The most fascinating aspect of the Chronicle Oct. 10 article about New
Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is the way his critique of the war on drugs
has panicked both the national Republican Party and drug czar, Gen.
Barry McCaffrey ("N.M. governor's drug stand stirs furor"). If the war
on drugs, in its current form, is both necessary and wise, who cares
what one maverick governor mutters about it? But that's a big if.

But if the point of the war on drugs is to imprison historically
unprecedented numbers of mostly non-white Americans, to guarantee the
growth of and profit for the prison-industrial complex and to turn
America into a police-state of ignored and forgotten constitutional
rights, Gov. Johnson's critiques certainly can't be tolerated. There's
far too much at stake.

Robert Markin,
Houston