HUNDREDS CHEER GOVERNOR'S DRUG-REFORM STANCE

In the eyes of his Saturday audience, Gov. Gary Johnson was a star.

Johnson took his drug-reform message before a partisan crowd of several
hundred people from all parts of the country. Once again, he called for the
legalization of marijuana.

The Republican was the keynote speaker on the final day of the Lindesmith
Center-Drug Policy Foundation international conference.

The organization -- which is working toward drug reform and policy
based on "public health, science, common sense and human rights" -- met
in Albuquerque this past week. About 700 people attended the meeting. Its
theme was "Drug Policies for the New Millennium."

Johnson during his second term has pushed for drug reform, including the
legalization of marijuana, describing the national war on drugs as "a
miserable failure."

The Saturday audience appeared eager to hear him and cheer him.

"We have a politician, a governor, who has shown the commitment on this
issue unlike any other politician anywhere, who has made this issue his
own, who has publicly and privately not let up," said Ethan Nadelmann,
executive director of the foundation.

Johnson, during his speech, touched on several aspects of drug reform.

He questioned why drug policies have not changed given the nation's
experience with the failure of Prohibition in the early part of the last
century.

"How come we haven't connected the dots when it comes to the war on drugs?"
he asked. "We're going to look back on this period in time and recognize it
as the atrocity that it is. The war on drugs is a miserable failure."

The governor called drug reform the one of the biggest civil rights issue
in the country today.

"There is not a bigger issue in the country that is going unaddressed when
you consider that 50 percent of what we're spending on law enforcement, 50
percent of what we're spending on courts, 50 percent of what we're spending
on the prisons is going to the war on drugs," he said.

Johnson said 800,000 arrests a year are related to marijuana possession alone.

"So what do we need to do?" he asked. "Well, what we need to do is, first
of all, we need to legalize marijuana."

In pushing for a new approach to the drug problem, the governor said, "We
need to move away from a criminal model to a medical model.

"Just like alcohol, you have a drink in a bar, that's acceptable behavior.
You have a number of drinks at the bar, and you get intoxicated, that's
acceptable behavior. But then you go and get in your car, that's not
acceptable behavior. That's criminal behavior.

"We need to apply those same principles when it comes to drugs."

Johnson also called for the elimination of mandatory sentencing for
drug-related offenses.

"We're letting violent felons out of jail to make room for nonviolent,
drug-convicted individuals that need to go to prison because of mandatory
sentencing," he said.

The New Mexico Legislature during its last session considered a
comprehensive program of drug measures. After the meeting Johnson said that
the state could pass such legislation and lead the entire country toward
drug reform.

"I believe that Governor Johnson is moving in the right direction in
implementing policy," said Carle Ridley, 20, of Stillwater, Okla.,
following the governor's address. "We should not be incarcerating people
for their choice of life."

Jack Frenkel, an 80-year-old retired physician from Santa Fe, said Johnson
has helped bring much needed attention to the issue of drug use.

"It's a very important public health issue, and there is nothing being done
about it," Frenkel said. "We have to learn to face it."