Everett, Wash.
Published: Saturday, August 16, 2008

Hempfest to feature Edmonds travel writer Rick Steves

Rick Steves is rallying against U.S. marijuana laws at Seattle's pro-pot festival today.

By David Chircop
Herald Writer

 EDMONDS -- Travel writer and public television host Rick Steves isn't shy about his disdain for America's current marijuana laws.

They're costing taxpayers billions of dollars burdening cops and courts, he says, breaking up families with jail sentences and siphoning government resources that would be better spent on more serous crimes and treatment for drug addicts.

"This is a very costly, divisive way to deal with a pervasive problem in our society," said Steves of Edmonds, whose syndicated weekly column runs in The Herald.

The travel guru is scheduled to take the main stage and preach to the "legalize it" choir at Seattle's Hempfest today and Sunday.

It's the largest pro-pot pep rally in the country. Organizers expect as many as 100,000 people to attend the free event.

Steves, the clean-cut force behind a multimillion-dollar travel empire, which includes guide books, a tour company and a nationally televised show, said most of the people on the front lines of drug reform are not potheads.

Leading voices include former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, now one of the most outspoken critics of the war on drugs.

Steves' passion for drug reform is inspired by a perspective shaped by spending years abroad, he said.

"I don't think it's an issue of being hard on drugs or soft on drugs; it's a matter of being smart on drugs," said Steves, who returned this week from the Netherlands, where some coffee shops sell marijuana.

More than 800,000 people are arrested in the United States annually under current marijuana laws. The vast majority, about 90 percent, are arrested for possession, according to government statistics.

The estimated price tag to enforce those laws nationally is about $7.5 billion, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released earlier this year.

The government believes marijuana is more harmful than some claim. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released a report in May saying that teen use of marijuana can worsen depression and lead to suicide or serious mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and anxiety.

Today's marijuana is also about twice as potent as it was in the 1970s.

Analysis of seized samples of marijuana show that levels of THC -- the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana -- have reached the highest-ever amounts since scientific analysis of the drug began in the late 1970s.

Recent samples show an average THC content of 9.6 percent. This compares to an average of less than 4 percent reported in 1983 and represents more than a doubling in the potency of the drug in that time.

Marijuana smoke contains carcinogens and may promote lung cancer, increase the risk of bronchitis and weaken the immune system.

In recent years, drug experts have noticed a new trend among organized drug rings. More are setting up shop locally. Traffickers with ties to the Canadian drug trade are operating hundreds of sophisticated indoor marijuana farms in Washington.

Police have seen an increase in violence associated with the operations. Two people were shot to death last year inside an Everett grow operation. Police believe the victims were paid to tend the marijuana plants for a larger organization.

Despite the government's efforts to eradicate the supply, pot is readily available in most places.

Steves said the prohibition on marijuana should be considered a failure, similar to the prohibition on alcohol between 1920 and 1933, which gave rise to violent organized crime.

Steves, 52, has spent a third of his adult life in Europe. He said the United States would be wise to learn from European countries that have adopted a more relaxed attitude toward marijuana.

Many in Europe see a joint as exciting as a can of beer, he said. Here, there's more stigma attached and those who smoke pot are more prone to keep their use secret, he said.

"I have good friends, who don't have the fire in their bellies that I do, who have to live two lives," Steves said. "In Europe, more sophisticated people look at us and say, 'I don't get it; don't you have more important things to worry about?' "

Earlier this decade, Steves publicly acknowledged that he occasionally smokes marijuana while in Europe.

Since then, he's become a poster boy of sorts for decriminalization movement and is board member of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

He also hosts "Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation," a 30-minute video released by The ACLU of Washington earlier this year.

Steves said there are far less controversial causes for which to fight. "Save the whales, global warming, homelessness," he said, but he feels it's important to stand up against what he considers a "big lie."

"It took courageous people to stand up and question the prohibition against alcohol," he said.



Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA