THE RIGHT STUFF

President-Elect Bush Should Make Reform-Minded New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson
His Drug Czar.

While the Washington media is all a-titter about the expected confirmation
battle over Attorney General-designee John Ashcroft -- does he or doesn't
he have a statue of Robert E. Lee tucked away in his closet? -- next to no
attention is being paid to the fact that a vital Cabinet-level position
remains unfilled. Drug czar Barry McCaffrey is gone (can't you feel the
void?) but no one is even speculating about who President-elect George W.
Bush will name to succeed him.

So let me step into the breach and suggest a nominee. He's a popular
Republican governor, the first in his state to be elected to two
consecutive four-year terms, the only governor to complete the Ironman
triathlon in Hawaii, a model of abstinence who doesn't drink and an expert
on drug policy who, on the same day that McCaffrey held his rambling
farewell press conference, oversaw the release of a report by a blue-ribbon
drug policy panel detailing a comprehensive strategy for really tackling
the drug problem.

Mr. Bush, I give you New Mexico's Gary Johnson. I understand you two are
already friends -- in fact, I hear you guys had a darn good time this
weekend when, with other Republican governors, he visited your ranch. Now,
like you, he used to party. But, unlike you, once in office he didn't
hypocritically introduce tougher drug sentences for first-time offenders
and instead launched a crusade for sensible drug policies. As drug czar, he
would have the courage and the passion -- and, yes, the compassion -- to
lead the nation in a long-overdue debate on this critical subject.

According to one of the proposals Johnson has endorsed, individuals
"convicted of minor drug-possession offenses would be given prevention and
treatment rather than jail." A drug czar who is clear about the urgent need
to shift from supply reduction to demand reduction is all the more
important if Ashcroft survives the confirmation process. "A government
which takes the resources that we would devote toward the interdiction of
drugs," Ashcroft has said, "and converts them to treatment resources ... is
a government that accommodates us at our lowest and least."

When the New Mexico Legislature convenes on Jan. 16, Johnson will introduce
eight bills designed to reform his state's drug policies, including
allowing the use of medical marijuana for terminally ill patients,
decriminalization of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and
elimination of mandatory minimum sentences.

It seems that these days everyone is calling for an end to mandatory
minimum sentences, from President Clinton in his recent Rolling Stone
interview to Gov. George Pataki of New York in his 2001 State of the State
address. But those horrible laws are still the law of the land because
there is absolutely no leadership on the issue. And that's what the new
drug czar could provide.

I asked Gov. Johnson what he would do if he were tapped to replace
McCaffrey. "The first thing I would do," he told me, "is institute
truth-in-advertising rules at the Office of National Drug Control Policy
because a lot of what has been coming out of it is pure hogwash --
especially the claims of victory." He quickly added: "It would be too bold
a statement for Bush to choose me. I'm a little radioactive. But I
definitely think that a bold choice is what is needed."

Joe Califano, president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse, also calls for boldness. "The new drug czar," he told me, "should be
a preacher, a leader who understands that the most important part of the
job is using it as a bully pulpit. And since those disproportionately
affected by the drug war are poor and African-American, maybe the next drug
czar should be Jesse Jackson."

The image of Bush appointing Jackson makes the head spin so much that the
idea of Bush appointing Johnson suddenly enters the realm of the possible.

The bottom line for Bush is that drug policy, an issue he avoided like the
Ebola virus during the presidential campaign, is where he has the greatest
opportunity to quickly demonstrate that he is indeed a reformer with
results. And if he wants to build bridges to the African-American community
that so overwhelmingly rejected him, few things could be more effective
than stemming the flood of black youths pouring into our nation's prisons.

Whatever Bush decides, it will be disastrous if he actually takes
McCaffrey's glowing curtain lines at face value. The departing drug czar
lauded treatment over incarceration but, in fact, 69 percent of his budget
went to law enforcement and interdiction, while 60 percent of addicts who
needed treatment didn't get it. He also claimed that he was "upbeat," which
must have had more to do with his going off to teach at West Point. The
record-level number of deaths, the record emergency room admissions from
drug use and the record incarcerations for drug law violations are now
somebody else's problem. Ours.

It's time to bring on a drug czar who can skip the cheery rhetoric, face
the fact that the facts aren't good and turn the wheel before we head over
the cliff. I nominate Gov. Gary Johnson. Is there a second?