A GOVERNOR WHO ONCE DABBLED IN DRUGS SAYS WAR ON THEM IS MISGUIDED

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Long before he became Governor of New Mexico, Gary E.
Johnson was an athlete. Almost every morning at 5, he takes off on a long
run, a swim or a bicycle ride, training for a marathon or a triathlon. As
Governor, he has ridden his bike five times across the state, run 25 miles
in Army gear and jumped off a 10,000-foot-high mountain on a hang-glider.
Those activities alone make him a rarity among the 50 governors. But
Johnson, 46, a second-term Republican, is also unusual in another respect.
He unflinchingly admits he used marijuana and cocaine in college and now
wants the nation to consider alternatives to the so-called war on drugs,
which he contends is failing through an overemphasis on prosecution and
incarceration. He goes so far as to suggest that the Federal Government
should consider the decriminalization of drugs, or perhaps even
legalization, which would mean they could be sold for profit. And he
contends that the costly campaign against drugs has left courts and prisons
overwhelmed with people arrested for possessing only small amounts of drugs.
Drugs, he says, could be regulated like alcohol and people could be held
accountable for what they did under their influence. These ideas make him
the highest ranking elected official in the United States to offer what are
considered wildly unpopular alternatives to current drug policies. But they
come at a time when questions of past drug use have become commonplace for
aspiring and sitting Presidents. Just this week, Gov. George W. Bush of
Texas, the Republican front-runner in the 2000 Presidential race,
reluctantly answered questions about drug use in his past, saying he could
have passed the challenge of a Federal Bureau of Investigation background
check in his father's Presidency. And while President Clinton has admitted
he once tried marijuana, he said he did not inhale. Governor Johnson, a
former businessman who considers himself as much a libertarian as a
Republican, said he regarded politicians as "disingenuous" if they tried to
hide what the public had a right to know. "I smoked marijuana in college;
that was something I did," he said this week in an interview at the Capitol
in Santa Fe. "I used cocaine on a couple of occasions. It was not something
that anybody would have ever known. But I knew if I was going to run for
office, I should 'fess up. And if I didn't win, so be it."

Residents of New Mexico have long accepted their Governor's past, which he
revealed in his first campaign. He won re-election in 1998 with 55 percent
of the vote, compared with 50 percent four years before, when a candidate
from the Green Party siphoned votes from Gov. Bruce King, a Democrat. In
winning last year, Johnson became the first Governor of New Mexico to win a
second consecutive four-year term.

But his crusade for alternatives to drug prohibition, which he began several
weeks ago, has drawn wide criticism, even from leading state Republicans,
like Senator Pete V. Domenici and Representative Heather A. Wilson. They
generally disagree with Johnson's contention that the drug war has failed
and cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars annually that could
otherwise be spent on education and other necessities. It is an argument
Johnson makes often, traveling in New Mexico and beyond, emboldened by his
promise to seek no other political office once his term ends in 2002.

"We are spending incredible amounts of our resources on incarceration, law
enforcement and courts," he said. "As an extension of everything I've done
in office, I made a cost-benefit analysis, and this one really stinks." Just
how the country might bring drug sales under Federal control or what
penalties should apply to drug charges are things Johnson has not sorted
out, he said. Nor would he want anyone to assume he is advocating drug use.
His own use ended after college, at the University of New Mexico, he said.
"I would like to see a discussion on this, A to Z," he said. "The reality of
what might evolve is that we get our feet wet, so that we could learn how to
legalize or decriminalize. Politically, I can't ascertain if there has been
a positive or negative reaction. But publicly, I've found that people
overwhelmingly want to talk about it."

Around New Mexico, Johnson has his allies. The Albuquerque chapter of the
League of Women Voters has expressed interest in sponsoring a forum on the
issue. Jacqueline Cooper, a lawyer who represents defendants in drug cases
through the state public defender's office, has begun speaking to groups
around the state, promoting lighter prison terms for drug offenders and
treatment as part of their sentences.

The Governor has also been invited by the Cato Institute, a libertarian
research organization in Washington, to speak at a conference in October on
alternative drug policies.

But the forces aligned against him are formidable. They include the White
House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, led by Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey, who recently testified before Congress that the advocates of drug
legalization are promoting drug use through "deceptive claims, half-truths
and flawed logic to hawk ill-conceived beliefs." Citing statistics that show
declines in drug use, drug-related murders and spending on illegal drugs,
General McCaffrey insisted that the drug war was working. He also told
Congress that legalization would cost society even more in medical and
prison costs and increase drug sales rather than slowly decrease them
through treatment to end addiction, as Johnson suggested. Bob Weiner, a
spokesman for General McCaffrey, said that General McCaffrey would not
comment on Johnson's position. Weiner dismissed the Governor as a political
oddity, saying he "is not well advised" on drug issues. In New Mexico, where
drug problems are fueled by transit routes from California, Texas and
Mexico, the opposition is fierce. Ms. Wilson, a freshman Representative from
Albuquerque who once served in Johnson's Cabinet as Health Secretary, said
firmly in an interview, "This is a subject we disagree on."

"Even a national forum on decriminalization sends the wrong message," Ms.
Wilson added.

A spokesman for Domenici, Chris Gallegos, said the Senator agreed with Ms.
Wilson. "Proceeding with this sends the wrong message, especially in a state
like New Mexico, which has a very severe drug problem," he said. Cecil Sena,
a police officer in Santa Fe, said alcohol caused enough problems without
adding legalized drugs to the mix.

"We already have one killer on the streets," he said. "Why put another out
there?" Johnson said he did not expect much support from the law-enforcement
community. Responding to critics like John J. Kelly, the United States
Attorney for New Mexico, Johnson said they were "only looking at the crime
side of the issue, a knee-jerk response."

In large measure, Johnson's tenacity evolves from his lame-duck status, his
lack of interest in seeking another office and, critics and Republican
colleagues agree, a governing style that reflects less reliance on outside
counsel than his own.

"I have no desire to be a United States senator," he said, alluding to an
obvious next step, a challenge to Senator Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat whose
third term ends next year.

"I've got the job I've always wanted," he added. "It's a great opportunity,
and I don't want to squander it. My greatest fear would be to leave office,
thinking, 'coulda, shoulda, woulda.' I just don't want to do that."