MARTINEZ URGES GOP MAYORS TO FIGHT DRUGS

Former Drug Czar Warns That Legalizing Marijuana Would Send The Wrong
Message To Children

ORLANDO (AP) -Former Gov. Bob Martinez encouraged Republican mayors to do
more in the fight against drugs, especially in the battle to combat the move
to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Martinez, who served as the nation's first drug czar from 1991 to 1993, told
mayors attending a meeting of the Florida Association of Republican Mayors
that Americans have become too complacent in working to stem the tide
against illegal drug use.

Martinez, governor from 1986 to 1990, was joined by Secretary Bill Bankhead
of the FLorida Department of Juvenile Justice, Orlando Police Chief Jerry
Demings and Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation in calling for a
grass roots effort in stopping those who would legalize marijuana use.

TO make the use of marijuana legal, even for medicinal purposes, they said,
would allow for legal trafficking of the drug and legal sale and
distribution without a prescription for such ailments as headaches, upset
stomach and athlete's foot.

An estimated 1.2 million people in the state use marijuana, Martinez said.
That is more than the number who consume the soft drink Sprite, he said.

"If the manufacturers of Sprite have all those marketing people and
distributors who promote the product and they attract less than eight
percent of the population, you can imagine what is already going into the
promotion of illegal drugs in our state," he noted.

Martinez said legalizing marijuana sends 'the wrong message' to children.
They have to know that drug use is not right, he told the mayors.

"We can see taht when penalties for drug use are increased the incidence of
other crimes are reduced," said Mayor Glenda Hood of Orlando.

The mayor's association was founded earlier this year to bring Republican
mayors from around Florida together to discuss common issues. Saturday's
meeting was the group's second.

"More can be done in the fight against drugs," Martinez said. "You have, at
the local level, the added ability to deal with kids' issues and to energize
young people in the prevention programs."