U.S. DRUG CZAR ATTACKS LEGALIZATION CALL

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey Tuesday
accused the governor of New Mexico of ignorance and irresponsibility in
calling for the legalization of marijuana and heroin.

Responding to Republican Gov. Gary Johnson's radical alternative to the
``expensive failure'' of the war on drugs, McCaffrey told reporters: ``I am
astonished. Gov. Johnson in New Mexico is acting in an irresponsible
manner. This is the same governor last year who vetoed a $2.6 million drug
treatment program.

``Obviously the governor hasn't seen the nature of drug addiction in the
same manner that drug treatment professionals in that state and law
enforcement have encountered,'' said McCaffrey.

Johnson, a 46-year-old triathlon athlete who admits having used drugs in
college, said last week that legalizing drugs could be the best way to
fight abuse. Saying his goal was to reduce drug use in United States,
Johnson suggested that legalization would allow the government to regulate
them as it does alcohol and tobacco.

McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said the number of heroin-related deaths in New Mexico had doubled
the national average in recent years.

``The problem isn't that they (drugs) are illegal. The problem is that they
are ferociously addictive and they make people act in a compulsive manner.
They make them unemployable and they get them involved in permanently
altered and impaired brain function. That's the problem with these drugs,''
McCaffrey said.

``In a democracy everyone is welcome to debate these notions. But if you
are going to be a public official it seems to me you have to have informed
and rational perspectives.''

McCaffrey was in Los Angeles to address an anti-drugs concert for school
children and to meet Olympic champion Carl Lewis for talks on doping in
sport.