By Timothy C. Davis
Staff Writer

There aren't any whistling, exhaust-spewing VW microbuses anymore - they've been replaced by Jettas, or Subarus, or the odd Toyota Prius.

There aren't dudes out front wearing knitted, Southwestern print gauchos, and only a few pairs of Birkenstocks in evidence. There aren't women baring their bead-bedecked breasts to the heavens. There aren't guys offering grilled cheese sandwiches and hemp necklaces - "dope ropes" - for sale, and only one or two folks wondering aloud if someone might offer them a "miracle," or free ticket to the night's performance by former Grateful Dead member Bob Weir and his band Ratdog, who are in town to lay it down, two sets worth, at a popular music hall in North Myrtle Beach.

There is a familiar, sickly-sweet smell in the air, however, and it's not just the wafting fumes of burning leaves so familiar to the nose of those who've spent a few cool Autumn evenings in the American South.

Scratch that - it is the smell of burning leaves, but not the kind gathered from shedding elms and maples. It's the kind you may well have smelled back in Haight-Ashbury back in 1968 - or Cleveland in 1975, or Los Angeles in '84, Newark in 1993, or Socastee just last week. It's the kind Ozzy Osbourne sang about in the Black Sabbath classic "Sweet Leaf." It's the unmistakable smell of marijuana, and it's everywhere.

And not just at rock shows. It wafts out of the slightly unrolled windows of cars parked right outside of the door at your favorite watering hole. Mixed with the all-masking scent - to a smoker's nose, at least - of Febreze, it winds its way under dorm room doors. It's smoked backstage by musical artists old enough to know better but rich enough not to care. It's not uncommon on area golf courses, even - the open air, relative privacy, and hours to spare make pairing greens and The Green a natural.
Like we said, it's everywhere.

And it's illegal.

But young people today, like young people of most generations past, love two things: fitting in, tuning out (the parents, at least), and living the high life - pun not intended - of their celebrity idols. How can you expect a kid to just say no when he or she learns that folks as diverse as Bob Marley, Snoop Dogg (ticketed just last week for possession, incidentally), New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, Louis Armstrong (and indeed, most jazz icons), Paul McCartney, Jennifer Aniston, physicist Richard Feynman, Willie Nelson, Frederich Nietzsche, Winston Churchill, Newt Gingrich, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ted Turner, Carl Sagan, Brad Pitt, Thomas Jefferson, Steven King, and more pro athletes and rock and rap musicians than you can shake a stick at have all either smoked it, wear shirts promoting legalization efforts, or, in the case of someone like Bill Maher, actually sit on the board of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

In what must be a mindblower to old-timers everywhere, even the new host of that most domestic of daytime television shows, "The Price is Right" is a marijuana advocate, if for those with medical conditions. In a spot recorded for Reason.tv, "The Price is Right'' host Drew Carey is seen walking into a Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensary.

"Smell that smell," Carey says to the camera. "That's the smell of freedom."

FROM HAIGHT-ASHBURY TO KINGS HIGHWAY

Hallucinogenic drugs experienced their halcyon days back in the late '60s. Day-glo paint was everywhere, particularly on those aforementioned microbuses and bared boobs. People made their show posters harder to read, via crazy fonts and mind-bending graphics, rather than easier.

Hallucinogens don't seem to be booking as many trips locally these days, according to a poll of local law enforcement personnel. Marijuana, another Summer of Love favorite, hasn't yet lost its appeal, however.

"Most of our drug cases revolve around marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, and prescription drugs," says Captain Arron B. Miller of Surfside Beach Public Safety. "I don't have on-hand stats but I can tell you that we see mostly marijuana cases and marijuana seems to be as prevalent as ever."

Myrtle Beach, says a spokesman, encounters much the same - which is to say, the usual - subjects.

"I would have to say most of our cases are for marijuana and crack, followed by regular cocaine, heroin and prescription violations," says Myrtle Beach police captain David Knipes.

Nicole Aiello, Public Information Officer for the City of North Myrtle Beach, says that in 2007, "North Myrtle Beach had a total of 193 offenses around marijuana. Of those 193, 191 of those were first offenses; two were general possession." (January and December were the two months with the least arrests, eight each, while May, with 29, and June, with 45, had the most.)

