Posted on 01/12/2009 6:54:02 PM PST by Perdogg
On Tuesday afternoon El Paso Mayor John Cook vetoed a resolution unanimously passed by city council that would have asked the U.S. government to begin a serious debate on legalizing narcotics.
Earlier in the day city council passed a resolution, rationing that the best way to stop the drug wars in Juarez may be to legalize the drugs here in the United States. It was part of a larger resolution outlining several steps for the United States and Mexico to take in order to cut down on the number of murders between rival drug cartels. Last year more than 1,600 people were murdered in Juarez.
"We know that this drug war and this prohibition on drugs is enriching criminals to traffic in narcotics to these communities, which costs the narcotics teams in the U.S. and Mexico billions of dollars," said Councilman Beto O'Rourke, who added the "legalize drug debate" amendment to the already established resolution
(Excerpt) Read more at kdbc.com ...
ping
I have read that El Paso is well over 400 years old and has never had a Republican mayor. Anyone know if that is true?
Don’t know about a Republican mayor but my guess it never has had one...... Regarding age here is one historical claim.
http://www.desertusa.com/Cities/tx/tx_elpaso.html
In 1581 the first Europeans, Spanish conquistadores first found their way across the Rio Grande River into what is now the United States and named the passage El Paso del Rio del Norte (the pass through the river of the north). This area on the river had already been home to native cultures for many centuries. In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate colonized the area, officially naming it El Paso.
It has had a Republican Mayor, just not recently (Fred Hervey was one, but that was in the mid ‘70s).
Wasn’t Jonathan Rogers an R?
Rogers was considered one, and gave $$ support to them, although technically he was not elected as a Republican (the races were non-partisan) and refused to call himself one during his terms, apparently preferred “Independent Conservative.” He would’ve been the last, so it’s been over 2 decades. I didn’t check to see what Tilney (1991-93) was, but all others since Azar have apparently been Dems.
The war on drugs has been a sham just like the war on poverty. Neither have worked.
How long before the lefties in some city make it legal to smoke dope in places where tobacco is illegal?
“City council members realize it may be extreme to legalize drugs like heroin, but others like marijuana could make sense. Currently, marijuana accounts for 70 percent of the drugs coming across the border. “Any business will tell you, you take a 70 percent hit to your pocket book, you’re going out of business,” said Councilman Steve Ortega.”
Given that El Paso is a border city, is this just the Mexican drug cartels taking a lesson from the radical Muslims to try to use the USA laws against us?
-PJ
That doesn’t mean that percentage votes. A large number of those aren’t 18, and even those that are are not voting or registered. Total votes for Mayoral candidates is incredibly low for a city approaching three quarters of a million people (only 41k in the ‘05 election). I’ve been to El Paso and stayed there briefly, and I can say it’s an armpit. I remember seeing “The Getaway” with Steve McQueen that was shot there and when I went 20 years later in ‘92, the downtown was totally unchanged, looked like it was stuck in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. I remember my father suggested we drive over to Ciudad Juarez, I implied it’d be safer to play Russian Roulette with 5 bullets in the chamber.
The last thing the cartels want is for us to legalize any drugs. They make billions every year selling drugs to Americans, $13.8 billion according to the ONDCP, with about $8.6 billion of that coming from marijuana alone. Even if we just legalized marijuana it would be a major blow to them. The next most profitable drug for them is cocaine. They gross about $3.9 billion a year from that according to our government, but they're just the middlemen for the cocaine which must first be purchased and smuggled from South America. Marijuana is their real cash cow. If we take most of their money from them they'll be a shell of what they are today. The last thing they would want is for us to legalize any drugs, especially marijuana.
Why would drug cartels want drugs legalized in the US? It would cripple them.
Excellent idea, we definitely need that discussion, as the current war on some drugs has only sped up the destruction of the Constitution and the Republic.
Ping!!!!!
here is a real radical concept.... enforce the laws we already have!!!!
more like Vietnam, we never invaded the north
Yeah, that plan has been just such a great success and all.
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