LEGALIZED POT A TOUGH SELL IN GOVERNOR'S RACE

Legalizing marijuana in California could generate $1.4 billion a year
for the cash-starved state treasury, according to the state Board of
Equalization. It's supported by 56 percent of the public, according
to a Field Poll in April.

But it's not a proposal that any of the five leading candidates for
governor is willing to embrace.

"If the whole society starts getting stoned, we're going to be even
less competitive," Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown - who as
governor signed a 1975 law reducing possession of small amounts of
pot to a $100 misdemeanor - said on a recent radio show.

"Like electing Jerry Brown as governor, the idea of legalizing drugs
is one more bad idea from a bygone era," said Jarrod Agen, spokesman
for Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner, the state
insurance commissioner.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom says the state needs "a new
direction in drug policy," but opposes legalizing marijuana -though
he welcomes an "open dialogue" on the subject as he seeks the
Democratic nomination.

Ammiano's Bill

The candidates' views pose one more obstacle for Assemblyman Tom
Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who has acknowledged that his bill to
legalize and tax marijuana, AB390, is a long-term project.

Ammiano has yet to enlist any legislative co-sponsors. Winning
majority votes appears to be a distant goal, despite Democratic
control of both the Assembly and state Senate. Persuading a governor
to sign the bill won't be easy, and at the end of the gantlet,
federal law still prohibits marijuana possession, cultivation and distribution.

At least people are talking about the subject, said Ammiano spokesman
Quintin Mecke. "The deeper the economic hole becomes for California,
the further the conversation will progress," he said.

The debate could also shift to the ballot box, as legalization
advocates hope to sidestep the Legislature and put an initiative
before the voters next year, when they will also be choosing the next governor.

California has been a leader in liberalizing marijuana laws. The
state was one of the first to end felony penalties for possession 34
years ago, and became the first, in a 1996 ballot initiative, to
legalize the medical use of marijuana.

Legalization for personal use, however, is a much tougher sell.

Police groups strongly oppose it, politicians fear being seen as soft
on drug dealers, and federal law, if enforced, could make state
legislation an exercise in futility. It's unlikely to be a major
issue in the governor's race, but it's a revealing subject for
several candidates.

Republican Tom Campbell, for example, has denounced the government's
war on drugs in past campaigns, saying the billions of dollars that
go to eradication and imprisonment would be better spent on
treatment. Opponents, including Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
whom the former South Bay congressman unsuccessfully challenged in
2000, have attacked him as soft on drugs and a would-be legalizer.

Organized Crime

Campbell, however, says he opposes legalizing marijuana because it
could open the door to organized crime. Law enforcement contacts, he
said, have warned him that Mexican marijuana distributors also
dominate the methamphetamine trade, and "if you legalize the one, you
run the risk of creating a distribution mechanism for the other."

Brown, a still-undeclared candidate for the office he held from 1975
to 1983, uses 1960s lingo to take a top-cop stance.

Asked July 18 on Oakland radio station KKGN about taxing legal pot
sales to help balance the state budget, Brown replied, "As far as
telling everybody to - what did Timothy Leary say, 'Tune in, turn on,
and drop out'? - that will not be the recommendation of the attorney general."

New revenue sources are worth considering, he said, but a stoned
society means "more broken families and more angry husbands and
wives. ... We need more discipline, we need more focus, and we're
going to have to work harder."

Newsom takes a different tone, in keeping with his need to appeal to
young voters as he challenges Brown for the Democratic nomination.

The war on drugs is "an abject failure," the mayor says, consuming
"precious, limited public safety dollars" by treating nonviolent
offenders the same as violent felons. But when pressed on legalizing
marijuana, spokesman Nathan Ballard said Newsom doesn't think it's a
"responsible way to balance the state's budget."

On the Republican side, Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of
eBay, said she opposes legalizing marijuana for any reason. "We have
enough challenges in our society without heading down the path of
drug legalization," she said in a statement.
Attack on opposition

Poizner turns his opposition to legalization into an attack on Brown
and the "bygone era" of the '60s as well as raising taxes on
marijuana or anything else.

"Only those who are smoking something think tax increases will lead
to economic growth," said Agen, Poizner's spokesman.

One advocate of legalized pot shrugs off the candidates' positions.

"Supporting legalization probably risks losing the support of law
enforcement," but "I think opposing it is going to turn off some
younger voters," said Dale Gieringer, California coordinator of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

On this issue, he said, "the public's perceptions are always ahead of
the politicians."

What Gubernatorial Candidates Have Said About Pot Policy

Meg Whitman: "I am absolutely against legalizing marijuana for any
reason. We have enough challenges in our society without heading down
the path of drug legalization."

Gavin Newsom, whose campaign spokesman says he opposes legalization:
"I welcome an open dialogue in California on the relative merits of
legalization of cannabis. ... While marijuana has positive medicinal
properties, it also has adverse effects."

Attorney General Jerry Brown: "If the whole society starts getting
stoned, we're going to be even less competitive. And we're going to
have more broken families and more angry husbands and wives."

Former Rep. Tom Campbell: "The principal (Mexican) distributors of
marijuana are also dominant forces in meth. If you legalize the one,
you run the risk of creating a distribution mechanism for the other."

Jarrod Agen, spokesman for Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner: "The
idea of legalizing drugs is one more bad idea from a bygone era. Nor
can California smoke its way out of the structural budget deficit."