Pot. Mary Jane. The Chronic. Cannabis. Ganja. Indo. Y’know… marijuana.

Now that I’ve established my street credibility, let’s talk about pot: recreational activity, or weed of the devil?

Last month voters in Arizona and California passed ballot propositions that legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, such as a pain reliever, glaucoma salve, etc.

Recent studies have shown that pot use among teens has approximately doubled in the past few years.

As a result, the most recent issue of Time magazine addressed the issue of how, when and if ‘baby boomers’ should confront the potential use of marijuana by their children.

I can see how this would grate on our parents’ generation. After all, 49 percent of ‘boomer’ parents tried marijuana in their youth, including our President, who, despite his assertion that he didn’t inhale, admitted on MTV that he sure wishes he had.

President Clinton’s winking nod at pot smoking is a reminder of the ethical quandary in which many of his generation find themselves.

How can a parent warn a young adult about the dangers of a drug that they themselves enjoyed during their youth? The awkwardness many ‘boomers’ feel about the drug is a sticky issue that many parents would most assuredly like to avoid.

When they look down at their newborn child, did it ever occur to these parents that that enjoyable day spent in the woods smoking weed and jamming out to Santana back in ’70 will come back to bite them in the proverbial ass? Who ever thinks that their kid could be tempted by drugs?

I myself was once a child, and back then drug use was not an issue Iwas ever even aware of. If it didn’t have something to do with Star Wars, G.I. Joe or sports, it couldn’t be that important.

Iswore I’d never be interested in girls. Then I got to junior high. Iswore I’d never be interested in alcohol. Then Igot to high school. Iswore I’d never be interested in drugs. Then Igot to college.

I’m terrified to go to graduate school. Who knows what crap I’d have to deal with there?

According to statistics, U.S. law enforcement seizures of weed have risen steadily since 1986. Juvenile arrests for the possession of pot was dropping sharply until 1992, when it rose dramatically from well under 20,000 annually to over 60,000 by 1994. Pot, it seems, has become our chief enemy.

Many who smoke pot, and even many who don’t, wonder really what all the hubbub about weed is. Why focus on pot when heroin use is on the rise, and other, much more harmful drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines are still all too readily available?

Why focus on the dangers of pot when alcohol, a socially acceptable and sometimes even encouraged drug, poses a much greater health risk to its users?

Why focus on pot when the use of cigarettes, just as harmful a vice, is protected by one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington? Why does pot get so much attention by our nation when we have much bigger fish to fry?

I would submit marijuana receives such excessive scrutiny because it represents that all-too blurry line between what society considers dangerous and what is considered a relatively harmless vice,.

Outlawing all ‘dangerous’ drugs would be too extreme a course of action to take, as all drugs are potentially dangerous. Legalizing all drugs seems too liberal and immoral a policy. So we must choose where the barrier between “harmless” and “harmful” drugs lies, and that is the subject of debate.

And the fact that many opposed to the use of drugs appear either extremely naive or hypocritical doesn’t help make up young people’s minds.

When the two most prominent anti-drug slogans are “Just Say No” and “Just Don’t Do It,” indications are that there’s a real lack of depth in certain anti-drug arguments.

And dad’s ‘drugs are immoral’ speech sounds a little hollow when it comes between his sips of Budweiser and drags on a Camel. Especially when he admits that he smoked Bob Marley’s weight in weed back in college.

Beer and smokes are bad, our elders say, but they’re really not that bad. Coke is bad, they say. Really, really bad. But weed?

One person would have to smoke about 40 lbs of marijuana in 25 minutes to overdose. But it’s still worse than beer? C’mon.

I personally would like to see all drugs legalized, just so our government could regulate their use. Humans’ desire for foreign substances seems to be an unquenchable thirst, so we might as well learn to control and regulate its use as safely as humanly possible, rather than continue a no-tolerance policy that has resulted in a disastrous failure that has cost money and lives.

Perhaps that is too extreme, but considering how the War on Drugs has been a complete travesty, perhaps it is time to examine other options.

At the very least, pot should be legalized. Heck, this country used to love pot. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew it. The industrial uses of hemp benefitted the U.S. war effort in World War II, its assets praised in the government film Hemp for Victory. Many great Americans have smoked pot, such as David Lee Roth and four of the five members of the Breakfast Club.

In fact, the only thing involving pot that should be outlawed is the way people act before smoking it.

Ever watch a bunch of people get ready to smoke pot? They all huddle together, whispering in each other’s ears. Why all the paranoia? Judging by the studies, very few people care that you smoke pot, not even the president. Then, suddenly, they are gone. Or, they make the obvious parade march to the basement or to somebody’s room.

They return, several minutes to several hours later, muttering to each other and smelling like a reggae band that rolled around in some type of moldy salad, and pretend as if everyone else has no idea they’re high. Who do you think you’re fooling?

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Tim Davis is a senior in theatre studies from Carlisle. He is the opinion page editor.