NEW MEXICO THUMBS ITS NOSE AT THE WAR ON DRUGS

A Panel Convened By Gov. Gary Johnson Calls For The Legalization Of
Marijuana And A Shift In Focus From Penal Measures To Treatment For Drug
Offenders.

Jan. 5, 2001 - Maverick New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, one of the most vocal
Republican critics of the war on drugs, unveiled a series of proposals
Thursday calling for the radical overhaul of the state's drug policies. The
recommendations of a panel convened by the New Mexico governor call for the
decriminalization of "personal use" marijuana and offer comprehensive
policy prescriptions aimed at education, healthcare and the penal system
that emphasize prevention and treatment instead of punitive measures.

"New Mexico should begin immediately to decrease its reliance on
supply-reduction strategies for combating drug and alcohol abuse and focus
instead on demand-reduction strategies such as prevention and treatment,"
the report issued Thursday by Johnson's 10-member Drug Policy Advisory
Group concludes. Gov. Johnson convened the group in May to propose an
overhaul of the state's drug policies.

The recommendations mark a radical departure from the anti-drug strategies
currently in vogue across the country. The proposals, for which Johnson
must still find legislative sponsors, call for the decriminalization for
adults of "personal use" marijuana in amounts of 1 ounce or less; passage
of medical-marijuana legislation; making drug treatment available upon
request throughout the state; and the reduction of charges in all first and
second drug-possession offenses to misdemeanors.

Under the proposals, individuals convicted of minor drug-possession
offenses would be given probation and treatment rather than jail. And those
still facing jail sentences would be given new opportunities for treatment
and rehabilitation. The panel argues that mandatory minimum sentences for
drug convictions should be eliminated, and it encourages the diversion of
cases to drug courts, which tend to offer alternatives to imprisonment. It
recommends that courts stop using drug offenses as a basis for longer
sentencing under habitual-offender (e.g. "three strikes") laws and calls
for prison-based methadone treatment. It would also make it more difficult
for the government to order seizures of assets in drug cases.

The reforms would make it easier for patients to seek drug treatment
through physicians. Doctors would be free to prescribe methadone; federal
Medicaid contracts would be adjusted to pay for that and other treatments.

Johnson's drug policy advisory group is also asking the governor to
implement new drug-education programs built on a "harm-reduction approach"
that would teach students the relative dangers of different drugs rather
than the traditional "just say no" strategy of zero-tolerance programs used
by most American schools and educators.

Not surprisingly, foes of Johnson's liberal stance on drug legalization
were quick to criticize the proposals. "The minute you weaken the position
of keeping drugs out of the hands of children, you have problems," says
Republican state Rep. Ted Hobbs of Albuquerque. "It's a general reaction,
an emotional reaction." Of the education proposals, Hobbs says, "I like:
'Just say No!' I totally disagree with anything that weakens the position
that drug use is simply bad."

While elements of the New Mexico proposals have been adopted in other
states, no single state has attempted such wide-ranging reform. Despite a
lot of rhetoric, says Dave Fratello, political director of Campaigns for
New Drug Policies, no state has shifted its drug policies from an
interdiction-and-imprisonment emphasis to treatment and prevention.

In fact, though the federal government trumpets its increased allocations
for treatment, two-thirds of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's
budget is allocated to law enforcement. In the annual report delivered by
the ONDCP Thursday, as controversial drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey exited
the agency, the White House drug office added treatment as a national
strategic goal.

Eleven states, including California, Oregon, Maine, Nebraska, New York,
North Carolina and Ohio, have some form of decriminalization of marijuana
for personal use, with civil fines ranging from $100 to $250 or even
higher. New Mexico would stand alone if, as the panel advocates, it
eliminated all criminal sanctions for private use. And if it resurrects its
dormant medical-marijuana statute, it will join nine states with such
legislation, all of which are in the West, with the exception of Maine.

Many states have versions of sentencing reform on the books, and just
yesterday, New York's Republican Gov. George Pataki called for revamping
his state's draconian Rockefeller drug laws, which have put some 600
inmates behind bars for sentences of 15 years to life. Drug courts are also
proliferating, with some 700 in operation, according to the ONDCP. The
Department of Justice has been quite generous in handing out drug-court
grants to the states, notes Fratello.

