GOVERNOR AGAIN EMBARRASSES NEW MEXICO

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the bookstore - well, sort of
safe - our very own governor not only puts his foot in his mouth, he puts
ours as well.

In a press release from Playboy - yes, Playboy - we are told that Gov. Gary
Johnson is the subject of the magazine's main question and answer article
for January.

While that alone may not be so bad, we don't think he learned history's
lesson. President Carter did such an interview and look what happened to him.

But we wonder if his choice of forums is the best idea.

His pro-drug "crusade" has become something of a bad joke. The governor has
toured the nation with his drug theory (at one point, it included
legalizing heroin) after an off-hand remark of his caught fire.

But if you look at his record, his actions do not follow his words.

He has vetoed every bill that proposed drug-treatment programs. He opposed
any changes in the way drug offenders are dealt with in the legal system.

All this as treatment options become less and drug offenders in jail become
more.

Anyway, what is bad is that he used this new forum - if you will - to
expound on the virtues of legalizing drugs, while never going into the flip
side.

He says things like smoking marijuana was kind of cool, drugs are not
harmful to everybody, not all drug users are criminals, we have the right
to make a free choice.

That is true. We do have the right to choose. But the question is choose
what? Society sets all kinds of limits. For example, it is a crime to
commit suicide.

Why? Is that not the ultimate "right."

The answer is in terms of what kind of society do we want to be.

If we make drugs legal, does that solve the problem of supply? If we are
not prepared to give anyone, anywhere, at anytime, whatever drug they want,
there will still be a black market - and thus crime - associated with drugs.

And if you do this, then do we not have to give away alcohol? Tobacco? Is
there a difference?

Is that the kind of society we want to be? Legalized cocaine and opium did
not work in Victorian England, and it will not work today.

We hope we do not want a society where we tell our children it is all right
to destroy our minds and our souls, something we must do if drugs are
handed out like candy.

Of course the pro-drug people say that will not happen. But if we are not
prepared to just give the stuff on demand, then making cocaine and heroin
legal will solve nothing.

The effort against drugs is a hard and costly one. But at its core is the
question of just who we want to be.

And we believe it is not a society where our children will be allowed to go
to opium dens.