Pubdate: Sat, 26 Aug 2000
Source: Sun News (SC)
Copyright: 2000 Sun Publishing Co.
Contact:  P.O. Box 406, Myrtle Beach, SC 29578-0406
Feedback: http://www.thesunnews.com/cust/editorial.htm
Website: http://www.thesunnews.com/
Author: Matthew Miller

NEW STRATEGY VITAL TO WIN WAR ON DRUGS

The big missing issue in the 2000 campaign is our failed war against drugs. 
The highest-ranking official with the guts to say so is New Mexico Gov.

Gary Johnson a triathlete, iconoclast and Republican, in that order. 
Hearing Johnson talk drugs, as I did on a recent visit, is to experience a 
level of candor unimaginable in the presidential race.

"Half of what we spend on law enforcement, half of what we spend on the 
courts and half of what we spend on the prisons is drug-related," Johnson, 
47, says. "Our current policies on drugs are perhaps the biggest problem 
that this country has."

Everyone tells kids not to do drugs, Johnson explains. Despite this chorus, 
80 million Americans have tried them, including more than half of this 
year's graduating high-school class. No one condones this, he adds, but do 
we really want our kids to be branded "criminals" for it?

He points out that 450,000 people died last year from smoking cigarettes; 
150,000 as a consequence of drinking alcohol; and 100,000 from legal 
prescription drugs. How many people died last year from the use of 
marijuana? Few, if any. From cocaine and heroin? Five thousand.

"Yet we are arresting 1.5 million people a year in this country on 
drug-related crime," Johnson says. "Half of those arrested are for 
marijuana. And half those arrests are Hispanics." We're locking up 
nonviolent people senselessly, he argues. "We ought to legalize marijuana," 
he says. "We need to stop `getting tough' with drugs."

How did a Republican governor stumble into this?

In summer 1999, a few months into his second (and final) term, Johnson told 
state GOP leaders he was determined to make the most of his bully pulpit. 
Days later, without having thought it all through, Johnson told reporters 
he'd legalize marijuana and heroin.

Ka-boom! White House drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffery flew in to condemn him. 
Ed Bradley came down to do "60 Minutes." Meanwhile, Johnson's chief law 
enforcement official quit in protest; a local sheriff called the governor 
an "idiot," and his approval ratings sank from 54 to 35 percent.

Johnson, famously persistent (he finishes near the top of his age group in 
"Ironman" triathlon competitions), hasn't backed down. But he has sought 
expert advice. Today he seeks legalization for marijuana only and promotes 
"harm-reduction" strategies for other drugs. "Harm-reduction" advocates see 
drugs as a public-health, not a criminal, problem and back programs for 
needle exchange and methadone maintenance, as well as an end to "mandatory 
minimum" sentences that can leave nonviolent drug offenders in jail longer 
than rapists and burglars.

Yet drug czar McCaffery views much of the "harm-reduction" agenda as a ploy 
to pave the way toward full legalization. Johnson's efforts, he told me, 
are "irresponsible" and "misguided."

But consider: In 1980 we spent less than $5 billion on drug control and 
incarcerated 50,000 Americans for nonviolent drug offenses; today, we spend 
$40 billion and jail more than 450,000 (more than Europe, with a larger 
population, jails for everything).

Blacks are 17 percent of cocaine users but 88 percent of those convicted on 
crack-cocaine charges. Casual drug use is down, but the population of 
hard-core addicts (responsible for most drug-related crime) has held steady 
near 5 million. Drugs remain widely available, at low prices, to those who 
want them. Half the addicts who need treatment can't get it. Dirty needles 
are a major culprit in the spread of HIV.

Johnson is only sane to say there's something wrong with this picture. And 
the issue is gaining steam. A California ballot measure in November would 
divert nonviolent first-time drug offenders to treatment; New York's chief 
judge recently introduced a similar system administratively. Johnson, 
meanwhile, has a task force coming back soon with a slate of reforms, which 
he says could even include pardons for nonviolent offenders. Johnson has 
been at it only a year. He has 2 more to go before he leaves office.

If Johnson can pass sensible reforms and see his popularity rebound, he may 
make the world safe for other politicians to "just say no" to America's 
costly and counterproductive drug war.

Los Angeles Times Syndicate 
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart