Pubdate: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 Date: 10/14/1999 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Author: Robert Markin 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