DRUG IDEAS LAND GOV. ON PODIUM

SANTA FE -- Gov. Gary Johnson has something in common with Warren
Beatty, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and John McCain.

All are scheduled to be featured speakers at so-called "shadow"
conventions July 30 through Aug. 4 during the Republican National
Convention in Philadelphia and Aug. 13 through 17 during the
Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

Johnson said he was invited to speak at the shadow conventions by
syndicated columnist and author Arianna Huffington because of his
national push to legalize marijuana and change other drug laws.
Huffington, a vocal drug war opponent, is one of the hosts of the
shadow conventions, along with Common Cause, the Lindesmith Center and
other activist groups.

"I have agreed to go to both shadow conventions," Johnson said in a
recent interview.

"I just want the opportunity to talk about issues that I consider to
be important," said Johnson, a Republican, who said he also plans to
attend the Republican National Convention.

Johnson said he plans to talk about his views on drugs at the shadow
conventions. He is not expected to speak at the Republican National
Convention.

The shadow conventions are billed by organizers as "a powerful
alternative to the major party conventions, focusing on the issues
that the parties just won't touch."

"These shadow conventions will focus on three critical public-interest
issues that the major political parties have failed to address:
campaign finance reform; poverty and the growing wealth gap; and the
failed war on drugs," according to the group's Web site,
www.shadowconventions.com.

Huffington cited Johnson in a recent column as part of a growing
minority of "high-profile pols" willing to speak out against the war
on drugs.

"Common sense finally seems to be gaining the edge on demagoguery and
pandering," Huffington wrote. "The government's war on drugs has
become a war on its own citizens. It's heartening to see more and more
people crying out that it's time to sue for peace."

In a policy paper on the nation's drug war, shadow convention
organizers call for a shift in government resources from interdiction
and incarceration to public health and education. Johnson supports
such a shift.

"Drug policy reform is rapidly emerging as a new movement for
political and social justice in the United States -- one that calls for
drug policies based upon common sense, science, public health and
human rights," said Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith
Center, a leading national group pushing for drug law reform.

Funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, the Lindesmith
Center is privately paying the expenses of a new drug policy advisory
group created by Johnson last month in New Mexico.

Johnson wants the advisory group, chaired by retired state District
Judge W.C. "Woody" Smith of Albuquerque, to develop so-called "harm
reduction" policies in New Mexico for harder drugs, such as heroin.
The policies would include treatment and prevention programs, needle
exchanges, increased education, government-run clinics to dispense
drugs to addicts and methadone prescription programs.