MISSING ISSUE

The big missing issue in the 2000 campaign is our failed war against drugs.
The highest-ranking official with the guts to say so is New Mexico Gov.

Gary Johnson a triathlete, iconoclast and Republican, in that order. Hearing
Johnson talk drugs, as I did on a recent visit, is to experience a level of
candor unimaginable in the presidential race.

"Half of what we spend on law enforcement, half of what we spend on the
courts and half of what we spend on the prisons is drug-related," Johnson,
47, says. "Our current policies on drugs are perhaps the biggest problem
that this country has."

Everyone tells kids not to do drugs, Johnson explains. Despite this chorus,
80 million Americans have tried them, including more than half of this
year's graduating high-school class. No one condones this, he adds, but do
we really want our kids to be branded "criminals" for it?

He points out that 450,000 people died last year from smoking cigarettes;
150,000 as a consequence of drinking alcohol; and 100,000 from legal
prescription drugs. How many people died last year from the use of
marijuana? Few, if any. From cocaine and heroin? Five thousand.

"Yet we are arresting 1.5 million people a year in this country on
drug-related crime," Johnson says. "Half of those arrested are for
marijuana. And half those arrests are Hispanics." We're locking up
nonviolent people senselessly, he argues. "We ought to legalize marijuana,"
he says. "We need to stop `getting tough' with drugs."

How did a Republican governor stumble into this?

In summer 1999, a few months into his second (and final) term, Johnson told
state GOP leaders he was determined to make the most of his bully pulpit.
Days later, without having thought it all through, Johnson told reporters
he'd legalize marijuana and heroin.

Ka-boom! White House drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffery flew in to condemn him.
Ed Bradley came down to do "60 Minutes." Meanwhile, Johnson's chief law
enforcement official quit in protest; a local sheriff called the governor an
"idiot," and his approval ratings sank from 54 to 35 percent.

Johnson, famously persistent (he finishes near the top of his age group in
"Ironman" triathlon competitions), hasn't backed down. But he has sought
expert advice. Today he seeks legalization for marijuana only and promotes
"harm-reduction" strategies for other drugs. "Harm-reduction" advocates see
drugs as a public-health, not a criminal, problem and back programs for
needle exchange and methadone maintenance, as well as an end to "mandatory
minimum" sentences that can leave nonviolent drug offenders in jail longer
than rapists and burglars.

Yet drug czar McCaffery views much of the "harm-reduction" agenda as a ploy
to pave the way toward full legalization. Johnson's efforts, he told me,
are "irresponsible" and "misguided."

But consider: In 1980 we spent less than $5 billion on drug control and
incarcerated 50,000 Americans for nonviolent drug offenses; today, we spend
$40 billion and jail more than 450,000 (more than Europe, with a larger
population, jails for everything).

Blacks are 17 percent of cocaine users but 88 percent of those convicted on
crack-cocaine charges. Casual drug use is down, but the population of
hard-core addicts (responsible for most drug-related crime) has held steady
near 5 million. Drugs remain widely available, at low prices, to those who
want them. Half the addicts who need treatment can't get it. Dirty needles
are a major culprit in the spread of HIV.

Johnson is only sane to say there's something wrong with this picture. And
the issue is gaining steam. A California ballot measure in November would
divert nonviolent first-time drug offenders to treatment; New York's chief
judge recently introduced a similar system administratively. Johnson,
meanwhile, has a task force coming back soon with a slate of reforms, which
he says could even include pardons for nonviolent offenders. Johnson has
been at it only a year. He has 2 more to go before he leaves office.

If Johnson can pass sensible reforms and see his popularity rebound, he may
make the world safe for other politicians to "just say no" to America's
costly and counterproductive drug war.

Los Angeles Times Syndicate