Bookmark: MAP's link to shadow convention items:
http://www.mapinc.org/shadow.htm

Note: Shadow Convention websites:
http://www.drugpolicy.org/
http://www.shadowconventions.com/

N.M. GOVERNOR ASSAILS DRUG WAR AT RIVAL EVENT

New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson figures he may have ended his political future
when he advocated the legalization of marijuana last year.

That didn't stop him Tuesday from again advocating legalization, this time
to an enthusiastic crowd at the iconoclastic and occasionally funky Shadow
Convention meeting here as a counterpoint to the Republican National
Convention.

Johnson, who gave up alcohol 13 years ago, says drugs, and the money spent
on prisons and the socalled war on drugs, constitute "the biggest issue in
this country." And it's a lot of wasted money, he said.

He doesn't advocate drug use, although he has admitted to using marijuana in
his youth.

"There is no positive message when it comes to drugs," said the Republican
governor. "It's a bad decision, I think, but it should not be a crime."
Marijuana, he believes, "should be regulated like alcohol."

Johnson, who was elected to a second four-year term before he came to his
newfound advocacy for legalization, was one of two principal speakers
attacking the government's war on drugs during the second day of the Shadow
Convention. He was followed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The event, put together by wealthy Californian Arianna Huffington, a former
conservative, has a "theme of the day," just like the Republican convention
across town.

On Monday, it was campaign finance reform. Tuesday, it was "the failed war
on drugs." Today, the subject is "poverty and the wealth gap."

The Shadow Convention closes Thursday with a discussion of the media's role.
It reconvenes in Los Angeles 10 days later, as a "shadow" to the Democratic
National Convention. David Kopel, more notable in Colorado for his role as a
gunrights advocate, also was scheduled to speak at Tuesday's event, on
"police militarization."

But Kopel, a fellow at the Golden-based Independence Institute, a freemarket
think tank, was scratched at the last minute because of the expense of
getting him to Philadelphia, he said. Johnson, who subscribes generally to
the same limited-government school of thought as Kopel, represented the
Mountain West's independent streak convincingly.

He said he felt his peers meeting here at the GOP convention had given his
views a fair hearing. "I think I've been listened to. I have no complaints,"
he told reporters after his 15-minute speech.

But attacking the war on drugs is "absolute political taboo," he said.
Candidates, whether Republicans or Democrats, "can't address it. It would be
the end of their campaigns." Johnson was confronted after his talk by Betty
Sembler, the founder of the Drug-Free America Foundation. "It's really
unbelievable," she said. "Irresponsible."

But Johnson, who says he understands that "raising the issue was the
political death knell," isn't that concerned. "I've become a health nut," he
said, and he aspires to climb Mount Everest someday.