Georgetown County Sherriff's Department Sergeant Neil Johnson says his unit is no different - when it comes to drug arrests, cannabis is still king.

"Mostly it's just marijuana. In 2006 we had 80 charges on marijuana, and we seized 5.9 pounds," he says. "There was over 280 illegal drug cases investigated in 2007. There were 278 records of seized or recovered illegal drugs were reported in 2007, including 119 records of marijuana cases and eight records of marijuana plants cases."

Johnson says that if a stop or search falls under the first offense for simple possession, they'll issue a citation depending on the case, but adds that his department won't hesitate to do the work necessary to process a case no matter its size.

"If it falls under a second offense, or is over the weight classification and packaged to sell, we don't mind doing the paperwork. It's really not that much more work, actually. We'll put them in jail overnight, get a warrant, write it up, and send it up the chain to the solicitor's office. If they need to go to trial, they'll call us - and with a larger case, sometimes they plea out ahead of time anyway."

And so, the battle continues. Bolder and more technologically-advanced marijuana growers are producing more reefer, and, consequently, law enforcement, also boasting the latest in technology - helicopters, infrared vision - are getting better at finding these growing operations.

As border crackdowns have increased between the United States and Mexico, bringing with them higher costs and security risks for smuggling operations, homegrown marijuana has become more and more common.

A 2006 study by Virginia-based researcher Jon Gettman said that marijuana was the nation's largest cash crop, at $35.8 billion over a three-year period, and was the single largest cash crop in 12 states, including South Carolina. Gettman, a marijuana reform activist and leader of the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis has a Ph.D. in public policy and regional economic development from George Mason University and is a former director of NORML. According to Gettman, from 2003-2005, marijuana production and sales amounted to a $142 million industry in South Carolina, ahead of tobacco ($97 million) and cotton ($92 million).

But is any progress being made - on either side? If Montel Williams tells his viewers, both housewives and college kids and second-shifters, how cannabis has helped him deal with his multiple sclerosis, does it matter if someone confiscates a couple dozen plants? If the NBA's Rasheed Wallace or Hall of Famer Robert Parish toke on a bowl after a game - and have no shame about telling folk about it, does busting a dude with a dime bag accomplish anything in the grand scheme of things? If John Mayer talks to Rolling Stone about his love of weed, does it discount that butt-end of a joint sitting atop the toilet at your local beer hall?

At the risk of quoting stoner philosophy, it does and it doesn't. It's a war that sees thousands upon thousands of battles fought daily, with each side claiming its victories. For instance, last week Kevin Faulk, a key member of the New England Patriots, was busted for having four joints tucked into a cigarette pack he was carrying into a Lil' Wayne concert. Two weeks ago, USC Head Football Coach Steve Spurrier suspended two players following an incident involving a joint found in their car after a traffic stop. Players Dion LeCorn and Matt Clements were suspended from all team activities indefinitely. (What does that mean, you may ask? Well, a slap on the wrist, more or less - LeCorn and Clements will probably have to lift weights on their own for a hot minute.) Meanwhile, students all over Columbia no doubt smoked the wacky tobacky as part of their normal weekend routine.

Who's the winner? Who's the loser? Like with many hot-button issues, it probably depends on how good your PR spin is.

"The big-picture issue is whether there's any evidence that raids and seizures accomplish anything," says Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. "We've been doing this since the 70s, and at the end of all that, marijuana is the number one cash crop in this country. The U.S. Government will even tell you that. According to government statistics, 100 million Americans have tried marijuana, and 15 million use it monthly. According to Monitoring the Future, a youth drug research organization (www.monitoringthefuture.org), 83.9 percent of high school seniors say marijuana is fairly-to-very easy to get. The lowest that number has been - since they started in 1975 - is 82.7 percent."

Allen St. Pierre, the Executive Director of NORML, says that despite being South Carolina's number one cash crop, pot's still frowned upon in the Palmetto State, as it is much of the South.

St. Pierre ranks the the Southeast (S.C., Tenn., Ga., Ala. and Fla.) as among the strictest areas in the country as far as marijuana sentencing laws and enforcement.