A letter accompanying the panel's report strongly rebukes the federal
government for promulgating what it describes as "patently false
information" about drugs "and the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of
current drug policies." It states that 30 years of the federally driven war
on drugs spurred more dangerous and addictive drugs; heavier drug use at
earlier ages; an increase of death and disease; gang violence;
extraordinarily long prison sentences for non-violent offenders; and the
squandering of tax dollars on ineffective policies.

A good deal of this criticism comes from New Mexico native son and panel
member Judge John Kane, who sits on the U.S. District Court in Colorado and
is an ardent critic of the federal government's drug policies. Much of it
arose from such high-profile blunders as an assertion by ONDCP that Holland
has a far higher murder rate than the United States, and that there is no
evidence of medical marijuana's effectiveness. Citing Alexis de
Tocqueville's belief that "American states, cities and towns are the
laboratories of democracy," Kane says, "a national policy forced down the
states' throats is no laboratory, but a march to the same drum beat. And
it's a march of folly."

Katharine Huffman, director of the Lindesmith Center/Drug Policy
Foundation's New Mexico Drug Policy Project, who helped facilitate the
panel's six-month effort, concurs. "The panel felt strongly that a big part
of the reason the war on drugs continues is ... the federal government's
fear mongering and over-dramatization prevent rational policy making," she
says.

Panelists also had harsh criticisms of current drug education programs in
schools, like DARE, which often use scare tactics (a la one joint leads to
perdition) to keep kids off drugs. Panel members urged consideration of a
more pragmatic harm-reduction approach since, as Lindesmith Center director
Marsha Rosenbaum argues, half of today's youth have already tried
marijuana, and 80 percent have used alcohol. Rather than being taught zero
tolerance, they say, they should be taught the importance of setting and
context -- that kids should never use drugs while working, driving or
engaging in sports, for example.

Panel member Kane offers a stinging analysis of current education efforts.
"It's like when the nuns told you in school that you'll go blind if you
play with yourself," he says. "And you decided, just as soon as you need
glasses, you'd quit." Kane, who has four children of his own, feels
teachers need to discuss different drugs' relative dangers to establish
credibility.

Referring to zero tolerance education policies in an interview published in
the January Playboy, Gov. Johnson himself said, "You hear you're going to
lose your mind and go crazy and even die if you smoke marijuana." Johnson
added, "You have to tell the truth. When kids realize you're lying, they
will no longer listen to you. They may think the stuff you've been telling
them about other drugs isn't true either ... People try pot and they don't
go crazy."

Though reform advocates endorse the proposals, Johnson faces an uphill
struggle over some of the panel's more controversial recommendations. Some
he can enact on his own initiative, such as enhanced liability protection
for emergency medical personnel who administer new drugs to save overdosing
heroin users. But most of the recommendations depend on passage by the
Democrat-controlled state Legislature, which fought Johnson last year over
his opposition to current interdiction and imprisonment policies. Not
surprisingly, Johnson also faces criticism within his own party.

State Rep. Ron Godbey, an Albuquerque Republican, has emerged as Johnson's
most stalwart foe within the Republican Party. A career Air Force
meteorologist, Godbey declares the chances of any marijuana
decriminalization bill as between "zero and nil." Godbey says that the
marijuana sold on the streets now is "30 times stronger than back when the
governor was puffing away," and he says he doubts Johnson will find a
single representative among the state's 70 to sponsor such a bill. Godbey
declares the proposed medical-marijuana bill DOA since, he believes, the
medical community opposes it and only "the druggies" are in favor. Nor does
Godbey support downgrading initial possession charges to a misdemeanor -- a
proposal he criticizes as "another step towards decriminalization."

Still, Godbey concedes that other provisions in the proposal stand a better
chance in the Legislature, including the removal of drug-possession crimes
from the state's "three-strikes" law, under which a small-time dealer
(often someone fueling his, or increasingly her, own addiction) can get an
18-year sentence.

