The Buffalo News reported last month that federal law-enforcement officials wanted to confiscate the Wheatfield home of Richard and Laurie Brothers because Richard allegedly sold marijuana from his house, making it a"distribution center" for marijuana since 1989.
As an ethnographer, I have been inside crack houses. I was the first to publish the deeds of the Goodyear crew (before 39 members or associates were indicted). In a crack house chaos occurs because of the volatile nature of crack.
I have also interviewed over 100 marijuana users and dealers. I have found that marijuana dealers operate in a different pattern from what occurs at a crack house.
Marijuana "distribution centers" are usually someone's home. Typically, marijuana is purchased by the pound and sold on a small scale, an ounce or less at a time, usually to adults. During visits to a dealer, marijuana purchasers generally avoid contact with neighbors. They rarely shout, blow horns or call attention to themselves.
Marijuana does not, typically, incite violent or aggressive behavior.
In the case of Richard and Laurie Brothers, did neighbors know there was a "problem"? Was Brothers selling to consenting adults? Was everyone (or anyone) causing a definable nuisance? Were the police ever called to the scene? Were Mr. Brothers' house "guests" intimidating to neighbors?
It seems eminently fair to consult the neighbors. Do they want Mr.
Brothers' house taken away? His family evicted?
The argument that society as a whole is the victim of Mr. Brothers' alleged marijuana sales, because marijuana users potentially can cause harm to others, I reject. Its invalidity is shown by the inconsistency of its application.
Alcohol, as empirical evidence clearly shows, is more dangerous than marijuana, causing more death, crime and accidents. At a tavern, as at a crack house, there is the danger of chaos because of the volatile nature of the drug. To be consistent, we would need to confiscate "alcohol distribution centers," too.
That, of course, the majority is unwilling to do. Herein lies the secret of why alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. With 100 million users in the United States, alcohol is consumed by the majority of American adults. Only a minority of adults use marijuana, an estimated 25 million.
Has Mr. Brothers' alleged marijuana distribution center caused as much harm as any busy alcohol distribution center which will, maybe even tonight, serve alcohol to someone who will, under the influence of alcohol, drive a car and kill someone, as nearly 20,000 people do every year?
Our Mr. Brothers might argue: "150,000 people die annually because of alcohol; half the 20,000 U.S. homicides are committed by people under the influence of alcohol. Half-a-million accidents a year are alcohol-related.
Next to Alzheimer's, alcohol is the leading cause of mental deterioration in adults. Everybody knows someone who has been killed by alcohol. Show us one statistic -- even one -- that shows marijuana use is as dangerous."
But it wouldn't matter. Alcohol is our drug, and we are the majority.
I have lived as a homeless person to try to get a "worm's eye view" not only of racism but of the war on drugs.
I sponsored and moderated a 1993 debate on drug decriminalization and legalization where Dennis Vacco, now state attorney general, squared off against Peter Christ, formerly of the Town of Tonawanda Police Department.
I do not wish to be construed as supporting or endorsing marijuana use -which I consider to be a vice. However, I am willing to consider that it might be a gross act of ethnocentricity on my part to label other people's use of it as a vice. Neolithic cultures like the Yang Shao of China used it as medicine and as food; the Shaivit monks of the Gangetic Plain have and sometimes still do use it as a sacrament.
Over 400,000 people are arrested per year on marijuana offenses. Sixty thousand are in prison right now for simple marijuana possession. Many have lost their homes and their freedom, and millions have learned to distrust, fear and hate the U.S. government because of its marijuana laws and enforcement. Over 12 million people (5 percent of the U.S. population) have been arrested since 1970.
There is no evidence that all of this has decreased the consumption of marijuana. In fact, I will venture that by making Americans cynical and resentful, it has done the reverse. The proliferation of marijuana use in this country, I believe, is based primarily on its prohibition.

FRANK PARLATO is a Buffalo-area real estate developer.