Gingrich’s Proposal to Execute Drug Smugglers Is Assailed

House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s proposal to execute drug smugglers is “another simplistic solution to a complex problem, with no potential for real impact,” President Clinton’s drug policy adviser said Monday.

“This proposal offered on the heels of the idea he gave last month to legalize drugs . . . shows that the Speaker will say and do anything except implement and fund the President’s comprehensive anti-drug strategy,” Lee P. Brown said in a statement.

At a football rally Saturday in Canton, Ga., Gingrich said mandatory executions for convicted drug smugglers would kill so many of them that it would curb the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. “Do it one by one, it’ll add up. If the word gets back that we’re serious and we’re actually implementing it, then it will have a very chilling effect on people bringing drugs into the U.S.”

He said he would introduce a bill to implement his proposal.

Brown called Gingrich’s idea “ill-conceived” and said the key to stemming drug abuse is stopping demand. He called on Gingrich to restore the money Congress has cut from the government’s drug-treatment and prevention programs.

In July, Gingrich told the Republican National Committee that the country ought to “quit playing games” and either vote to legalize now-illicit drugs or adopt penalties severe enough to get rid of them. In that speech, which Brown also assailed, Gingrich said those who import “commercial quantities, large quantities” of illegal drugs should get the death penalty.