Questions from Michael Coleman, Albuquerque Journal

COLEMAN: In the past two decades, Congress and many state legislatures have passed mandatory sentencing laws that force judges to hand out fixed sentences without parole to people convicted of certain crimes, including drug-related crimes. Is this good public policy? Why or why not?

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JOHNSON: This is not good public policy. The profile of a pusher today is not the drug kingpin. What we hear from the Status Quo is that we are out to catch the pushers; that we are out to catch individuals who sell drugs.

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JOHNSON: (cont) For the most part, people who are going to jail, the vast majority, are people that are selling drugs. But what we are failing to recognize is that these people who are selling drugs are just drug users who are selling some drugs in essence to pay for their own drug habits. This is the profile of the pusher in this country.

When you look at mandatory sentencing, you got felons that are out on release, out on parole, and they got some crack cocaine. They cut a little piece of that crack cocaine off and sell it to an undercover agent. Because of mandatory sentencing, they're now in jail for 15 or 20 years.

The social costs of this go way beyond just putting the person in jail. We are talking about families that get broken up, and then you get back to the basic premise here -- which I think needs to be really emphasized. If you are doing drugs in the confines of your own home, harming no one, arguably other than yourself, should that be against the law? Should you end up in prison as a result of doing that? I say no.

ROMERO: In Bernalillo County or New Mexico, there is not much mandatory sentencing except for second offense trafficers in a narcotic drug. If it is a second conviction, then there is a mandatory sentence. It is a first-degree felony. They will get a minimum of 12 years -- 18 years if the court does not mitigate that sentence.

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ROMERO: (cont) But to address a couple of other issues, you have to understand that people who are in jail, for mere possession again, constitute about 1.3% of people who are in jail nationwide. We do not have that many people, we do not have anybody in jail, that I am aware of, in New Mexico for just mere possession charges.

With regard to the amount of resources, the governor states that about $50 billion are being wasted on this drug effort. The truth is that this year $17.9 billion is being spent by the federal government. This amounts to less than 1% of the entire federal budget.

States and local governments are pushing an additional $16-17 billion. That accounts for about 1.5% of the state and local budgets. So I do not agree with the governor that we are spending half of our resources and half of our time putting people in jail merely for possession of drugs in their own homes. The reality is 93% of prisoners in prisons or in jail are either violent offenders, repeat offenders or drug trafficers.