Former governor to speak in SUB on drug legalization

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson has favored legalization of marijuana since he held office before Bill Richardson.

Johnson, a Republican, was an advocate for drug policy reform and decriminalization of marijuana while he served as governor from 1994 to 2002. Johnson and former U.S. Marshall Matthew Fogg will speak in the Lobo Room of the SUB at 7 p.m. today.

The event is sponsored by the New Mexico branch of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and the UNM chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy.

Tom Angell, spokesperson for LEAP, said former Gov. Johnson is one of a growing number of politicians who support the legalization of marijuana.

“Gov. Johnson is just one of many prominent elected officials who are speaking out against the war on drugs and calling for new options like legalization,” Angell said. “As evidenced by any number of recent news articles and stories, more and more people are speaking out about this just in the last few months, but Gov. Johnson has been speaking out on this issue for a long time, ever since he was the sitting governor of New Mexico.”

SSDP spokesman Win Hansen said his organization favors decriminalization of marijuana as a way to reduce the harm suffered by drug users in America.

“We have just been trying harder and harder and harder to enforce our prohibition laws for the past 30 years, or since the inception of the war on drugs,” he said.

“And all we’ve seen is an increase in drug use in our society and an increase in the people who are punished and suffer for drug use in our society.”

Hansen said legalizing marijuana would offer many societal benefits, including financial benefits to taxpayers and the state.

“As taxpayers, we pay $35,000 a year for every one of these people we put in jail. So we save that money,” he said. “If we make it legal, and we tax it, we get the tax income from it. (And) if you look at projected revenues for tax benefits from marijuana, you’re looking at billions of dollars.”
College Republicans spokesman Eric McInteer said legalizing marijuana has benefits and drawbacks.
“I look at things from two different perspectives. First off, I’ve seen lots of young people make poor decisions in their lives, and they don’t seem very driven to succeed, and what they do is they constantly get high,” he said. “However, if we’re talking about decriminalization, there’s two things I’d want to see happen before I’d support that. First off, I’d like to see support from local law enforcement, and, second, I would also like to see how much money it would save taxpayers.”
John Steiner, a health educator at the Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention, said the organization does not have an official position on marijuana legalization.
“I think it’s a very individual thing. There are some students who can use marijuana without experiencing very much in the way of negative consequences from that use,” Steiner said. “Our position at COSAP, or the way we do business, is to never try to demonize anything in particular — be it alcohol or drugs.”
Hansen said that on top of
freeing taxpayer money and reducing the number of people in jail, marijuana legalization is important for people who want to use it for medicinal purposes.
“A lot of people are in situations where marijuana is an effective medicine for them. They’re in a lot of pain. They can’t eat. For whatever reason, they need drugs, and a lot of the time, marijuana is that (drug),” he said. “So, it’s also kind of a conscious, ethical thing: We’re giving them the help that they need.”