PANEL TO EXAMINE DRUG POLICIES

SANTA FE - Gov. Gary Johnson has formed an advisory group to develop drug
policies in New Mexico in line with his national push to legalize marijuana
and change other drug laws.

The nine-member group is charged with developing so-called "harm reduction"
policies in New Mexico for harder drugs, such as heroin, said Dave Miller,
Johnson's legislative liaison.

The policies would include treatment and prevention programs, needle
exchanges, increased education, government-run clinics to dispense drugs to
addicts and methadone prescription programs, Miller said. Miller is working
with the panel, chaired by retired state District Judge W.C. "Woody" Smith
of Albuquerque.

Smith, a vocal drug law critic while on the bench, said he agrees with
Johnson that the national war on drugs has failed.

The advisory panel includes Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca, state Public Safety
Secretary Nicholas Bakas, state Health Secretary Alex Valdez, state Sen.
Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, and Senior U.S. District Judge John Kane in
Denver, originally from Tucumcari.

Miller acknowledged the group does not include any proponents of the current
drug war strategy. He said Johnson wanted a small group aligned with him
that "really can deliver on these strategies, rather than a larger, more
balanced group with opposing views."

Johnson said he wants the group to come up with ways to reduce the number of
nonviolent drug offenders in jails, cut drug overdose deaths and reduce
infectious disease caused by drugs over the next five years. Johnson said he
has asked the group to come up with concrete solutions to address the drug
issue.

"I don't convene Governor's Drug Policy Advisory Group unless I intend to
take their recommendations and work with their recommendations to see if we
can't do something," Johnson said in an interview this week. The group,
which had its first meeting a week ago in Albuquerque, is financed privately
by the New Mexico Drug Policy Project, which the Lindesmith Center set up in
Albuquerque earlier this year. The New York-based Lindesmith Center, funded
by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, is one of the leading national
groups pushing for drug law reform. Miller estimated Lindesmith is providing
about $2,000 to cover the advisory group's expenses this year. The group
also expects to receive about $12,000 from a grant given to the Western
Governors Association by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
Miller said. Prompted in large part by Johnson, the western governors agreed
earlier this month in Hawaii to evaluate their states' drug prevention
strategies and to hold a drug policy summit a year from now.

McSorley, the only legislator in the New Mexico group, said he is pleased
Johnson invited Democrats, such as Baca and himself, to serve on the
advisory panel.

"Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of the deadlock we've had for
the last seven years," McSorley said, referring to the often contentious
relationship between the Republican Johnson and the Democrat-controlled
Legislature. "This is the first time the governor has reached out to a
Democratic legislator in a nonpartisan fashion. Hopefully, this will lead to
a recognition that there is common ground and you don't have to be
confrontational and adversarial all the time."