"Generally speaking, if America's cannabis laws are viewed in three tiers, ranging from permissive, tolerant to intolerant, South Carolina ranks in the lower third, with some fairly stiff penalties on the books - and rather rigorous enforcement."

THE GREAT DEBATE

Passing through the heavily-stickered door of the shop, the smell of incense hits your nostrils, a sweet perfume that immediately sets you at ease. There are hats and other articles of clothing from skateboard and surf companies such as Element, Firm, Adio, DC and Dickies. There's underground hip-hop from Definitive Jux record head El-P playing softly but insistently over the stereo speakers. There's even an old-school flip-through case, featuring that other holdover from the 60s and 70s, black-light posters, as well as wall hangings of other pop culture icons (Biggie, Tupac, Jim Morrison, Al Pacino as "Scarface").

Near the back of the store, there's a glass case selling personal hiding devices known to many as "stash cans" - they look like your ordinary can of Coke or Sprite or Raid or WD-40, but they're hollowed out inside so you can hide your...valuables. There are various glass smoking pipes in all manner of colors. There are small, hookah-like devices for those who want to get their Ali Baba on. There's even something called a vaporizer, a water-fueled device that allows one to enjoy a toke without releasing any of that noxious smoke into the air - or their lungs. (And all, incidentally, available in a town perhaps best known to some for its banning of tobacco smoking in the public arena.)

There are stores like this, it should be said, in every borough of the Grand Strand. There's even a store in North Myrtle Beach called 420 Superstore (see sidebar of marijuana terms on page 11).

Perhaps the clearest example of the schism between the ready availability of marijuana and smoke-friendly paraphernalia and accessories and the ever-present paranoia inherent in actually talking about the topic is this: out of four area stores we contacted selling glass smoking pipes, exactly one got back to us, and only then to accuse us of working in conjunction with the Myrtle Beach Police Department.

Evidently, it's quite okay to sell glass pipes and bong-like devices all over the beach - and even to advertise them openly - but not to talk about how people might use them in the privacy of his or her own home. (Seriously: have you ever seen someone smoke tobacco out of a curvy, Dale Chihuly-esque glass apparatus, just because?)

Evidently, it's okay to have dancing bears and that universal symbol for Pot Spoken Here - the ever-inhaling Bob Marley - plastered about everywhere, but not to gab about grass. In fact, perhaps the only thing more patently ridiculous is the concept of the marijuana tax stamp, but that's a story for another sidebar (see page 11).

According to government statistics, there are no documented overdoses on marijuana to be found anywhere, and yet alcohol overconsumption claims the lives of thousands of folks a year. According to scientists, the amount of cannabinoids necessary to get a person intoxicated relative to the amount necessary to kill them is one to 40,000. In other words, to overdose, you would have to consume about 40,000 doses of marijuana to get to a lethal situation, something that is nigh impossible without falling asleep first. That'd be one seriously large, Scooby Doo-sized doobie. In contrast, the ratio for alcohol ranges from one to four and one to 10.

Why is this, you may ask? Why is one legal, and not the other?

Mason Tvert thinks that's a good question. Tvert is the executive director of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), a non-profit organization based in Denver that works to educate the public about the relative harms of marijuana and alcohol and which advocates for laws and policies that reflect the fact that marijuana is safer than alcohol. SAFER was behind the successful measures in Denver that legalized private adult marijuana possession in 2005, and made such state offenses the city's "lowest law enforcement priority" in 2007. They also coordinated the statewide legalization effort in 2006, which ultimately garnered more than 41 percent of the vote, despite what Tvert calls "a huge amount of opposition."

"SAFER began in 2005, in response to the highly publicized alcohol-overdose deaths of two Colorado college students," Tvert says. "Along with these needless deaths, Colorado University, like many others around the country, had been experiencing a number of alcohol-related problems, such as rioting, sexual assault and date rape, fighting, property damage, and so on. Despite the fact that alcohol contributes to this multitude of serious problems - and marijuana does not - we noticed that the universities were punishing students more for marijuana use than for alcohol use. We realized this clear imbalance in sanctions was sending the unintended but very dangerous message that alcohol use was more acceptable than marijuana use, thus fueling the so-called 'culture of alcohol" on college campuses.

