KINKY CALLS FOR LEGALIZED WEED

AUSTIN -- Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman on
Wednesday called for the decriminalization of marijuana to avoid
further clogging state prisons with nonviolent offenders.

He also said he would favor a review of people already imprisoned on
marijuana charges to "rehab them, try to get them back into society.

"We've got to clear some of the room out of the prisons so we can put
the bad guys in there, like the pedophiles and the politicians," said
Friedman, a humorist and author.

Friedman said he doesn't have specifics on how decriminalization would
work, including what amount of marijuana a person could possess
without being charged.

He did say he doesn't favor making marijuana legally available for
purchase.

"I'm not talking about like Amsterdam," he said. "I agree with (U.S.
Sen.) John McCain that we've lost the drug war. Drugs are more
available, they're cheaper. It's clear to me, if you've lost the war
on drugs, then you've got to go some other direction."

Friedman's comments on marijuana came one week after he created a
controversy in Houston when he said the musicians and artists who fled
Hurricane Katrina had returned to New Orleans but the "crackheads and
thugs" remained behind. He later added that many evacuees who remain
in Houston are good citizens.

The candidate said Wednesday that crack cocaine "is a different deal"
from marijuana.

"Marijuana is a very different situation. It's not like crack and
(other) drugs that create violence," he said.

Friedman discussed his prior cocaine use last week in an interview
with the San Antonio Express-News. He also has written extensively and
talked freely about his cocaine use when he was a satirical musician
during the 1970s and early 1980s.

He said the deaths of two close friends spurred him to change his
lifestyle and that he has not used illegal drugs since 1985, when he
left New York to return to Texas.

Political scientist Bruce Buchanan of the University of Texas at
Austin said Friedman is "off the beaten path. There's no question
about that. That's his whole schtick.

"By traditional standards, we would all dismiss this out of hand," he
said. But he said that "given the fluidity (of the governor's race)
.we have to wait a while. The die has not yet been cast."

Mark Sanders, spokesman for independent gubernatorial candidate Carole
Keeton Strayhorn, said, "She is opposed to the legalization of illegal
drugs."

Gov. Rick Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, said, "The governor does
not agree with Kinky and does not believe marijuana should be legalized."

Democrat Chris Bell also is not in favor of legalizing
marijuana.

"Drugs are illegal for a reason," said Bell's campaign manager, Jason
Stanford. "The last thing we need is to give kids the message that
drugs are OK."

Libertarian candidate James Werner, however, said he would go further
than decriminalization and support the "legalization, taxation and
regulation of drugs in order to reduce the tremendous amount of crime
associated with drug use and distribution.

"It will be treated like alcohol," he said, adding that he would start
with marijuana and move toward legalization of all drugs.