SAYING NO TO WAR AGAINST DRUGS

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 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? If they're not driving or stealing while high, where is
the harm?

He points out that 450,000 people died last year from smoking cigarettes;
150,000 as a consequence of drinking alcohol; 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?

Last summer, 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 McCaffrey 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 or burglars.

Yet drug czar McCaffrey 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 are 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 this 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.

"I would have figured the first person over the hill on this issue is going
to get shot," Johnson told me. But as a long-distance runner, he's
optimistic. He's been at it only a year. He has two and a half 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 increasingly counterproductive drug war.