"We began by organizing students at Colorado University and Colorado State University and helped them run student referenda that called on the universities to establish university (not legal) penalties for marijuana that were no greater than those for alcohol," Tvert continues. "This way, students would not feel pushed to drink to avoid greater punishments, and, more importantly, those students 21 and older would not be compelled to drink instead of make the safer choice. After all, there is no university penalty for a 21+ student caught drinking, thus we do not think there should be a university penalty for a student caught using a less harmful drug. It is important to understand that we are talking solely about university penalties (expulsion, suspension, removal from student housing, etc.) and not legal penalties. Nowhere in the law does it say a school must punish a student if they break that law. It's up to the schools, and right now they choose to add punishments on top of any legal punishments."

The measures at CU and CSU passed with what Tvert calls "flying colors" (68-32 at CU, 56-44 at CSU). Since that time, SAFER has since worked with students at Florida State University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, George Washington University, the College of William and Mary and the University of Texas-Austin to run virtually identical referenda on those campuses (SAFER has not, as of yet, worked with any South Carolina colleges or universities, Tvert says). All of them passed, and just last week, the University of Central Florida passed a SAFER referendum 57-43. Since the passage of the SAFER measure at University of Maryland, Tvert says the students have continued the fight and had multiple student legislative bodies pass measures supporting the initial referendum. In fact, they even compelled the state representative who represents the region to send a formal letter to school administrators urging them to adopt the policy changes requested by the students.

Natalie Fraser, the Director of Public Promotion for Narconon Arrowhead, a drug treatment advocacy group and facility, says that the short-term effect of marijuana use include problems with memory and learning, distorted perceptions, difficulty in thinking and problem-solving, loss of coordination, increased heart rate and anxiety.

"Long-term use can increase the chances of tissue damage and lung cancer, and also causes changes in the brain similar to those caused by heroin and cocaine," Fraser says. Several studies have linked marijuana with poor school performance. "It is harder to concentrate and retain information when a person is smoking marijuana. Sixty percent of teenagers in drug treatment programs are there because of marijuana."

Locally, Coastal Carolina University students, as is the case with the general public, seem to be split on the issue of whether marijuana should be legalized. Those in support of legalization bring up issues of jail overcrowding, the disparity in mandatory sentencing, the fact that low-level drug users end up in jail instead of the dealers, that the government could make money off of it, and the opinion that it isn't going away anyway, regardless of the laws.

Those in opposition bring up the point that, if legalized or decriminalized, addiction problems may increase and that the problem may be more expensive as a nation to deal with. To boot, some were concerned that people may be under the influence while working in important jobs such as teaching or working in public safety.

Eliza* (* names with a star asked to not have their real names used) is against the legalization of marijuana, although she estimates that about 90% of her classmates have tried it. "This drug is available anywhere, she says. "It is not legal because of the cause-and-effect of the drug. It is not a substance that needs to be legalized; if it is, it will be worse than cigarettes. It causes serious health risks to lung and heart long term, just as cigarettes do."

She's also against medical marijuana, seeing it not as a gateway drug, but a gateway to eventual legalization.

"I feel that if you give an inch, the people will want a mile," she says.

Marcel* is also against legalizing marijuana.

"I believe it is still illegal because it can become addictive," he says. "Many might say it cannot, but I have personally seen people become addicted to marijuana.

"I am in favor (of using) medical marijuana for cancer and such," he adds. "Honestly, most of the criminals in jail today are in jail for possession. Those people in there for small amounts of marijuana are taking up the room of where a person, say, that committed rape could be. Therefore I believe the penalties and sentencing laws should be changed slightly."

Marley Marano-Korbar, who estimates that 95 percent of her classmates have experimented with the drug, says she's in favor of legalization efforts. Why, we asked her, does she think it's still illegal to possess?

"It's a bottom line (thing)," she says. "Business doesn't think they could make money from it (or don't know how)."

Marano-Korbar, who is in favor of decriminalization efforts, has a personal stake in the argument over medical marijuana.

"When I had cancer, I was given Marinol - the THC pill - to increase my appetite, which was decreased tremendously as a result of chemotherapy." (THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive substance found in the cannabis plant.)

Samantha Weinand also believes in legalization (both for medical and commercial purposes), but also moderation.

