Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 2014 Associated Press Contact: http://www.denverpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122 Author: Jill Colvin, The Associated Press Page: 5A HOISTING "WAR ON DRUGS" FLAG N.J. Gov. Chris Christie states a mission for 2016. Trenton, N. J. (AP) - On no one's early list of issues likely to headline the 2016 Republican presidential primaries is the nation's "war on drugs." Chris Christie plans to put it there. The New Jersey governor, pushing himself back into the 2016 discussion after a political scandal at home, recently marked the 43rd anniversary of President Richard Nixon's famous declaration by expanding a program that equips first responders with a drug to combat heroin overdoses. The next day, he told recovering addicts at a drug treatment center that "there is simply no more important issue to me, in my heart as governor." "I have to struggle with fiscal problems and tax problems and job creation and health care and education, lots of other issues that are clearly important. And I'm not trying to minimize those," Christie said. "But you need to understand that as a father, there's nothing more important to me than this." It might sound like a peculiar topic for a blue state Republican governor to claim as a signature issue ahead of a potential presidential bid, but Christie could find a receptive audience for his message. A few states are experimenting with decriminalizing marijuana. There's a nationwide boom in heroin abuse. Also, several Republican governors have embraced prison and sentencing reform as a money saver. "I think what 10 years ago was perceived as largely an urban problem has become a national problem," said Steve Duprey, New Hampshire's former Republican state chairman and a current member of the Republican National Committee. "It is a big issue." In an early test of the message before GOP activists, Christie won applause at a Washington conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group led by longtime Christian activist Ralph Reed, as he made the case for treatment instead of incarceration. Christie compared the issue of addiction to that of abortion. "I believe if you're pro-life, as I am, you need to be pro-life for the whole life," he said."You can't just afford to be pro-life when the human being is in the womb." Christie's history with drug policy dates to his first elected position in county government 20 years ago, when he was assigned to oversee human services and wound up working with Daytop New Jersey, an addiction treatment center. He joined the group's board and has been personally contributing and steering state money to fund its operations ever since. Christie isn't an advocate of the same kind of sweeping changes to the nation's drug laws as those on the left who share his opinion the war on drugs is a trillion-dollar "failure." While he has expanded the use of drug courts in New Jersey and pushed through a measure forcing individuals arrested for minor drug offenses to complete drug-treatment programs, the former U.S. attorney remains opposed to the legalization of marijuana. "For him to say that he believes that the war on drugs has failed and then to also believe that people should continue being prosecuted and criminalized for nonviolent offenses like simple possession of marijuana for personal use, ... there's this inherent inconsistency," said Udi Ofer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. Christie is undeterred by such criticism. He said he thinks his position will "play well" in other states. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom