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The El Paso City Council voted unanimously for a non-binding resolution asking the federal government of the United States of America to put on the table an honest and open discussion about the possibility of legalizing drugs. They suggested that this might greatly reduce the killings and criminality that are associated with the illegal drugs trade. Kind of like back when alcohol was illegal in America, and then was suddenly made legal again.
Personally I am strongly opposed to the use of alcohol, drugs, or tobacco. Also sugar, but that is a different story. When I was in college I certainly used my share of illegal drugs, and for much of my adult life I drank a little too much alcohol and was terribly addicted to tobacco. I now am pure as the driven snow having quit all of the above years ago. But at age 60 my body is suffering the permanent effects of years of abuse by these stupid substances.
I am anti-drug. I haven’t smoked pot or done any other illegal substances in the last 30 years. --BUT… -- I lived in The Netherlands (Holland) for 15 years.
In Holland you can go down to one of your neighborhood coffee shops. The waiter gives you a menu with all the kinds of pot and hashish they serve. You order and then proceed to get wasted. Sort of like in an American bar, but with marijuana instead of alcohol. Then when you leave if you wish you can “take out” some of the products they sell, much like at a Chinese take-out. And it is all completely legal. The Dutch even give free needles to the Heroin addicts!
The really strange part is that in Holland they have a much lower rate of drug addiction that we do in America. Also a much lower rate of AIDS, and coincidentally a lower rate of teenage pregnancy.
So the idea of at least openly and honestly talking about the subject does merit some genuine consideration. The idea of legalizing (and regulating and taxing) drugs is not as off-the-wall and crazy as it sounds.
The driving force behind the resolution was a young man named Beto O'Rourke, who is an El Paso City Council member. I don’t know Beto, but I knew his (deceased) father Pat very well. Pat was also into politics. Pat held various elected positions including the County Judge. He was really smart and was a lot of fun to hang around with. Pat was killed when a car ran over him and his bicycle.
This article is from the Austin-American Statesman newspaper in the Texas state capitol of Austin:
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“ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
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EL PASO — Concerns about the bloody drug war being fought just across the Mexican border led to a short-lived resolution Tuesday asking the federal government to consider legalizing drugs.
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Mayor John Cook vetoed the resolution hours after it was unanimously approved by the City Council.
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Beto O'Rourke, an El Paso City Council member, pushed the resolution that asked the U.S. government to start an "open, honest, national dialogue on ending the prohibition of narcotics."
"We think it should at least be on the table, and so far it hasn't," O'Rourke said.
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Cook called the request to look at legalizing drugs "unrealistic" and urged the council to adopt a broader resolution with other solutions.
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The council, which oversees a city of more than 600,000 people that is considered one of the safest U.S. cities of its size, had unanimously approved the request.
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The nonbinding resolution suggested that legalizing drugs in the United States could help curb a volatile and bloody drug war that claimed nearly 1,600 lives in Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, in 2008.”
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LINK: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/07/0107drugs.html
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