"I think it's still illegal because it impairs your judgement and makes it difficult to do certain tasks that require much focus. I think that it should be legal to have a small amount, as long as people are responsible with it. I think of it in much the same way as alcohol."

At this point in time, the same can't be said for Horry County or the state at large.

MELLOWING MINDSETS?

What would Myrtle Beach look like if marijuana were legalized, or at least heavily decriminalized? Would cannabis cafes pop up along Ocean Boulevard like they have all over Amsterdam in The Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, cities like Vancouver and Toronto and Ottawa in Canada? Places where one is able to order up a little smoke to go along with their half-caff soy latte, and relax to some down-tempo or trip-hop or dub music while busying themselves with the particulars of the day?

The answer is: not likely, at least anytime soon. However, signs point to a, well, mellowing of marijuana issues nationwide, at least compared to 10 years ago. California allows medicinal marijuana distributors. Oregon allows the growing of hemp, albeit the low-THC version. There's even a S.C. state representative,theappropriately-namedBill Herbkersman (R-Bluffton), who has proposed a committee to study whether South Carolina should pursue "authorization of the cultivation and production of industrial hemp." The biggest challenge, Herbkersman says, is to convince lawmakers there's a significant difference between industrial hemp, with its low levels of THC, and its cannabis cousin, marijuana - and that the potential benefits (rebuilding the textile industry, putting farmers to work) are worth a deeper look.

All across the United States, according to St. Pierre, laws that have been on the books for years are once again getting a fresh-read - and, in some cases, a do-over.

"Increasingly, due to state/county governments adopting so-called 'drug court' models, most first and second time cannabis offenders are first offered 'treatment', which really equates to nothing more than monitored drug tests," he says.

St. Pierre adds that most of these arrests are young people, charged with simple possession.

"There is no data produced by state/federal governments concerning this question," he says. "However, over 50 percent of those arrested on marijuana charges are between the ages of 18 and 25 years old. Over 75 percent of marijuana arrests occur to citizens under 30 years old. Of the 830,000 cannabis-related arrests in 2006, 90 percent were for possession-only charges. We've estimated that 35 to 40 percent of these interactions with police result in fine-only citations."

South Carolina's penalties are, according to Merkin, on the strict side.

"A first offense, for less than an ounce, is a misdemeanor and carries a fine and up to a month in jail. A second offense is still a misdemeanor, but you can face up to a year in jail. Over an ounce is a felony. A really strict state is Oklahoma: any first offense can get you up to a year in jail, and a second offense is a felony."

It's still something of a little-known fact, but our northerly neighbor North Carolina is among 12 states, equaling 1/3 of the U.S. population, that have decriminalized the possession of cannabis to some extent. (According to NORML, "Typically, decriminalization means no prison time or criminal record for first-time possession of a small amount for personal consumption. The conduct is treated like a minor traffic violation.") According to St. Pierre, other Southern states such as Ala. and Texas have recently passed laws that allow police greater discretion to possibly cite rather than formally arrest persons suspected in cannabis possession cases. To boot, Tenn. is also currently looking at a medical marijuana bill (For a breakdown of current cannabis-related legislation in the U.S., go to capwiz.com/norml2/issues).

South Carolina's legislature took up a medical cannabis bill last year, but the bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Bill Mescher, R-Pinopolis, passed away in 2007. The senator, who also gained infamy in S.C. for his fight to legalize tattooing, had filed a bill to legalize medical use of marijuana, citing the painful death of his first wife 20 years ago from cancer.

All of which means that those visions of a chilled-out, smoke-friendly beachside Valhalla - or of hundreds of stoned, Spring Break-celebrating zombies marching down the strip, intent on eating everything not nailed down, depending on where you stand on the issue - are going to need to get back-burnered for a bit. A decision on legalization - or, more likely, decriminalization - isn't likely to be made one way or the other anytime soon, although the issue is certainly out there, and discussion of it seems to be heating up with every election cycle.

One thing's for sure: at some point, it's an issue that will need to be dealt with, whether by lawmakers or the consensus vote of Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Taxpayer via an electoral initiative - as this issue goes, at least, where there's smoke, there is indeed fire. Whether we as citizens wish to stoke those fires or douse them out still remains to be seen.

More smoke... Stamping out the smoke The state of weed on campus