The Little Brown Reader

“The bottom line is, I don’t fit the mold,” he says.

Mack wants Utah voters to punch his name on the 2004 gubernatorial ballot. But some politicos say the day a Libertarian takes office will be the day the Utah Legislature legalizes marijuana (insert Beavis laugh here).

Here’s the Libertarian platform in a nutshell: They are pro-constitution and antigovernment. They don’t like taxes. They favor open immigration. While they support the notion of national defense, they don’t like it when the United States pokes around in foreign affairs or goes to war without provocation. Most Libertarians, including Mack, oppose the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq. Party positions on some issues are still up for grabs, however, such as abortion and the legalization of drugs.

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Tall, dark, handsome but inherently dorky, Mack has come a long way since his early-’80s, undercover-cop days. In the tradition of Starsky & Hutch, Mack—posing as “Gary Layton”—busted junkies, intercepted drug deals and made the streets of Provo a little bit safer.

“Are you going to ask me if I smoked pot?” Mack asks. “Well, never illegally, but [while] undercover, yes.”

Mack went on to become sheriff of Arizona’s Graham County, where he formed a 5,000-member posse to “help with traffic matters and parades,” he says. While working as sheriff, Mack challenged federal gun-control legislation, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, that required local police to run background checks on potential gun owners. In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mack’s favor, striking down background checks. Later, he co-wrote a book about the experience, titled From My Cold, Dead Fingers.

During a University of Utah forum on legalizing marijuana, Mack told the story of his transformation from a DARE instructor and police officer to a constitutionalist who wants government off your back.