A DRUG CZAR BUSH SHOULD SAY 'YES' TO

WHILE THE WASHINGTON media are 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 the history of 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 even 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 Johnson, I understand you two are
already friends - in fact, I hear you guys had a darn good time this
weekend when, together 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 his 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, the
decriminalization of possessing less than an ounce of marijuana, and the
elimination of mandatory minimum sentences.

It seems that these days everyone is calling for an end to mandatory
minimums, 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."

The bottom line for Bush is that drug policy, an issue he avoided like the
Ebola virus during the 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" - but
this must have had more to do with going off to teach at West Point. The
record-level 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?