LEGALIZATION? NOW FOR THE HARD QUESTION

ETHAN NADELMANN, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, has
been advocating for legalization of marijuana for 20 years and says
he's seen more progress in the last four months than in the previous
two decades. "It's starting to cascade," he said. "Our model is the
gay rights movement and their recent string of successes with gay marriage."

Mr. Nadelmann is a smart guy; he has a law degree and a doctorate
from Harvard. He so impressed George Soros that the billionaire
investor became the biggest financial backer for Mr. Nadelmann's
advocacy. The Drug Policy Alliance has 45 staff members in seven
offices nationwide working for legalization.

In the 25 years since Nancy Reagan advocated just saying no, Mr.
Nadelmann has seen a progression through four public stages out of
the five he believes are needed to achieve legalization.

Stage 1. Bill Clinton: I smoked but I did not inhale.

Stage 2. Al Gore: I smoked, it was wrong, I regret it, shame on me.

Stage 3. Michael Bloomberg (asked if he'd tried pot): "You bet I did
and I enjoyed it."

Stage 4. Barack Obama: "I inhaled frequently - that was the point!"

Stage 5. Public Figure to Come: Yes, I smoke the occasional joint.

"We need to drop the 'd' from 'smoked,' " Mr. Nadelmann said, "and
move from past to present."

For many reasons, the advocates are feeling hopeful. The Obama
administration has reversed a Bush policy of prosecuting medical
marijuana use, which is now legal in 13 states; a recent Field poll
in California showed for the first time that a majority of registered
voters in that state favors legalizing and taxing pot; Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who has opposed legalization, now says he'd like to
see a study done.

National polls also show growing support - an ABC/Washington Post
poll last month found that 46 percent of Americans favored legalizing
small amounts of pot for personal use; when the poll last asked the
question, in 1997, 22 percent supported legalization.

Every strategy for achieving legalization pins its hopes on the
generation that first embraced pot en masse - baby boomers -
gradually displacing older voters with no experience using the drug.
The ABC poll found that 45 percent of boomers favored legalization,
versus 30 percent of adults 65 and older.

Mr. Nadelmann, a boomer himself at 52, says the biggest difference
since the last legalization push, in the late 1970s, is the drug
savvy of parents now versus then. "In the '70s, that older generation
of parents didn't know the difference between marijuana and heroin,"
Mr. Nadelmann said. "This generation of boomer parents has a high
familiarity with marijuana. An awful lot tried it, liked it; the vast
number never went on to cocaine or heroin or even had a problem with
marijuana."

That would be me. The 20-something me used marijuana in moderation,
did not fall victim to reefer madness, did not go on to harder drugs,
believed it to be a drug superior to alcohol in many respects,
enjoyed it like the mayor, and inhaled like the president.

The 20-something me preferred alcohol when socializing in large
groups but pot for coupling.

The 20-something me smoked a joint, then went to the Central Square
Cinema in Cambridge, Mass., and howled at the 1936 anti-drug
documentary "Reefer Madness," which showed how pot-smoking could lead
to hard drugs, murder, suicide, rape and the inevitable descent into
insanity. (Afterward, the 20-something me had major munchies and
hurried to Elsie's restaurant for the enormous roast beef sandwich special.)

The 20-something me believes marijuana could be legalized, regulated
and taxed like alcohol, providing much needed revenue.

But the 50-something me, the parent of three boys and a girl, ages 14
to 21, is not so sure. The 50-something me - who hasn't smoked in
more than 20 years - knows stories in our little suburb about
classmates of my kids smoking pot in middle school, using heroin in
college, going into rehab, relapsing, trying again. The 50-something
me has seen the eyes of those boomer parents - good people - seen the
weariness and fear, and thought, "There but for the grace of God. ..."

Recently I read David Sheff's best seller, "Beautiful Boy," about his
son Nic's addiction to methamphetamines, the boy's myriad rounds of
rehab and repeated heartbreaking relapses. And while the problem drug
in our house is legal (our boys went through numerous rounds of
painful, nerve-racking alcohol-related groundings during high
school), I was surprised by how much Mr. Sheff's book moved and
frightened me as a parent.

He reminded me of me. Now 52, Mr. Sheff stopped smoking pot more than
20 years ago, about the time his first was born. He's a work-at-home
dad who's put his children at the center of his life. He and his wife
have raised three kids who sound funny and terrific. He seems to have
a sense of balance and moderation.

And so I was stopped cold when I got to the part in the book where he
talks about marijuana being addictive and leading to hard drugs.

He sounded like "Reefer Madness."

"I know what you mean," he told me in a telephone conversation. "Back
then, I discounted all the warnings about pot being the gateway drug
and rolled my eyes at the propaganda."

"Of course, everyone who smokes pot doesn't go on to heroin or other
drugs," he said. "But everyone who does abuse heroin starts with pot.
How do we navigate that?" His son Nic started smoking at 12, though
the father didn't know it. Studies have shown the earlier kids start,
the more likely they are to develop serious drug problems, so Mr.
Sheff believes anything that can be done to delay using improves the odds.

He has mixed feelings about legalization. He believes drug abuse
should be treated as a health problem, not a criminal one. "But I
worry we're sending a message I don't agree with, that marijuana is
harmless." He said he hopes his two younger children, Jasper, 15, and
Daisy, 12, never smoke.

Mr. Nadelmann, the advocate, says making pot illegal hasn't worked
any better than Prohibition. He says, while it's easier for teenagers
to get their hands on alcohol than pot, it's easier for them to buy
pot than alcohol. My sons agreed with this. As one said, "Dad, there
are kids at the high school whose job is to sell you pot."

As to concern voiced by law enforcement officials that today's pot is
far stronger than the drug smoked in the 1970s, Mr. Nadelmann
maintains that if marijuana were legalized, the potency could be
regulated the way it's done for alcohol.

Mr. Nadelmann has done thousands of interviews, and he knows drug
policy so well it's hard to keep up with him. Only twice during our
conversation did he hesitate. I asked if he smokes.

"Off the record?" he said.

I said I'd like his on-the-record answer.

"I smoke marijuana occasionally," he said, in the privacy of his
home. "But I don't travel with it. I can't afford to put myself at risk."

I asked if his daughter, now 20, had seen him smoke when she was
growing up. "She grew up seeing adults she knew and respected smoke
the occasional joint, and saw they didn't change," he said.

So much is changing: our first African-American president; our worst
economic collapse in 80 years; five states legalizing gay marriage.
Is legalizing marijuana next? It may make sense. It may happen. But
with so many boomers, including our president, now parents raising
children, I'm not so sure.