Ed. Note: The following is part of a recent blog entry giving the latest details on a fascinating local vs. federal battle over the question of whether or not we should have an open debate on the drug war, followed by a full article giving the full background to the story. Both pieces are from StoptheDrugWar.org

El Paso City Council Threatened With Funding Cuts for Proposing Drug Legalization Debate

by Scott Morgan

Merely discussing alternatives to drug prohibition is enough to incite threats from state and federal legislators:

After hours of discussion and almost 40 speakers from the public signed up to give their two cents, City Council members near-unanimously said they supported the resolution upon which they voted last week, but were swayed by threats from the El Paso legislative delegation and U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes.

 

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The five Texas House members of the El Paso delegation and Reyes had sent letters to El Paso City Council claiming that the resolution would be used against the city's efforts to secure funding. [Newpapertree.com]

The council finally and reluctantly surrendered, even though all they’d ever done was endorse "an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition of narcotics." It’s really an incredibly instructive moment in drug policy reform, as I can scarcely recall a moment in which our opponents have appeared so desperate and intimidated by the prospect of discussing changes in our drug policy.

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El Paso City Council Unanimously Calls for National Debate, Mayor Vetoes Resolution Same Day, Override Vote Set For Next Week

by Phillip S. Smith

Spurred by the unending prohibition-related violence tormenting Mexico, and in particular, Ciudad Juárez, El Paso's sister city on the other side of the Rio Grande, the El Paso City Council Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution that called for, among other things, "a serious debate" on drug legalization as a means of ending the violence. But Mayor John Cook, who sat silently through the council meeting, vetoed the resolution the same afternoon.

The battle isn't over. South-West city Rep. Beto O'Rourke announced Wednesday he would seek to override the veto at the council meeting this coming Tuesday. The resolution passed 8-0; he will need six votes to override.

Drafted by the city's Border Relations Committee, the resolution outlined 11 steps the US and Mexican governments can take to help El Paso's "besieged and beleaguered sister city." But O'Rourke proposed a 12th step -- which also passed unanimously -- an amendment calling on national leaders to "support an honest open national debate on ending the prohibition on narcotics." (See the draft resolution not including the amendment here.)

"We know the war on drugs is empowering the drug lords and is costing us millions of dollars," O'Rourke told his fellow council members. "Let's start an honest national debate that would end the prohibition of narcotics," he said, successfully urging them to support his amendment.

"It's a terrible situation that calls for a more dramatic solution than just asking for stepped up enforcement," O'Rourke said after the Tuesday meeting. "What I asked for today and the council approved was urging our representatives to have an honest, open dialogue about ending the prohibition on narcotics," he told the El Paso Times."I hope our congressman, Silvestre Reyes, and our US senators hear us loud and clear and have a very difficult and politically challenging debate, one that needs to happen. We can't continue the status quo; it's not working."

But El Paso's federal representatives may not hear the council's request loud and clear, because later Tuesday afternoon Mayor Cook issued his veto. "The action of council... undermines the hard work of the committee by adding new language which may affect the credibility of the entire resolution," he said in the veto. "It is not realistic to believe that the US Congress will seriously consider any broad-based debate on the legalization of narcotics," Cook added. "That position is not consistent with the community standards both locally and nationally."