A Superior Court judge sharply criticized the drug war and renewed his call for the decriminalization of marijuana at a pro-marijuana rally Saturday in Reno.

Judge James Gray of Orange County, California says the drug war has cost billions of dollars and resulted in the United States having the world's highest incarceration rate--with no end in sight to rampant drug abuse.

The former federal prosecutor says he has never smoked marijuana, but supports the strictly controlled distribution of pot to adults.

More than 60 people attended the ``Rally for Cannabis Liberation'' in Reno.

The rally was sponsored by Cures not Wars, a pro-marijuana group that's trying to raise awareness that tens of thousands of Americans are in prisons for non-violent drug crimes.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)