NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR BACKS DRUG LEGALIZATION

Republican Gary Johnson Infuriates His Party By Pushing The
Debate Into The Political Arena

ALBUQUERQUE - Gary Johnson used marijuana and cocaine in his younger
days. Now Johnson, 46, shuns illegal drugs, alcohol, cigarettes,
Coca-Cola - even candy bars. Not that unusual a transformation for a
man who came of age in 1960s America.

Today, he advocates decriminalizing marijuana, cocaine and heroin,
arguing the government should spend its money elsewhere.

Again, not that unusual a stance - unless you know that Johnson is a
Republican, the governor of New Mexico and the highest-ranking elected
official in the United States to advocate legalization.

In taking his positions, he has moved the debate over national drug
policy - a debate that largely has been confined to academics and
think tanks - into the political arena.

And Johnson said he intends to use his position to advance the issue
nationally.

He and other advocates want the federal government to relinquish the
authority to regulate drugs, much as it did with alcohol in the 1920s
during the waning days of Prohibition, and allow state and local
governments to decide the issue for themselves.

If they opt for legalization, states and local governments would
regulate, distribute and tax the drugs. The theory is this would
ensure the safety of the drugs, reduce crime associated with the black
market and provide more revenue.

Johnson has been harshly criticized by the Republican Party, members
of his anti-drug task force, law enforcement authorities from across
New Mexico, the lieutenant governor and federal drug policy Director
Barry McCaffrey.

"Drugs aren't dangerous because they are illegal; they are illegal
because they are dangerous," McCaffrey said.

The governor, however, argues now is the time for a new approach.
Recent polls show that 13.6 million people today use drugs, half the
number of users in 1979.

"You understand how futile what we're doing is. At what point do you
reach critical mass and say, 'Enough is enough,'" said Johnson.

"By legalizing drugs we could reduce the amount of drug abuse we have
in this country," he added. "Law enforcement would be able to enforce
laws we want them to but can't because half their focus is on drugs."

Before Johnson's announcement, the most prominent supporters of
decriminalizing drugs included conservative commentator William F.
Buckley and Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke.

Writing in a 1996 National Review article, Schmoke said that drug
prohibition "reduces the number of police officers available to
investigate violent crime; fosters adulterated, even poisonous, drugs,
and contributes significantly to the transmission of HIV." But under a
system of legalized drugs, he wrote, the government would "control the
price, distribution and purity of addictive substances - which it
already does with prescription drugs. This would take most of the
profit out of drug trafficking, and it is profits that drive the crime."

But Schmoke was a mayor. Johnson is a governor, and his stance has
galvanized both supporters and critics.

Those who support him argue that New Mexico spends too much money on
building prisons and courts and too little money on constructing
schools and hiring new teachers. He also has struck a chord nationally
with the Libertarian Party, which, despite Johnson's professed
disinterest in a higher office, is pressing him to become its
presidential candidate next year.

McCaffrey, who asserts that federal drug policy is working, has a
different view.

"The governor's actions serve as a terrible model for the rest of the
nation," the drug policy director said. "Whether you call it
legalization, decriminalization or drug policy reform, the bottom line
is that the agenda espoused by people like Gov. Johnson would put more
drugs into the hands of our children and make drugs more available on
our nation's streets."

John Dendahl, chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, said
some in the GOP are so angry over Johnson's position that they "would
write a resolution absolutely condemning him. ..."

"We are anti-drugs, pro strict law enforcement and pro-severe
penalties," Dendahl said. "I'm asking (Johnson) to leave the drug
discussion to others and to restore his focus on New Mexico issues."

Johnson acknowledges the issue is volatile.

Though he has privately supported the legalization effort since his
college days, he says he deliberately waited until his final term to
publicly disclose those views. Johnson, who has served two terms, says
he will return to the private sector and will not pursue any other
political office when his term is up in 2003.

"I would like to see this as a political issue," Johnson said. He
acknowledged, "I've got three years left. I'm going to make the most
of that."

He has already put some of his ideas to the test in New Mexico, with
decidedly mixed results.

New Mexico and Hawaii have the only statewide syringe-exchange
programs in the United States. Drug users can turn in old syringes and
get new ones. The reasoning is that the use of new syringes will at
least minimize the risk of infections from tainted needles.

In the parking lot of a nightclub on Central Avenue in east
Albuquerque sat a tan health department minivan, where addicts last
week discarded their used syringes and perused a wide selection of
drug paraphernalia they could take in return.

A bumper sticker on the back of the van said, "DARE to stop the war on
drugs."

After showing the health workers a yellow registration card, a woman
in a black shirt dropped her used needles in a hazardous-waste
container in the back of the van and collected fresh syringes, clean
metal caps to cook her drugs and alcohol swabs. Ad long as addicts
carry the yellow cards, police will not arrest them for carrying drug
paraphernalia.

Maureen Rule, the outreach team leader, said she supports legalization
of drugs.

"Many people say that by legalizing drugs you're sending the wrong
message that drugs are OK," Rule said. "The only message we want to
send out is you don't have to die if you use."

But Lauren Reichelt, who runs treatment programs for substance abusers
in northern New Mexico, argues that legalization would only worsen the
heroin epidemic there.

The death rate from drug overdose in Rio Arriba County, she said, is
quadruple the national average. Nearly 100 people in the rural county
of 35,000 have died of heroin and cocaine overdoses in the last four
years. The problem is compounded by the fact that Johnson has provided
little money for treatment services, she said.

"The governor does not believe in treatment," Reichelt said. "For us,
a policy of totally legalizing drugs minus treatment would be
disastrous."

Indeed, Johnson, who earlier this year approved a $500,000 allocation
for treatment programs after vetoing two similar measures in the past,
said he believes such programs are useless because most addicts sign
up merely to avoid jail time.

Experts are watching the results of New Mexico's syringe-exchange
program carefully. More than 100 syringe-exchange programs have been
established in cities and counties around the nation, which, according
to seven federally funded studies, have significantly reduced the use
of dirty needles and the spread of HIV and hepatitis.

Some advocates of drug-policy reform encourage an even bolder step -
direct government supply of heroin to addicts.

Johnson says the issue needs to be studied, and suggests that someday
heroin might be available to registered addicts in pharmacies, even
grocery stores.

Other countries have experimented with such plans.

In 1994, the Swiss government began prescribing heroin to more than
1,000 addicts in a clinical trial. Heroin remains illegal and the
addicts can be arrested if they have drugs on them; in the program,
the addicts are required to take their doses under medical supervision
in clinics only. Two years ago, the government concluded that crime
dropped 60 percent, stable employment among the users rose to 32
percent from 14 percent and heroin and cocaine use declined
substantially.

Experts noted that the government-supplied drugs are purer and
stronger than street drugs.