WAR ON DRUGS UNDER FIRE (2 0f 2)

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