NEW MEXICO GOV JOHNSON TODAY

Governor in spotlight, but he's on stage alone Drug-use, voucher
issues get Gary Johnson national media attention but little political
support.

Gov. Gary Johnson -- grim-faced and intent, jaw muscles tensed --
leaned slightly forward in the chair in KOB-TV's Albuquerque studio
and stared at the television monitor a few feet away.

The governor was zeroed in on the Monday morning edition of "Hot
Wire," a national MSNBC cable news program. In just minutes, he would
appear on the show live to talk about his controversial call for
national consideration of decriminalizing marijuana use.

In the background, KOB newsroom personnel quietly went about Monday
morning's business. And just across the room, a couple of the
governor's aids chatted with each other and with reporters, trying not
to sound apprehensive about the fast-approaching interview.

But the governor was alone in front of the monitor, watching MSNBC
staffers do stories on students returning to Colorado's Columbine High
School as he awaited his turn in the spotlight.

Alone is a feeling he's becoming accustomed to. And it's a condition
the "Hot Wire" anchor alluded to as he introduced Johnson.

"The Republican governor says too much money is being spent to fight a
war that the country is losing. And he says the answer may lie in
decriminalizing drugs, and that stand has him at odds with fellow
Republicans."

Ten minutes later, after the interview, after Johnson had told a
national television audience he doesn't believe people should go to
jail for using marijuana, the governor conceded he is breaking new
political ground and exploring possibilities others fear to tackle.

"I feel out on a limb," the governor said. "I think this is something
that needs to be said and no one else is saying it."

In recent months, the governor's positions on drugs and on school
vouchers have made him something of a hot topic in the media.

In April, The Economist, a respected magazine of ideas and opinions,
did a piece about Johnson and school vouchers that the magazine titled
"America's Boldest Governor."

He has been interviewed by the Dallas Morning News, discussed in Wall
Street Journal editorials and is expecting a visit today from The New
York Times.

Johnson said he believes there isn't another governor, member of the
U.S. House of Representatives or a U.S. senator talking about
decriminalizing drug use as a way to refocus the war against illegal
drugs.

Certainly, he said, he has received no support from any high-profile
political figures.

But that didn't keep Johnson from coming out swinging in Monday's TV
interview, a session he started by asking a question himself.

"How much money does our government spend each year on incarceration,
on enforcements and on courts?" he asked.

The anchor didn't know, but the governor thought he
did.

"Well, we're spending about $50 billion a year," he said, "and I would
argue that about half the resources that we spend when it comes to
incarcerations, enforcements and courts are spent on illegal
drug-related crime."

Before the anchor could jump in, Johnson hastened to point out he was
not condoning drug use just because he thought money used to enforce
drug-use laws could be better spent in other ways.

"Drugs are an incredibly bad choice," the governor said. "Don't do
drugs."

The anchor acknowledged that Johnson, a nationally ranked triathlete,
abstains from drugs and alcohol now, but he asked the governor if it
were true that he had admitted smoking marijuana while in college and
using cocaine about three times.

"Right," said Johnson, who disclosed his past drug use during the 1994
campaign before he was first elected governor.

But then he muddied the answer by adding, "That's my point. We're
doing drugs. Under the right set of circumstances . . . I, along with
tens of millions of others -- we're behind bars."

Later, Johnson spokeswoman Diane Kinderwater said the governor did not
mean he was still using drugs or that he had ever been in jail for
using them.

She said Johnson simply meant that if everyone who ever used illegal
drugs had been imprisoned, there would be millions and millions of
people behind bars.

Still, Johnson told the television audience that some 700,000 people
had been arrested in this country on marijuana-related charges, and he
thinks that's a waste of law-enforcement energies and public money.

"We are sending people to jail today for selling even small amounts of
drugs, including marijuana," he said.

After Monday's interview, the governor said the public would be better
served if some portion of the billions spent fighting drugs was used
for programs to prevent drug use or to help people kick the drug habit.

He added the money could be used to fund a strong anti-drug
advertising campaign.

The governor, who is planning forums on drug-use policy later this
summer, admitted that a lot of fellow Republicans disagree with his
views on drugs, but he said a lot of them are willing to talk about
the issue.

John Dendahl, chairman of New Mexico's Republican Party, supported
that assessment.

"In the main, the governor is getting a fair hearing," Dendahl said.
"There are some people coming out of the woodwork in support of
decriminalization. He's getting kudos from them -- and some of them
are Republicans."

Dendahl, who did not see the governor's TV interview on Monday, said
the state's Republican executive committee did send a letter to the
governor opposing decriminalization just to make sure that Johnson's
stand was not the last word on drug enforcement or decriminalization
in New Mexico.

Johnson said he's not worried about what his views on
decriminalization might do to his political future in New Mexico,
because he's not planning one.

"There is no future," the two-term governor said. "This is it. This is
the last public office I'm going to hold.

"And I'm raising the issues that need to be raised. This is good
politics. This is the job I was hired to do."

The governor said that if nothing else, his stand has pushed the issue
of decriminalizing drug use into the national forum.

"I am hearing a lot of support from the media," he said. "This is an
excuse for the media to write about something that needs writing about."

One thing is for sure: The governor of New Mexico is being taken more
seriously now than he was on his only other appearance on MSNBC.

That was in July 1997 in Roswell, and the subject was the supposed
crash 50 years earlier of an alien spacecraft in New Mexico.

Tribune reporter Tim Archuleta contributed to this
story.