CNN LETS DRUG FOES GO AT IT

SANTA FE -- Gov. Gary Johnson took on former U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey
on national television Wednesday, with McCaffrey blasting Johnson for
"irresponsible thinking" in pushing drug law reform.

Johnson and McCaffrey sparred over the nation's war on drugs on CNN's
Inside Politics program. Johnson was filmed at the Capitol, where he had
difficulty hearing some of McCaffrey's statements because of technical
problems.

During an October 1999 visit to Albuquerque, not long after Johnson began
his national campaign to change drug laws, McCaffrey had mockingly referred
to Johnson as "Puff Daddy Johnson."

McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general, headed the White House Office
of National Drug Control Policy during the Clinton administration.

"I was ready for this," Johnson said Wednesday after his bout with
McCaffrey on CNN. Johnson then hummed the theme from the movie "Rocky."

McCaffrey told CNN he thinks the country is "moving in the right direction"
with its drug policies.

"We're dismayed by the kind of, to be blunt, irresponsible thinking that
I'm hearing coming out of Governor Johnson," said McCaffrey.

McCaffrey said drug use in America had decreased by more than half since
1979, a figure Johnson disputed.

Johnson contends the war on drugs is a miserable failure.

"By no figment of the imagination is this something that we're winning,"
Johnson said on CNN. "This is a war against ourselves. There are 80 million
Americans who have done illegal drugs. I happen to be one of them and, but
for the grace of God, I'm not behind bars."

Johnson, who calls drug use "a bad choice," has acknowledged smoking
marijuana and trying cocaine in his early 20s.

Johnson favors legalizing marijuana and reducing penalties for possessing
other drugs. He said money now spent on law enforcement should be
redirected to prevention and treatment.

McCaffrey said Congress has "put huge new resources into prevention,
education and treatment with bipartisan support."

"People like Senator Pete Domenici and a brilliant young Congresswoman
Heather Wilson out in New Mexico have been part of the solution," McCaffrey
told CNN.

Domenici, Wilson and Rep. Joe Skeen -- the three Republican members of New
Mexico's congressional delegation -- recently made news regarding the drug
war when they called upon John Dendahl to resign as Republican state party
chairman after he publicly supported Johnson's drug reform bills during the
legislative session.