>From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: MUTINY IN NEW MEXICO >Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 18:38:33 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > >Pubdate: 3 Feb 2000 >Source: Rolling Stone >Issue: 833 Page: 36 Section: National Affairs >Copyright: 2000 Straight Arrow Publishers Company, L.P >Contact: letters@rollingstone.com >Address: 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104-0298 >Fax: (212) 767-8214 >Forum: http://yourturn.rollingstone.com/webx?98@@webx1.html >Website: http://www.rollingstone.com/ >Note: Mike Gray is the author of "Drug Crazy" (Random House) (see: >http://www.drugsense.org/crazy.htm ). He wrote "Texas Heroin Massacre" in >RS http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n548/a09.html >Bookmark: MAP's archive of almost 200 items about Gov. Johnson is at: >http://www.mapinc.org/johnson.htm >Also: You can view photos of the ARO (Association of Reform Organizations) >meeting with Governor Johnson, Steve Bunch and many others at: >http://www.csdp.org/aro/ > >MUTINY IN NEW MEXICO > >Gov. Gary E. Johnson Is The Highest-ranking Elected Official To Blast The >War On Drugs. And The Most Unlikely: He's Not Just A Drug-Free, >Squeaky-Clean Triathlete, He's A REPUBLICAN > >IN THIS AGE OF MACHINE-tooled politicians, Gov. Gary E. Johnson of New >Mexico is a throwback to the Jeffersonian ideal of the citizen-legislator. >He arrived in the governor's office five years ago out of the blue, a >self-made Republican multimillionaire whose money came from the >construction business, with no political experience whatsoever. And now >this novice politician is weathering the fiercest of attacks for denouncing >the government's War on Drugs. Arguing that drug prohibition impinges on >the rights of citizens and drains the treasury, Johnson has taken his >campaign national and is receiving -- along with the hostility -- quiet but >emphatic support from politicians and law-enforcement officials across the >country. > >Johnson was first pushed into taking a public stand last June 22nd. >Reporter Tim Archuleta of the Albuquerque Tribune, acting on a tip, caught >Johnson at a Republican conference in Albuquerque. Archuleta asked him >whether he was going to recommend decriminalizing drug use in New Mexico. >The governor confessed that indeed he was. He told Archuleta: "Our present >course is not working. Our War on Drugs is a real failure." Archuleta's >story hit newsstands at noon the next day, and at the governor's next stop, >he was confronted by television cameras and shouting reporters, The Santa >Fe New Mexican headline read, JOHNSON SAYS POT-SMOKING IS NOT A CRIME. > >Suddenly, the national spotlight was on the forty-seven-year-old governor, >While the chorus of anti-war activists has grown to include mayors, federal >judges, police chiefs, economists and former Reagan Secretary of State >George Shultz, the defection of this conservative Republican governor was a >major crack in the dike. Johnson was condemned on Capitol Hill, and White >House drug czar Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, clearly blindsided by this >unexpected break in the ranks, fired off a five-page letter defending the >drug war and accusing Johnson of false statements and of misleading the >American people. > > From his fellow governors across the country there was resounding silence: >Nobody wanted to get near this political land mine. Even Gov. Jesse Ventura >of Minnesota, who suggested legalizing marijuana during his 1998 campaign, >has not addressed the subject since he took office. At the National >Governors' Association meeting in St. Louis in August, Johnson didn't even >bother to bring it up. "I'm not naive," he says, "But I was surprised at >some people's statements that we can't even talk about an alternative >because it's 'crazy and irresponsible' -- that's from McCaffrey." > >Back in New Mexico, Johnson's Republican peers are frantically distancing >themselves from his heresy. "He's had some good ideas," said Senate >Minority Floor Leader Skip Vernon. "He's had some bad ideas. And this is >the worst." State Sen. Billy McKibben is livid, "I think he's an idiot," >said McKibben. "I think he's still smokin' the stuff." State Rep. Andy >Kissner said Johnson's suggestions are "just outrageous." The state's >lawmen are equally appalled. Sheriff Ray Sisneros of Santa Fe said Johnson >should check himself into a mental hospital, and the secretary of public >safety accused him of damaging the morale of law-enforcement officers, then >resigned. But From Johnson's