>>> Part 7 of 9...
Most respondents have not been public advocates for decriminalization,
which becomes more true as the smoker's professional status increases.
Some feel that if anyone knew they smoked, they might lose their jobs
altogether or give ammunition to competing co-workers. "To let some
people know would compromise my power structure," Frederick says. "I
don't see any reason to materialize the darts in their quarrel."
Bill, a 40-year-old marketing manager who makes $96,000 a year, uses
marijuana solely to control his attention-deficit disorder but says
it's "unnecessarily risky" to reveal his use. "There is only the
possibility of crippling my career," he notes dryly. Bill adds that
he was a political activist in his youth and once had a frightening
run-in with the DEA. He asks, "You think I want to stand in front of
*that* express train?"
The irony for pot smokers is that their companies sponsor parties
with fully stocked bars, and provide beer and wine at informal
gatherings. Then there's the general nonchalance with which co-
workers relate their raucous drinking stories. Yet the current
unsmoky - if intoxicating - atmosphere makes admission difficult.
"We're talking about the most unsanctified speech of our time,"
says Allen St. Pierre, deputy director at NORML. "The only worse
thing you could say is, 'I sodomize young children.' "
The Lone Tokers
But some pot smokers believe the current smoke screen on rational
discussion of marijuana use is just that, a smoke screen - and
easily waved away. These people have come trooping out of their
smoky closets, heads high.
Eric Garris is a desktop publisher for a trade magazine who makes
roughly $50,000. He's also a former member of the Republican Central
Committee and a full-time, full-tilt advocate for marijuana law
reform. He admits that he smokes, and his co-workers know it. He even
keeps legalization pamphlets on his desk. "I enjoy it," he asserts as
his defense. Garris reports his 73-year-old mother has been smoking
for 50 years. "I think they should sell it at the corner pharmacy,"
he says.
To date, Garris claims he has not suffered the negative backlash
imagined by most professionals. "People tend to be judgmental
initially. That's why it's important not to hide it, so that people
know that someone who is effective, that they look up to and trust,
is a pothead. You can hide who you are and hope that people will like
you, or you can stand up for who you are and what you believe in and
take the heat."
Mara Leveritt, senior editor for the _Arkansas Times_, took coming out
one step further when she wrote an op-ed column for her paper last
spring titled "Pot's not so bad":
"For the past two decades, I have smoked, on average, about a joint
a day. ... If long-term, regular users like myself felt free to
articulate their experiences with marijuana, the walking, talking
evidence we'd represent could put our marijuana laws to shame. We
may not all be intellectual and moral paragons. ... On the other
hand, few of us are wild-eyed marauders, genetic mutants, or
drooling derelicts from whom society need protect itself. And as
we get older, our lives begin to make the lies that have been
broadcast about marijuana look even more ridiculous."
When the article came out, local police retaliated symbolically.
They raided the home of a local NORML officer and confiscated a
pound of marijuana and the NORML membership roster, which was
later returned. Other than that?
"I got dozens and dozens of letters of support. Maybe two or three
letters in opposition. I think one advertiser stopped advertising for
a while, but then started again when nothing else seemed to  happen,"
Leveritt says. She adds that as a court and police reporter for 20
years, she's seen her share of injustices perpetrated by the war on
marijuana. "Families have been destroyed. People are going to prison
for 20 years for selling marijuana while violent criminals are
paroled."
Of Leveritt's letters of support, two came from federal inmates, both
of whom pointed out that casual users have less to fear than those
who provide the means of their use. "We in prison are paying with our
lives for making it possible for responsible, hardworking Americans
such as yourself to enjoy a harmless recreational high. If more
people had the courage as you have to speak out, many of us could go
back to our lives and children. Thanks for returning the favor," one
inmate wrote.
"It's the prostitute and the John thing," Leveritt reflects. "They're
in prison and here I am getting off. I believe it's incumbent on
those people who smoke to do something. ... There were some risks to
myself [in coming out] that I was willing to take. If people could
assess those risks for themselves, there are probably a lot of people
who *could* come out of the smoky closet. And there is a group of
people now who are of a certain age- group and stage of life where
they are productive and established. We can show that we're not just
zoned out somewhere in a room full of smoke unable to focus our eyes.
We can use our reputations and our credibility to make this point for
common sense."
 >>> Continued to next message...
___
 X Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 X
--- Maximus 3.01
---------------