Newsday

New York, April 13, 2000.

Madness Afflicts Rudy's NY

By Deborah Small,

PATRICK DORISMOND, the unarmed security guard killed last month by an undercover New York police officer, is the latest victim of longstanding and dangerous myths about marijuana.

And Rudolph Giuliani-who responded to an increasing homicide rate by initiating Operation Condor, which targets low-level drug activity -is the latest politician to justify repressive public policy by cynically perpetuating

these distortions.

In the '40s and '50s, the government tried to convince the public that

marijuana smokers became depraved killers. Later, they said marijuana

caused insanity and moral degeneration. After that, there was the

"gateway theory" that marijuana led inevitably to use of harder drugs, like

heroin and cocaine.

The most venerable version of this hysteria, and apparently the most

durable, is that pot smokers kill. Despite the prevalence of these myths,

the generation of Americans that came of age during the late '60s and

'70s (my generation) used marijuana freely. It was part of the expansion

of personal, social and political consciousness that marked the period.

Many of us who experimented with marijuana during that time went on

to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, scientists and

businessmen. A few became president, vice president and governors.

So we either have a country run by potential killers and moral

degenerates or-more likely -marijuana is not nearly so harmful as it has

been portrayed.

Therefore, I am perplexed at the rationale provided by the mayor and

police commissioner to explain why we are arresting tens of thousands of

New Yorkers each year for possessing or selling small amounts of

marijuana.

According to these officials, the arrests are necessary to fight the

increase in homicide in the past year. I've known people under the

influence of marijuana to attack any nearby snack, but I've never heard

that smoking a joint would make someone shoot his wife or punch a cop.

Yet that is what New Yorkers are being asked to believe and this is the

type of policing we are being asked to pay for. To date, Operation

Condor has cost the city an additional $24 million in police overtime,

which doesn't include costs for court administration and legal services.

According to Commissioner Howard Safir, since Operation Condor was

initiated in January, more than 21,000 arrests have been made. No matter

that the arrests are overwhelmingly for misdemeanors such as smoking a

joint, drinking in public or that perennial favorite, spitting on the street. No

crime, it seems, is too petty to go unpunished. And now a man is dead

because he took offense when plainclothes officers approached him

asking if he knew where marijuana could be obtained.

In releasing the records about Dorismond's past encounters with the

police and judicial system, city officials have asserted that he

demonstrated a propensity to violence. But when the officers approached

Dorismond looking to make another arrest, they didn't have any evidence

of wrongdoing. They had a "profile" and he fit it.

Possession or use of up to 25 grams of marijuana in the home is a

violation under New York law, punishable with a fine of up to $100.

Spending $24 million to arrest marijuana smokers makes as much sense

as spending it to arrest people who drink beer in public, jaywalk or beg in

public-all crimes that will get you a day in the slammer in Rudolph

Giuliani's New York.

This is real reefer madness. If we don't stop it, more people, primarily

young African-American men, will be killed. Those of us who

experimented with marijuana must stand up for the right of present-day

marijuana users not to be demonized, arrested and possibly shot.

Marijuana use is not related to violent crime. Let's stop pretending that it

is.

Deborah Small is a lawyer and director of public policy and

community outreach for the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy

institute based in New York and San Francisco.