THE MOVIE Saving Grace is a sweet English comedy about a genteel widow who
grows marijuana to fight off financial ruin. There's a jovial scene where a
starchy doctor, local constable and dowdy garden-club ladies all get high
as kites. Lurking in the background are humorless government authorities
intent on closing down the merriment.

Such conflict may soon be playing at a state legislature near you -- if it
isn't there already. For several years now, states have been performing
rather elaborate fan dances to legalize marijuana without exposing
themselves to charges of being "soft on drugs."

There are a lot of sour faces opposing these efforts. The most powerful
belong to, of all people, officials in the Clinton administration.

Possession or distribution of cannabis sativa remains a federal felony. The
Feds in general are not at all happy about the growing casual disregard for
the evil weed. And there are jobs to protect in the war against drugs.

The premier form of rebellion on the state level continues to be the voter
initiative. This November, voters in Colorado and Nevada will have their
turn at chipping pieces off the federal drug laws. If the ballot
initiatives pass, these states will join California, Oregon, Washington,
Arizona, Alaska, Maine and Hawaii in allowing doctors to recommend
marijuana for patients with certain illnesses.

(Actually, Nevadans will be voting on the issue for a second time. State
law requires that voter initiatives be approved twice before going to the
legislature. The measure easily passed in 1998.)

Every day, it seems, the fight spills over into some courtroom. Last month,
the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed California's "cannabis clubs," which openly
distribute marijuana to patients. Then, last week, a federal judge in San
Francisco ruled that federal officials may not stop California doctors from
discussing marijuana's medical benefits or promoting its therapeutic use.

State legislatures have begun to take the issue over from the more raucous
world of ballot initiatives. In June, Hawaii became the first state to
sanction the use and possession of marijuana for medicinal purposes through
legislation.

What's really going on is a revolution in American thinking about marijuana
specifically and perhaps illicit drugs generally. Attacks on the marijuana
laws tend to highlight causes more noble than expanding the right to get
stoned. You can hardly beat reducing pain and nausea in cancer patients as
an attractive argument for legalizing pot.

And in the name of helping farmers, several states now support the planting
of industrial hemp. This non-euphoric cousin of marijuana can be made into
rope, paper, salad oil and any number of useful products. Because of its
similarity to the stuff that Clinton says he didn't inhale, industrial hemp
is also banned by the federal government.

Maryland recently became the fourth state -- after Hawaii, North Dakota and
Minnesota -- to allow farmers to grow the crop. (Doing so requires a permit
from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.) The Illinois Senate has
voted to direct the state university to conduct research on hemp production.

Virginia last year called on federal officials to allow that state to run
an experiment in hemp production.

Claims being made on behalf of the plant's virtues are not without merit.

But underlying them is a radical change in public attitudes. Like the
lovable English eccentrics who populate Saving Grace , many Americans now
regard smoking pot as a naughty but essentially harmless activity. And they
think law-enforcement resources could be put to better use than prosecuting
the taxpayer who lights up a joint.

There's one thing everyone should recognize. Once hemp (or marijuana, weed,
pot, call it what you will) becomes widely available, the cat will be out
of the bag.

Doctors can prescribe it for headaches. And although the type of hemp used
by industry contains little of the psychoactive essences treasured by
hippies, it looks an awful lot like its mind-bending cousin. Once you have
fields of waving industrial hemp, it will be virtually impossible for the
law to find sprigs of the wicked stuff tucked therein.

The road may not be straight, but the direction is pretty obvious. Some
day, the sale and possession of marijuana will be legal from sea to shining
sea.

Froma Harrop is a syndicated columnist and Journal editorial writer. She
may be reached by e-mail at froma_harrop@projo.com