viewpoint, everything seems to be going pretty >much according to plan. > >The governor disarmed his attackers by freely admitting that he'd used >marijuana in college while noting that today his body is his temple. A >competitive triathlete who hang-glides from mountain tops and rides around >the state on a bicycle, he doesn't even eat junk food. He gave up booze >thirteen years ago. He thinks drug use is a handicap. "I'm against drugs," >he has said. "But should you go to jail for simply doing drugs? I say no. >People ask me, 'What do you tell kids?' Well, you tell them the truth. You >tell them that by legalizing drugs we can control them, regulate them and >tax them. But you tell them that drugs are a bad choice -- but if you do >drugs, we're not going to throw you in jail" When the governor talks about >this issue, it's clear his background isn't politics. Instead of >doublespeak, his language reflects the direct, unambiguous style of a >construction foreman. > >John Dendahl, the state Republican Party chairman, was at the fateful >luncheon last June when Johnson announced that he was thinking about taking >on the drug war. The governor began listing the damage wrought by >prohibition: the violence, the corruption, the erosion of the Constitution >and the fact that kids now have ready access to cheap drugs everywhere. >Johnson said, I hat to go public with the discussion of alternatives to the >drug war, like decriminalization." > >Surprisingly, agreed to back him. The pair set out to lay the groundwork. >Dendahl would massage the party stalwarts and try to soften the blow. The >governor would meet privately with key legislators and U.S. Sen. Pete V. >Domenici's people so they could brace for the shock wave. Then somebody >tipped off the Albuquerque Tribune, and the fat was in the fire. > >While most politicians were publicly scrambling to get out of the way, >Johnson was privately getting encouragement from other quarters. Steve >Bunch, in Albuquerque attorney who heads the New Mexico Drug Policy >Foundation, a vocal reform group, was busily connecting the governor with >experts from all aver the country, and they were piling his desk with books >and articles. The deeper Johnson dug, the more convinced he became that the >drug war itself was the problem. By the time he arrived in Washington, >D.C., to deliver a speech to the libertarian Cato Institute in early >October, he was openly advocating the legalization of all drugs, including >cocaine and heroin. > >McCaffrey was incredulous. Here was this governor from an empty Western >state, in Washington, on the general's home turf, attacking everything he >stood for. He immediately issued a statement calling Johnson's message >"pro-drug" and claiming that his actions 'serve as a terrible model for the >rest of :he nation." Two days later, McCaffrey flew to Albuquerque for a >dawn assault, "I was at home getting ready for the day," says the >governor's legislative liaison, Dave Miller. "I knew he was coming on, so I >flipped on the 7 A.M. news, and he was on two channels with the same line: >'I hear kids in New Mexico are calling the governor "Puff Daddy" Johnson,' >" McCaffrey hammered the line again at a breakfast meeting with local >lawmen organized by John J. Kelly, the U.S. attorney for the district of >New Mexico. Then the general was off to a treatment center and a hastily >arranged Rotary Club luncheon. Backed by a phalanx of law-enforcement >officials, he called Johnson worse than irresponsible. "This is goofy >thinking that's harmful to New Mexico," McCaffrey said. "He ought to be >ashamed of himself." > >At the Statehouse in Santa Fe, after listing to five hours of battering >from McCaffrey, Miller peeked into the pressroom and found it packed with >reporters waiting for Johnson's reaction. "I had rarely seen the pressroom >that hot," he says. He went to the governor's office and found Johnson >watching the noon report on his little TV. There was the general, >ridiculing Johnson as ignorant and uninformed, saying, "He's getting some >of these sound bites out of ROLLING STONE magazine." > >It was Miller's turn to be shocked. "I had done a little research on >McCaffrey," he says. "So I thought, 'Well, he's a class act, a four-star >general -- he's gonna really know his stuff.' As a staffer, I always worry >that we're just gonna get creamed, that he's gonna really do us in with >facts and figures. And then he starts in with the 'Puff Daddy' stuff." But >Johnson told Miller, "When you get this kind of attention from somebody >who's supposed to be at the top of the