GOV.'S DRUG-WAR POLICY PANNED

SANTA FE An expert on drugs and addiction and former Cabinet secretary
under President Carter agreed with Gov. Gary Johnson on Tuesday that the
nation needs to talk about its drug policies.

But Joseph Califano Jr. took issue with some of the statements Johnson made
about the war on drugs during an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America"
television show. Johnson also appeared on NBC's "Today" show.

Johnson, a Republican, has received national media attention in the past
week in the wake of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush's
refusal to answer questions about whether he ever used cocaine. The Texas
governor has said only that he has not used drugs since 1974, when he was
28. By contrast, the 46-year-old Johnson acknowledged in 1994 during his
first campaign for governor that he experimented with marijuana and cocaine
while attending the University of New Mexico in the 1970s. The news was "a
nonevent" in 1994 and during his re-election campaign last year, Johnson said.

Johnson has tried to use his national media appearances to push for a
national debate on drug policies, which he first called for in late June.

On "Good Morning America," Johnson called the war on drugs "a miserable
failure" and contended that "by all measurements, I think we've had
drug-use increase over the last 30 or 40 years."

But Califano said drug use has declined in the United States by 50 percent
since the late 1980s. Califano served as Carter's secretary of health,
education and welfare from 1977 to 1979.

"We have half the people using drugs that were using drugs then," said
Califano, now president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse at Columbia University in New York City. "It is incorrect to say that
we have a continual increase."

The annual National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, released last week,
found that 78 million Americans have tried illegal drugs at some point in
their lives. The survey found 13.6 million were current drug users -- about
6.2 percent of all Americans -- which is half what it was at its peak in 1979.

Califano also strongly disagreed with Johnson that policy-makers should
consider legalizing drugs. He said penalties are important because they set
a social norm.

"For example, with all the public health programs we've had on cigarette
smoking, cigarette smoking is the same among kids today as it was in 1978,"
Califano said. "Marijuana use is 50 percent of what it was in 1978 or 1979.
Cocaine use is less than 50 percent of what it was. So let's deal with the
facts."

Califano agreed with Johnson that Bush should answer questions about
illegal drug use.

And, like Johnson, Califano said he hoped Bush's answers would spark more
debate on drug policies.

"I think we need a serious discussion," Califano said. "I mean, drugs,
alcohol, nicotine, all this substance abuse is our number one disease, our
number one public health problem, and we've never had a really presidential
discussion of this."

Califano said Americans understand that attitudes were different about
drugs in the 1970s.

"In the '70s, we were wide open in this country on drugs," Califano said.
"We had, in fact, a de facto decriminalization of many drugs. So people
will understand if he (Bush) used drugs."

Meanwhile, on the "Today" show, Johnson said he decided to be open about
his past drug use because "it was something that people needed to know."

"It was something that I have done, and people needed to make a choice
based on that," said Johnson, who stressed that he was not advocating the
use of drugs.

"Drugs are a handicap. Don't do drugs," Johnson said. "I wouldn't be
sitting here if I did drugs, if I drank, if I wasn't an athlete."