Pubdate: Thu, 22 Mar 2001
Source: Durango Herald, The (US CO)
Copyright: 2001 The Durango Herald
Contact:  1275 Main Ave., Durango, Colorado
Website: http://durangoherald.com/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/johnson.htm (Johnson, Gary)

WATCHING NEW MEXICO

Santa Fe Legislature Provides Food For Thought

When it comes to state government, New Mexico does things a little bit 
differently. And as important as Denver is to us, it can also be 
instructive to watch what is happening in Santa Fe.

Much of what occupied New Mexico's lawmakers this session would be familiar 
to anyone who follows the exploits of Colorado's General Assembly. They 
include child-safety locks on firearms, concealed weapons permits, 
education reform and financing a sports stadium.

Then too, there were bills with a more distinctive flavor. A sampling of 
those include efforts to ban cockfighting, a bill to let felons vote, and 
another to provide increased penalties for hitting a sports official. The 
last two passed.

The Legislature also passed a "safe haven" bill that lets parents leave 
newborn children at hospitals (as opposed to abandoning them elsewhere) 
without being charged with a crime, and a bill to require health insurance 
plans to cover contraception. And, with an eye toward California no doubt, 
it approved a measure to delay deregulation of the electric industry for 
five years.

At the same time, New Mexico's lawmakers killed a bill to create a 
"no-call" list for people who don't want to hear from telemarketers, a 
proposed open meetings law and a measure to allow certain cancer patients 
to use marijuana.

That last was one of a series of Gov. Gary Johnson's effort to reform the 
state's drug laws. His proposal to decriminalize possession of small 
amounts of pot was also defeated, although he did succeed with three other 
"harm reduction" measures, including one that will let pharmacies sell 
hypodermic needles without fear of prosecution.

Johnson has taken a lot of heat for his stance on drugs, but he deserves 
credit. U.S. drug policy is a failure and Johnson is almost alone among 
elected officials with the courage to say so - and the willingness to change.

And, in an example our lawmakers should follow, the New Mexico Legislature 
passed a last-minute bill dealing with so-call SLAPP suits. These 
"strategic litigation against public participation" lawsuits are used to 
silence critics of new projects who speak out in public hearings. The suit 
itself may be baseless, but proponents can use the threat of exorbitant 
legal costs, lost time and hassle to stifle objections.

A bill to provide immunity against SLAPPs died in the Colorado Legislature 
when the inevitable reduction of the measure to a "yes" or "no" vote was 
used to present a false dichotomy between fairness and honesty.

New Mexico took a different approach. Lawmakers there essentially said: Go 
ahead and sue, but it goes to court right away. That way if the suit has no 
merit it gets quickly tossed. Costs to the defendant are kept to a minimum 
- - and the pressure to shut up is reduced.

It is a sensible alternative. And, it helps to remind us that the either-or 
choices we are so often presented represent only one way to define the 
issue. As New Mexico reminds us, there are other ways to do things.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager