EASE DRUG PENALTIES, GOV'S ADVISERS SAY

Gov. Gary Johnson's drug policy advisers on Thursday recommended knocking
down first- and second-time drug possession offenses in New Mexico from
felonies to misdemeanors.

The Drug Policy Advisory Group also recommended decriminalizing personal
marijuana possession in the state for amounts of up to an ounce.

Retired state District Judge W.C. "Woody" Smith of Albuquerque, the advisory
group's chairman, said the sentencing reforms are intended to move more
petty drug offenders from prisons to treatment programs.

"It's silly not giving people every opportunity to get back into the
mainstream," Smith said at a news conference to unveil the recommendations.
"With a felony on their record, they can't vote, they can't join the
military, they can't get student loans ... There are all kinds of things
that punish them."

But Matt Sandoval of Las Vegas, N.M., president of the New Mexico District
Attorneys Association, said, "These proposals amount to outright
legalization."

Johnson's group also is proposing amending an existing state law to allow
certain patients to use marijuana for medical treatments.

The advisory group's recommendations now go to the Republican governor, who
can consider whether to recommend changes in state law to the Legislature.
Johnson declined to comment on the recommendations until today.

Johnson created the drug policy advisory group in mid-2000, using private
money. It was instructed to develop policies on drug treatment and
prevention, needle exchanges, increased drug education, government-run
clinics to dispense drugs to addicts and methadone prescription programs in
prisons.

Under New Mexico criminal laws, all first- and second-time drug possession
charges, except for possession of marijuana, are fourth-degree felonies,
carrying a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison.

Under the Johnson advisory group proposal, those convicted of first and
second drug possessions would not spend any time in jail or prison. Instead,
they would be put on probation and ordered to undergo treatment.

Smith said the group also agreed to recommend decriminalizing possession of
up to an ounce of marijuana.

"We want to make sure it's not something of a crime," he said.

Currently, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is a petty
misdemeanor punishable by 15 days in jail and/or up to $100 in fines.

Sandoval, district attorney for the 4th Judicial District, contended that
the sentencing reforms and decriminalizing marijuana would only lead to
higher drug use.

"It really reinforces the behavior and greatly expands the drug use,"
Sandoval said. "It would cost more in the long run. I don't believe that
people in New Mexico are going to buy it."

Lemuel Martinez, district attorney for the 13th Judicial District, said
decriminalizing marijuana would take away the courts' option of ordering
drug offenders to treatment programs and monitoring them afterwards.

"Without any criminal penalty or probation, you can't force them for
treatment," Martinez said.

Nick Bakas, state public safety secretary and an advisory group member, said
he got mixed reaction from his State Police officers on the idea of
marijuana decriminalization.

However, Bakas added, "We don't have an appetite to pursue less than an
ounce of marijuana. We have bigger things on our plate."

Bakas said existing drug policies have failed and have not reduced the easy
availability of drugs on the streets. "We can't put drugs out of the
maximum-security prison," he said.

The advisory group also is recommending amending the state's existing Lynn
Pierson Act to allow patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, HIV and other
painful neurological disorders to use marijuana for medical purposes, such
as treating nausea.

"We believe that the use of medical marijuana is a compassionate tool which
will help alleviate pain and suffering," said state Health Secretary Alex
Valdez, another advisory group member.

New Mexico's medical marijuana act was passed in 1978 and named for a
26-year-old cancer patient.

More than 150 people used marijuana for medical purposes under New Mexico's
law until 1986, when lawmakers stopped appropriating the $50,000 needed
annually to run the program.

The group also is calling for more money for treatment programs, including
programs for prison inmates and making sterile syringes more easily
available to addicts.