heap, you're gonna advance your >cause." > >McCaffrey, with his vitriolic attack, was playing right into their hands. >"God," said Miller, "does it get any better than this?" > >A few minutes later they entered the pressroom, where the reporters >clamored for a response. Johnson, polite and respectful, simply welcomed >the general to the debate, even though McCaffrey didn't bother to meet with >him in person. "What ROLLING STONE and a lot of others who really >understand this issue are presenting," Johnson said, "is the truth." Why, >asked Johnson, if drug use is falling, as the general claimed, are record >numbers being arrested? "In the late Seventies we spent $1 billion in >federal money fighting drug-related crime," said Johnson. "Today we're >spending $17.8 billion. The number of people arrested has jumped from >200,000 in the late Seventies to 1.6 million. When it comes to a >cost-benefit analysis, this really stinks." > >The public reaction to this shootout seemed to surprise everyone but the >governor. The phone lines, e-mail and fax machines were overflowing, and >ninety percent of the voters were swinging with Johnson. > >"This has been unbelievable," said Johnson in his Cato Institute speech. >"Two elderly ladies came up to my table at dinner the other night and said, >'We're teachers, and we think your school-voucher idea sucks. But your >position on the War on Drugs -- right on!' " > >Johnson knows that these voters don't necessarily agree with his ideas >about legalization, but they do agree that the drug war is a failure and >that it's time to look at alternatives. "Every single day I am approached >by people on the street saying this is long overdue, oftentimes relating >personal experiences," he says. "I've had prominent New Mexicans tell me >about drug arrests." These privileged citizens usually had their charges >dismissed, says Johnson, "but it was dismissed by the grace of God -- and >who you happen to know." > >Johnson has three years left in his term -- after which, he says, he will >leave politics to climb Mount Everest -- and he intends to maintain his >attack. At the Cato Institute meeting, he said: "I'm trying to communicate >what I believe in. I believe in this issue." And he finished his speech >with a telling insight: "I do understand my value in this. I'm trying to >make the most out of having been given the stage." Requests for speaking >engagements have been flooding in from all over the country, and 6o Minutes >is at work on a profile. > >In November, Johnson scheduled several educational seminars featuring >drug-war critics like Ethan Nadelmann, a leading spokesman for the reform >movement, and they played to standing-room-only crowds. Perhaps audiences >are drawn to the governor's honesty. He has even discussed the pleasures of >cocaine: "You know why people do it. It's wonderful, Whoaaa! Whewwww!" > >And while his candor has inflamed the drug warriors, most of them prefer to >engage him from a distance rather than one on one. A debate that was to >include the governor and one of his most vociferous critics, U.S. attorney >Kelly, was scheduled for late November at the University of New Mexico law >school, but Kelly bowed out at the last minute. > >In the end, Johnson believes, history will vindicate him. How soon? He >laughs. "I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think this was a Berlin >Wall-type situation," he says. "You're gonna get a critical mass here, and >all of a sudden it's just gonna topple." > >Does he see anyone behind him ready to mount the wall? "I see all sorts of >people," he says. "Elected officials from across the spectrum, law >enforcement, people in the courts. They say, 'You're right, but I can't >[say so].' " It's a measure of the political fear surrounding this issue >that Johnson refuses to name names. He doesn't want to spook his potential >allies -- they're already skittish enough, The voters, he says, are well >ahead of the politicians, but the politicians are coming around. "There is >a more positive response among them behind closed doors," says Johnson. >"Time will tell if they support it down the road publicly. We believe that >public sentiment is going to change their position." > >Johnson wants to make it safe for other public figures to say out loud what >they're whispering to him in private. "People are really fed up," he says. >"People absolutely, genuinely recognize it as crazy. And the taboo is that >you can't even talk about it." In the state of New Mexico, the taboo no >longer applies. > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: