CITY COUNCIL: AMENDMENT ALTERED FOCUS OF RESOLUTION

City Council on Tuesday approved a resolution recommending steps to be
taken in quelling the violence in our sister city.

One catch: The 11-point resolution was amended by South-West city Rep.
Beto O'Rourke with a 12th step calling for the federal government to
seriously study the legalization of narcotics as part of the solution
to violence in Juarez. The resolution, with the amendment, received
8-0 council approval.

However, that amendment triggered a veto by Mayor John Cook. He said,
"The action of council ... undermines the hard work of the committee
by adding new language which may affect the credibility of the entire
resolution.

"It is not realistic to believe that the U.S. Congress will seriously
consider any broad-based debate on the legalization of narcotics. That
position is not consistent with the community standards both locally
and nationally."

At some point there probably will have to be a serious discussion --
on a federal level -- about the legalization of narcotics. When that
happens, it will be a withering, brutal and divisive debate. And no
matter what the outcome, many people will be angered.

But realistically, this local resolution isn't going to have much
effect either locally or nationally. We suspect that the feds couldn't
care less what the El Paso City Council thinks about legalization of
narcotics.

It is abundantly obvious that whatever drug-prevention efforts are
under way in Mexico are an abysmal failure. Something else is needed.

There are questions about whether Mexican officials, on local, state
and federal levels, are sincere in their efforts to clean up the drug
trade. Those efforts have been markedly ineffective.

It should be noted that council members said they're not advocating
for the legalization or use of illegal substances. And we believe that
they were making a good-faith effort to help unravel an incredibly
tangled and violent situation.

But we agree with the mayor when he said, "The whole purpose of the
resolution was to get national attention to the violence in Juarez.
After it was amended, the focus was placed instead on legalizing drugs
in the United States."