Pubdate: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. U.S. DRUG CZAR ATTACKS LEGALIZATION CALL LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey Tuesday accused the governor of New Mexico of ignorance and irresponsibility in calling for the legalization of marijuana and heroin. Responding to Republican Gov. Gary Johnson's radical alternative to the ``expensive failure'' of the war on drugs, McCaffrey told reporters: ``I am astonished. Gov. Johnson in New Mexico is acting in an irresponsible manner. This is the same governor last year who vetoed a $2.6 million drug treatment program. ``Obviously the governor hasn't seen the nature of drug addiction in the same manner that drug treatment professionals in that state and law enforcement have encountered,'' said McCaffrey. Johnson, a 46-year-old triathlon athlete who admits having used drugs in college, said last week that legalizing drugs could be the best way to fight abuse. Saying his goal was to reduce drug use in United States, Johnson suggested that legalization would allow the government to regulate them as it does alcohol and tobacco. McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the number of heroin-related deaths in New Mexico had doubled the national average in recent years. ``The problem isn't that they (drugs) are illegal. The problem is that they are ferociously addictive and they make people act in a compulsive manner. They make them unemployable and they get them involved in permanently altered and impaired brain function. That's the problem with these drugs,'' McCaffrey said. ``In a democracy everyone is welcome to debate these notions. But if you are going to be a public official it seems to me you have to have informed and rational perspectives.'' McCaffrey was in Los Angeles to address an anti-drugs concert for school children and to meet Olympic champion Carl Lewis for talks on doping in sport. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake