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Standing in the Carwein auditorium on March 6, marijuana advocate Rick Steves speaks about drug policy in the U.S.

The University of Washington Tacoma's Student Activities Board encouraged students to think about drug policy by inviting a noted travel writer, television host, and reform advocate to speak on the topic of marijuana.

Rick Steves gave his lecture to UWT students March 6 in a packed Carwein auditorium during the lunch hour, covering facets of the issue from progressive European policies to the obstacles to reform in the United States.

Sean Cooke, SAB's director of social activities, organized the event and opened by thanking Steves for coming. Steves agreed to speak to UWT free of charge. The goals of the lecture did not include encouraging students to smoke marijuana, a fact Steves made clear at the beginning of his presentation.

"If you were to hear me at Hempfest, you might hear a little different tune," Steves said. "But right now I'm talking drug policy, and I'm comparing our approach to drug policy with Europe's approach to drug policy."

Steves noted that though America likes to think of itself as the land of the free, 1% of its population is incarcerated. According to marijuanaconversations.org, in 2006, over 800,000 citizens were arrested for marijuana, and 89% of those arrests were for possession only.

"In the European Union… it is ridiculous to find and mess up somebody's life because they're caught with a joint in their pocket," Steves said. "Every day in New York, 100 people are arrested for marijuana."

By contrast, the Netherlands has held to a policy of toleration for over a decade, after facing up to the decision between tolerating alternative lifestyles and building more prisons. The result has been an overall drop in drug-related crime and a raise in the average age of harder drug use, according to Steves.

While the wholesale market remains illegal, the growing of a plant for personal use is accepted, as is its under-the-table sale in Dutch coffee shops where it is cheaper to get high than drunk. Police will actually enter coffee shops selling marijuana to post warnings on the bulletin board about chemical designer drugs available on the streets.

Police view the shops as a necessary firewall between genuine recreational substance use and exposure to harder drugs such as heroin. Having developed a track record with this policy, the Netherlands have actually witnessed an aging of the hard drug using populace. The removal of marijuana from the criminal market has kept youth away from truly harmful drugs, according to Steves.

"Europe has a drug problem, and so does the United States, but Europe recognizes its drug problem," Steves said.

Steves pointed out the shortcomings and over-simplicity of the U.S.'s "just say no" attitude. Not only does such a stance ignore the complexity of the issue, Steves said it is a symptom of a society gripped by fear, dumbness, and no solutions outside brute force and heavy tax spending. "They believe there's a reservoir of people waiting to ruin their lives," Steves said, before placing emphasis on what he had to say next with a smile. "If only it were legal."

But in Europe, the only country that exceeds the U.S. in marijuana use per capita is the Czech Republic. They are results that result from each country's progressive handling, which range from the clever use of blue lights in the bathrooms of Dutch businesses to keep needle-users from finding their veins, to seeming non sequiturs such as French schools offering lessons in flirtation to young boys.

"In France, they found that many more young boys try pot than girls," Steves said. "And they think it's because they're so nervous about asking the girls out. "Europeans do some silly things when it comes to figuring out what to do with marijuana, but it's better than hiring more police," Steves said.

Steves closed by opening himself to questions presented by students. When asked by one student about the effectiveness of Seattle's Initiative 75 - which places possession of marijuana last on the police department's list of priorities - Steves responded that he found it very effective, and a pragmatic means of sidestepping federal impositions on local law.

Conversely, Steves stated skepticism towards the merits of medical marijuana brought up in another question, saying that he felt medical marijuana reforms still avoids the issue of civil liberties.

"For me, as a travel writer, high is a place," Steves said in his closing statements. "And if the government says I can't go there, I want to know why."

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