LT. GOV. CANDIDATE IS BLUNT ABOUT MARIJUANA-LAWS REFORM

Running for lieutenant governor on a pro-marijuana platform, Gary Reams
expects to take some ribbing, but he's not about to get beaten to the pun.

"This is really a grass-roots campaign," he said, deadpan. He and his
supporters are holding "pot-lucks" all around the state. It'll be a
referendum -- no, make that reeferendum -- on Virginia's drug policy.

Reams, a Libertarian, freely admits he doesn't expect to beat his
well-known, well-financed Democratic and Republican opponents. The best
he's hoping for is to win more than 2 or 3 percent of the votes in the Nov.
6 election. So it helps to have a sense of humor to stay motivated on the
campaign trail.

But he's quite serious when it comes to reforming Virginia's drug laws.

People with cancer and AIDS should be able to use marijuana to ease their
suffering, he said. Virginia farmers should be allowed to grow industrial
hemp, which lacks the intoxicating power of marijuana. And police should
stop wasting resources by going after nonviolent marijuana users.

Reams has been planning this campaign for two years, hoping to show
politicians that there's more support out there for reform than they think.

"Neither of the major parties will deal with this," he said.

Because Virginians can't put these questions to a vote in a referendum,
Reams decided to run for a statewide office as a single-issue candidate. He
chose lieutenant governor, he said, because the job has little power, so
voters can feel free to vote their conscience. In the unlikely event he won
and the governor became incapacitated, Reams said he would resign immediately.

"This campaign is not an appeal to users to come out and party," he said.
"What I am stating is that the marijuana prohibition has gone too far and
it's time to reform the marijuana laws."

Reams is short on money -- as of Sept. 30, he'd raised $15,414 to his
opponents' combined $2.5 million. To spread his message, he's launched a
Web site, www.reamsreeferendum.com. He's also spending a few days each week
traveling the state stumping for votes, taking time off from his job as
director of quality for the electronics company NEC in northern Virginia.

Reams doesn't resort to euphemisms when talking about marijuana and his
younger days.

"I didn't experiment -- I used," he said bluntly. He stopped, he said,
after he lost interest in it.

He was arrested once, as a teen-ager, but the charges were dropped. He said
he feels lucky -- today, a teen-ager with a drug record risks losing
financial aid for college, among other consequences.

Now he's 45, a Navy veteran, the father of two grown sons. He figures there
are a lot of guys like him out there. He wants them to ask themselves how
their lives would be different if they'd become entangled with the law
because they used pot in their youth.

Reams said his views were also shaped by watching a close relative struggle
with an addiction to crack cocaine. "It ruined her life," he said, and the
legal system only made it more difficult for family to help.

Virginia police made 13,559 arrests on marijuana charges in 2000. That's 58
percent of all drug-related arrests -- more than any other drug, and twice
as many as for cocaine.

But few of those arrested for marijuana go to jail, said Rick Kern,
director of the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission. Most people
charged with drug possession receive probation, especially if they're
first-time offenders, he said.

"It's pretty much the case that our expensive prison beds are reserved for
those who are selling," Kern said.

The General Assembly has also begun to put more emphasis on drug treatment
by screening all felons for drug problems and allowing some offenders to
enter treatment programs instead of jail, he said.

Reams' opponents, Democrat Timothy M. Kaine and Republican Jay Katzen,
oppose any loosening of the laws on marijuana and hemp. But Reams notes
that some mainstream organizations are also calling for reform.

The Virginia Nurses Association supports medical marijuana. The Virginia
Farm Bureau Federation supports the right to grow industrial hemp.

Reams said if it takes someone like him to draw attention to the issue,
that's fine. "I don't mind being that lightning rod."