MARIJUANA REFORM KEY GOAL FOR CANDIDATE

Gary Reams, A Libertarian Running For Lieutenant Governor, Calls His
Campaign The "Reams Reeferendum."

Candidates usually run for an elected office because they want the job.

Not Gary Reams, the Libertarian Party candidate for lieutenant governor.

In fact, he doesn't want the post.

If he were to win, Reams has promised to immediately resign as lieutenant
governor if the governor were to die or be removed from office so the
constitutional process of selecting a new governor could be quickly
accomplished.

Reams said he is running solely because he wants to turn the election into
a referendum over marijuana prohibition.

The Fairfax County resident said he is running because Virginia does not
have "initiative," the power of voters to place a referendum on the ballot.
He describes his campaign as the "Reams Reeferendum," that offers voters a
chance to tell their elected representatives that it's time for reform in
marijuana laws.

"Prohibition has gone too far when 700,000 nonviolent Americans are
arrested annually for simple possession, when medical marijuana is denied
to sick people and when nonintoxicating industrial hemp is prohibited from
being grown by farmers," he said. "Virginians who want to reform the
marijuana laws should vote for the Reams Reeferendum."

He said his campaign is not about him or the Libertarian party.

"Unlike my opponents, a vote for me is not a vote to advance my political
career," he said. "It would be unfair to characterize a vote for Reams as
meaning anything other than a vote to reform the marijuana laws."

Reams, director of quality for an international telecommunications
supplier, is not proposing specific legislation at the state or federal
level, but wants voters to send a message that prohibition is not working
and to demand reform.

"Virginia law needs a change in direction toward more effective and
rational policies on the medical, industrial and recreational uses of
marijuana," he said. "I do not have to win to effectively send this message."

Reams said he chose to run for the primarily ceremonial office of
lieutenant governor, "so that voters could easily decide to vote their
conscience purely on this issue, without concern about the impact on other
issues important to the commonwealth."

He has taken no position on any issue except reform of marijuana laws
because he said he does not want to distract from the sole purpose of his
campaign.

He got on the ballot by filing 19,000 signatures of registered voters with
the state Board of Elections - nearly double the 10,000 signatures required
for a candidate to be placed on the November ballot.