cannabisnews.com: Drug Czar Criticizes Governor Johnson 





Drug Czar Criticizes Governor Johnson 
Posted by FoM on October 02, 1999 at 09:43:08 PT
By Barry Massey, The Associated Press
Source: ABQ Journal
President Clinton's drug czar fired a barrage of criticism Friday at Gov. Gary Johnson for supporting the legalization of marijuana and heroin. Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Johnson's "actions serve as a terrible model for the rest of the nation." 
McCaffrey plans to visit New Mexico next week. "Sadly, Gov. Johnson does not understand that drugs aren't dangerous because they are illegal -- they are illegal because they are dangerous," McCaffrey said in a statement issued by his office in Washington, D.C. Johnson said Wednesday that he supported legalization of some drugs as a national policy but has no plans to propose legislation to make drugs legal in New Mexico. The governor, in a statement responding to McCaffrey, said they both want to reduce drug use but differ on how to do so. "His primary emphasis is on prohibition, interdiction and incarceration," Johnson said. "My emphasis would be on legalization, treatment and education." The criticism from McCaffrey came days before Johnson was to travel to Washington, D.C., to push ahead with his crusade for a national debate on drug policies. The governor is to appear Tuesday at a conference on drug policy reform sponsored by the libertarian Cato Institute, which advocates drug legalization. Johnson will meet with a college-student group in Washington on Tuesday as well as leaders of several organizations pushing for drug-policy changes. U.S. Attorney John Kelly invited McCaffrey to Albuquerque, where he will deliver a luncheon speech Thursday. Last month, McCaffrey sent a letter to Johnson urging the governor to reconsider his drug-policy campaign. Johnson, who has acknowledged using marijuana and cocaine in the 1970s, has stressed that he is not condoning drug use, especially by children. Johnson, a triathlete, does not drink alcohol or smoke. Saturday, October 2, 1999 Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999 Albuquerque JournalGovernor Gary Johnson's Home Pagehttp://www.governor.state.nm.us/Drug Chief Gives Cato Conference a Boost - 9/27/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3046.shtmlFederal Drug Czar Urges Johnson Policy Change - 9/23/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2986.shtmlGovernor Support Legalization of Heroin, Marijuana - 9/29/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3073.shtmlBeyond Prohibition - CATO Institutehttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3043.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on October 03, 1999 at 10:20:21 PT
Political checkers
Has anyone noticed the timing involved in all this?If McCaffrey thinks Johnson's position on drugs is so awful, why won't he meet with Johnson, face-to-face? He did the same thing with Bill Lockyer of California right after Prop15 and the elections. He'll have an excellant opportunity to do so when Johnson is at the Cato Institute. He could show up at Cato, and maybe we'd have a real good debate. Wouldn't cost him a bit in plane fare. Or can it be that he knows that to try to intimidate Johnson, as he so obviously did Lockyher, might prove politically hazardous?So, no. McCaffrey won't do that. Brave General that he is, he'll wait until Johnson is in Washington DC and then travel thousands of miles to Albuquerque and try to stir up stuff against Johnson there, when Johnson's not there to face him.For a General, McCaffrey has picked up on politician's habits pretty well. 
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Comment #2 posted by BigAb on October 03, 1999 at 06:54:23 PT:
McCaffry
 HEY GENERAL, just what kind of message is it YOU'RE SENDINGwhen you lie with every breath you can muster ???You are one bogus sack o bones and not only do we know it but the rest of the country does as well.......Go bark up another tree ol coon dog!
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on October 02, 1999 at 12:15:38 PT:
Related Article
The Times Record, Brunswick, Maine By Associated PressOctober 2, 1999The Times Record Brunswick, Maine Boston Globehttp://www.boston.com/Gary Johnson, the Republican governor of New Mexico, has gone where no other elected official of his rank has ever gone before. He announced that he supports the legalization of such drugs as heroin and marijuana not decriminalization, but legalization. He said his administration is not going to introduce legislation to legalize drugs in New Mexico. However, he supports a national policy of legalization that would allow government to tax, regulate and control drugs just as government does with alcohol and tobacco. Johnson maintains that the war on drugs is a failure and the billions spent annually in that war would be better spent stopping violent crime. It's probably too much to hope that elected officials in Washington will use Johnson's announcement as the springboard for an open-minded look at the nation's drug policy. Instead, they will likely do what they've done since the war on drugs was declared by President Nixon in 1971 talk tough. But if they were to take an honest look at the nation's policy of prohibition, they would have to conclude that it is a colossal failure. What Johnson proposes would take the profits out of the drug trade, a trade that brings fabulous wealth to the nation's drug lords. That would put the drug dealers and the drug gangs out of business, something law enforcement will never be able to do. More people might experiment with drugs, but given the ease with which drugs already can be obtained, the numbers likely would not be significant. The country took a wrong turn in the 1920s when it began turning drug use into a crime rather than a medical problem. Like the so-called ''noble experiment'' of Prohibition, drug prohibition has not worked. It has not stopped the flow of drugs into the country, and it is draining immense monetary and human resources that could be put to better use. The Herald News, Fall River,Mass. 
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