DRUG EXPERT SAYS PROPOSED LAW WOULD INCREASE MARIJUANA USE

Tom Gorman, a former undercover narcotics detective from California,
said drug use in America is on the decline and voting to legalize an
ounce or less of marijuana in Colorado would drive it back up.

Gorman, local director of the national High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area organization, brought that message to Pueblo last
week.

Even though no one attended the night event at Pueblo Community
College, Gorman, who now lives in Denver, discussed with Pueblo
Police Chief Jim Billings what he sees as the problems of Amendment
44 which seeks to legalize possession of small amounts of pot.

"It's a bad law," Gorman said. "Drug use is down and this could have
a reverse effect. I have spent my career trying to comfort families
who have lost loved ones in accidents and deaths from people who were
stoned."

Even if Colorado voted to legalize pot, federal law still classifies
the drug illegal. The problem with the federal law, Gorman said, is
enforcement.

"Oh, we have federal law, but it's not going to be enforced," Gorman
said. "The federal government doesn't have the manpower. The DEA
deals with tons and kilos of marijuana. They won't be able to enforce
on these smaller amounts," of marijuana.

Gorman and Billings said that Pueblo is on law enforcement's
drug-trafficking radar because of its location on Interstate 25 and
its close proximity to ever-growing Colorado Springs.

The last large drug bust came in Oct. 2004 when Pueblo police played
a role in toppling an international drug ring. Pueblo and Peyton,
near Colorado Springs, were said to be hubs for a drug ring that
stretched from El Paso, Texas, to Chicago and New York.

Code named Choque (Spanish for "crash"), the bust confiscated 5,000
pounds of cocaine and $11 million in suspected drug money from a
ranch in Peyton. Twenty-nine federal indictments were handed out in
the operation, lauded as one of the biggest drug investigations of
that year.

Gorman said drug traffickers aren't the sole supporters of Amendment
44.

"It's people who have a real liberal view, who want government to
stay out of their life," he said.

According to a handout produced by Guarding Our Children Against
Marijuana, drug use among teenagers is down 20 percent from 2002, and
drug use has dropped almost 50 percent from its popularity in the
1960s and 70s.