debate on drug policy in the
United States. Some groups believe that if drugs were legalized, there
would be less crime by addicts seeking money to support their habit. Others
believe that availability of drugs will not increase addiction rates. But
many authorities say that any easy access to drugs or a diminished
enforcement would lead to runaway use and a substantial increase in addiction.

In the Science study, MacCoun and Peter Reuter of the University of
Maryland said that in the 1970s, Dutch authorities decided to stop strictly
enforcing marijuana laws relating to possession and sale of small amounts.
The laws remained on the books,but the police were formally instructed to
ignore them.

For years following that action, said MacCoun, the rate of marijuana use
remained stable among 18yearolds surveyed.

Starting in the 1980s, however, some coffee shops in the Netherlands began
selling small amounts of the weed.

By the early 1990s, said MacCoun, marijuana use had soared.

"The percentage of 18yearolds who have tried marijuana at some point in
their lives was up to 44 percent, and it had been about 15 percent," he said.

By contrast, teen use of marijuana in the United States was estimated in
1992 at about 12 percent.

Johnson said that though the study is "quite interesting," he believes that
some of the statistics on Dutch marijuana use in the 1980s is suspect.