CALIF. JUDGE MAKES A PLEA FOR DRUG REFORM

James Gray, Who May Make Presidential Run, Speaks At ReconsiDer Meeting Today

California Judge James Gray this week is courting Central New Yorkers to
join him in ending the war on drugs and to sign on to his potential race
for president of the United States.

Gray, a Republican turned Libertarian, has been speaking with judges, city
councilors, county legislators, drug law reform advocates, reporters and
members of the medical community in Rochester and Syracuse.

Today, he is to be the keynote speaker at ReconsiDer's annual meeting, at 1
p.m. at the May Memorial Unitarian Society, 3800 E. Genesee St.

Gray also is selling copies of his book, "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and
What We Can Do About It."

He believes the money involved in the illegal drug trade is more harmful to
society than the drugs themselves. He advocates decriminalization and
regulated distribution of marijuana, heroin and cocaine. Instead of
punishing people for possession, Gray supports penalizing people for the
crimes they may commit while using drugs. It's the same way the criminal
justice system handles alcohol, he said.

Gray said he believes the federal government should get out of the drug
policy business and leave it up to the states.

"I have seen in my own court a churning of these low-level, nonviolent drug
offenders through the system for no good reason," he said. "I simply can't
do it any longer."

Gray presides over the civil trial calendar for the Superior Court of
Orange County. He was appointed to the Santa Ana Municipal Court and in
1983 elevated to his post with the Superior Court.

He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1998 against Rep. Robert Dornan, a
Republican.

Gray said he is sizing up a run for president and has in recent weeks been
to Libertarian conventions in California, North Carolina and Nevada. He may
decide instead to challenge U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, next year,
he said. Or he could decide not to run for another office and finish his
term on the bench.

Gray said he switched his party enrollment from Republican to Libertarian
in February.

"I can no longer be part of the Democrat or Republican parties because
they're never going to change this issue," he said.

The Libertarian Party is not a recognized party in New York state. To get
on the November 2004 ballot in New York, Gray would have to collect 15,000
signatures, including 100 signatures from at least half of the state's
congressional districts, according to the state elections board.

In the 2000 election, Libertarians ran Harry Browne, of Tennessee, for
president. He got 7,600 votes in New York.

In last year's race for governor, two third-party candidates brought their
opposition to the war on drugs into public debate. Libertarian Scott
Jeffrey and Tom Leighton, a candidate for the independent Marijuana Reform
Party, pushed the legalization of marijuana in major televised debates with
Gov. George Pataki and Democratic candidate H. Carl McCall, the state
comptroller.

Independence Party candidate B. Thomas Golisano advocated reform of the
drug laws enacted in 1973 under then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. The laws are
among the most severe in the nation, requiring harsh prison terms for the
possession or sale of or relatively small amounts of narcotics. Critics say
the laws clog state prisons and have not decreased drug use.

Pataki favors reforming the state's drug laws. His proposals would give
judges discretion in sentencing and treatment, reduce prison terms for
nonviolent drug felons and increase terms for violent ones.

President George W. Bush's administration has set a goal to reduce
substance abuse by 10 percent in two years and by 25 percent in five years,
in part, by making drugs less available in this country.

Gray said he realizes a race against Bush, a Republican, will not land him
in the White House. But he said it would be an important public service for
him to make sure the war on drugs is part of the national debate next year.

For more information about Gray, visit his Web site at www.judgejimgray.com.