Ironically, as drug advisory board panel member Steve Bunch, director of
the New Mexico Drug Policy Foundation, points out, the state Legislature
already passed asset forfeiture and sentencing reform measures in the
1990s, but both bills were vetoed by Gov. Johnson. Johnson has also vetoed
a prior drug treatment funding bill because of competing financial
priorities, says Bunch. New Mexico passed an unfunded provision to provide
medical marijuana in research settings in 1978, but it has remained dormant
since the late 1980s.

That irony has not been lost on Diane Denish, chair of the New Mexico
Democratic Party. "Democrats have been fighting for [sentencing reform] for
a long time. We've been fighting the governor over the years, and he's
called us soft on crime," she says. "Gov. Johnson has a long history of
vetoing prevention, education and incarceration reform measures. Now this
is his thing. But he needs to get his own party on board. Even with his
national platform, he's just talked the talk. Now he needs to walk the
walk." The Democratic leader does, however, extend an olive branch to
Johnson: "If the governor works with us on other issues, such as increasing
teacher pay and having maybe not so broad a tax cut, then we can work with
him on drug policy as long as it's not outright legalization."

If Johnson does push ahead with the panel's recommendations -- as he is
widely expected to do during the 60-day legislative session that begins in
mid-January -- he will be aided by a $50,000 print and radio advertising
campaign to be launched by the National Organization to Reform Marijuana
Laws (NORML). Ads in the campaign will cite the supposed 76 million
Americans who have smoked marijuana and are otherwise law-abiding citizens
and call on the government to better invest its drug war money by
prosecuting violent criminals, says NORML executive director Keith Stroup.
A second ad will refer to the benefits of medical marijuana for
chemotherapy patients. They'll build on ads NORML ran when Johnson first
came out for drug reform that stated, "Gov. Johnson's right. Stop arresting
responsible smokers."

Stroup feels the marijuana decriminalization provision stands a good chance
of success. He refers to "no arrest, no jail" personal-use laws in effect
in Oregon, California, North Carolina and Ohio among other states and says,
"We have private polling that indicates 58 percent of the American public
opposes sending marijuana smokers to jail. That's precisely what the
governor's proposal would do."

Whatever the uncertain prospects for its passage by the Legislature,
marijuana decriminalization is no small matter. New Mexico typically
averages some 4,000 marijuana possession arrests annually. (NORML estimates
that 88 percent of all marijuana arrests nationwide in 1999 were for simple
possession.) No one is currently imprisoned long-term in New Mexico for
simple possession. But, says panel facilitator Katharine Huffman, people
often do go to jail for several days while their case is processed. And
parolees and probationers are often returned to prison if they test
positive for marijuana in drug tests.

The very concept of marijuana decriminalization presents a Catch 22 for
legislators. If you're allowed to possess the drug, then where do you get
it? "We recognize the inherent conflict between this [decriminalization]
recommendation and maintaining criminal penalties for distribution of
marijuana," the panel's report states. But it does not offer any way to
reconcile that contradiction.

Gov. Johnson himself told Playboy that with decriminalization "you are
going to allow a person to possess and use marijuana, but not to buy it. In
other words, how are people going to get the pot? They are still going to
get it from illegal dealers who are buying it from bigger dealers.
Decriminalization doesn't deal with the problems of street crime and
organized crime ... Of course marijuana use should be decriminalized, but
we also have to stop the illegal activities that support the industry." And
how do you do that? Legalization of marijuana, says Johnson. But that
proposal is absent from the panel's report.

Judge Smith acknowledges the conundrum. "That's something we're going to
have to revisit ... We didn't want to give too many things for opponents to
jump on."

There are also enormous financial considerations that the panel was not
asked to address -- treatment and prevention is an expensive strategy. But
Gov. Johnson now has something to work with besides his rousing appearances
at last summer's Shadow Conventions. As one source in the New Mexico
government put it, "Johnson needed to get some points up on the board. He
needed to show that he's not just talking the big talk. And now that he's
got a real proposal out there, he's not just answering questions in Playboy."

About the writer -

Daniel Forbes is a New York freelancer who writes on social policy and the
media.