DRUG-LAW REFORM: IT'S TIME

America's "war on drugs" may or may not be a failure - but when it
comes to marijuana, governmental warriors are wasting their
ammunition.

By drafting broad-brush laws to protect society from the ravages of
truly dangerous narcotics, our state and most others might have
overreached that intent - to the point that our state's prisons, at
great cost, are holding vast numbers of men and women convicted of
victimless crimes.

For smoking marijuana - something thousands of "respectable" New
Mexicans do in the privacy of their homes without legal consequence -
thousands of others with the bad luck to get caught are sent to jail
and, in some cases, branded as felons.

The New Mexico Legislature should take steps toward drug-law reform.
Marijuana is where it should begin.

Those caught with small amounts of it shouldn't have to pay the
penalties - jail terms and property confiscation - that traffickers
in hard drugs do.

The habitual-offender act, under which those convicted of drug crimes
face mandatory additional prison time from previous offenses, should
be amended to exclude marijuana convictions. Many minor criminals,
posing no threat to society, are being held in state prisons at a
cost of $28,000 a year apiece. They could be undergoing drug-court
treatment programs at less than $5,000 a year. In many cases, they
could be working - and paying taxes to reduce their burden on other
taxpayers.

At the very least, doctors should be allowed to prescribe marijuana
to patients for whom it might have medicinal value. Sufferers of AIDS
and cancer might especially benefit from such an expansion of our
state's mostly meaningless medical-marijuana law.

Albuquerque Judge Woody Smith has presided over courtfuls of futility
with the drug wars. Now, as chairman of the governor's bipartisan
task force on drug laws, Smith has led a serious study of state
statutes on controlled substances.

Early this year, the group recommended most of the measures being
drafted by the governor's staff. Besides the legalization of small
amounts of marijuana and reducing drug-possession charges to
misdemeanors for first- and second-time offenders, the governor
offers five other proposals with which we agree:

Allowing pharmacists to sell hypodermic needles without the risk of
being charged with supplying drug paraphernalia. This would lessen
public-health risks of AIDS and other diseases from the use of
unsanitary needles and would be a step forward for public health.

Changing civil-forfeiture laws so the government can't seize money
and property from someone accused of drug-trafficking - until he or
she is convicted. This is a logical legal step: requiring reasonable
cause to demonstrate the evidence was involved in drug trafficking
before it is seized.

Allowing officials to administer anti-overdose drugs without fear of
liability. This life-saving step should be approved.

Allowing ex-convicts to become drug counselors. Who better to warn
our youngsters about the dangers of narcotics than those who have
survived their underworld and the punishment society has meted out?
Merely being an ex-con, however, doesn't qualify someone as a
counselor; those who would make a living on drug-use knowledge should
must undergo a rigorous certification process.

More emphasis on treatment of drug addicts.

By dividing his drug-law package into eight bills, the governor is
showing his new pragmatic side. Total overhaul of drug laws isn't a
prudent overnight project.

Laws on trafficking per se would be left on the books - as well they
should be: Drug merchants deal in more than harmful chemicals; they
traffic in human misery.

But then there's the misery visited on marijuana users. Sen. Roman
Maes of Santa Fe has seen too much of it. He, for one Democrat,
believes the time has come for new approaches to the drug problem.

Maes will need allies. Clearly it's the Democratic majority who will
carry this reform, or any part of it. Now that they have new
leadership, our Democratic lawmakers should resolve to leave their
partisan differences with the governor at the doors of the drug-law
hearing rooms.

Gov. Gary Johnson has more sweeping reforms in mind - including a
bill legalizing possession of an ounce, or less, of marijuana.

New House Speaker Ben Lujan notes that New Mexico might not be the
place to begin revolutionary drug-law reform. Many of his fellow
Democrats, who hold comfortable margins in the Legislature, are leery
of putting their names to drug-law reforms; as for most Roundhouse
Republicans, ni hablar.

But talk they must. Too many tragedies over too many years make at
least some drug-law reform an issue whose time has come.

The Legislature would be wise to adopt a measured approach: The
distinction between marijuana and the more addictive and dangerous
drugs; between marijuana users and drug merchants, and between the
waste of incarcerating victimless criminals and the human-resources
investment in treatment and education.