SENATE HOPEFUL EYES DRUG REFORM

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray Wants To Legalize Adult
Use Of Marijuana

Jim Gray isn't easily pigeonholed.

He's a veteran of both the U.S. Navy in Vietnam and the Peace Corps in
Costa Rica.

He's a lifelong Republican now running for the U.S. Senate as a
Libertarian while reaching out to Bay Area liberals.

He's a Republican-appointed Orange County Superior Court judge whose
main platform plank is drug legalization.

He says he might be the only person ever to get standing ovations for
giving the same speech to the American Civil Liberties Union and the
Young Republicans.

"This is everybody's issue," he said of his war on the government's
war on drugs.

Gray, 58, of Newport Beach said the Bay Area should be especially
receptive to his core issue -- getting the federal government to butt
out of California's medical marijuana affairs, and then getting
California to completely decriminalize adult marijuana use.

Doing so, he said, would save the state $1 billion a year in failed
eradication, prosecution and incarceration costs, while raising almost
$2 billion a year in new taxes on the drug, not counting a resurgent
industrial hemp industry's boost to the economy. Regulating marijuana
would make it less available to children and prevent its adulteration
with more harmful substances, he said, while patients and doctors
finally would be free of fear.

Adult use might increase but only temporarily, he said, citing data
from nations that have legalized the drug. He has no suggestion on
what to do should California start drawing "tourists" from other
states that haven't legalized marijuana, but said this too could boost
the state's economy and other states probably would follow suit.

"The Green Party does not have a candidate in this race and I'm
wholeheartedly asking for their support ... we walk hand-in-hand on
this issue," he said, adding that for all those who voted for
California's medical marijuana in 1996, "I'm their candidate, I speak
for them."

The Rev. Lynnette Shaw, founder and proprietor of the Marin Alliance
for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax, agrees.

Gray visited the alliance's office Monday, toward the end of a
weeks-long campaign sweep across Northern California.

"People around the state are very concerned that our votes are being
ignored or overridden by the police," Shaw said. "I believe Judge Gray
is a candidate for ... people who want change and know it's time to
end the drug war. And he is looking at a very large pool of people who
are interested in medical marijuana.

"I think he has a chance of making a dent."

Former Rep. Tom Campbell, R-San Jose, was an outspoken critic of
federal drug policies as he ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Sen.
Dianne Feinstein in 2000. Now dean of the University of California,
Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Campbell has personally endorsed
Republican Bill Jones for the Senate seat, but praised Gray
nonetheless.

"Judge Jim Gray was a great help to me, within the bounds of the
canons of judicial behavior, when I was running for United States
Senate," Campbell said. "We may not agree on every proposal ... but I
have the highest admiration for his integrity and his thoughtfulness
in approaching this most difficult problem, and in his recognition
that the present approach to America's drug problem is a tremendously
costly failure."

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy
Alliance, called Gray "a hero of the drug policy reform movement.

"He's putting the issue into the public eye and they're hearing these
arguments come out of the mouth not of some liberal Bay Area
politician but from a conservative, formerly Republican state judge,"
he said. "I think in that respect, it's all good."

Gray said he doesn't expect to win, but hopes a strong showing will
demonstrate a groundswell of opposition to the drug war.

Some voters concerned with drug reform might balk at Gray if U.S. Sen.
Barbara Boxer seems vulnerable to a Republican challenger; they might
think it more important to work toward a Democratic Senate majority
than to elect a lone Libertarian. But Gray says neither Democrats nor
Republicans can be counted upon to reform drug policy: "They have to
be pushed from the outside, so I'm on the outside pushing."

These policies not only drain billions in tax dollars but also hurt
homeland security, he claimed, calling drug prohibition "the golden
goose of terrorism -- it sponsors terrorists from Osama bin Laden on
down." Yet the human impact may be worst of all, he said. "It's awful
-- we are ruining people's lives, we are breaking up families."

He lambastes Boxer for failing to act on this, as well as for voting
for the USA Patriot Act -- only Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., opposed
it -- probably without fully reading it. He calls that "an abrogation
of responsibility" that has led to serious infringements upon civil
rights.

Gray was named to the bench in 1983 by Gov. George Deukmejian. A
lifelong Republican, he became a Libertarian about 18 months ago.
America is stuck between "tax-and-spend Democrats and
don't-tax-but-spend-anyway Republicans," he said, adding Libertarians
"represent Republican values far more than the Republicans do."

He's taken an unpaid leave of absence from the court to run for the
Senate. He said he jokingly told his wife he's doing his share to
reduce their income tax burden, but she didn't think that was funny.

He'll compete in the March 2 Libertarian primary election with Gail
Lightfoot, 66, of Arroyo Grande -- a Santa Monica native, retired
registered nurse and 32-year Libertarian Party activist who has made
several runs for statewide office. Her top issue is the failure of
public schools, her Web site says: "the dumbed down history, the
destruction of moral values, the ongoing attack on the family, and the
disturbing lack of critical thinking ability in students."

For more on Gray's campaign, see www.judgejimgray4senate.com For more
on Lightfoot's campaign, see www.lightfootforussenate2004.org