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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom