LEGALIZED DRUGS ONLY WAY TO HALT CARTELS

As a retired federal officer with over three decades of service, many
of those years spent fighting America's "war on drugs," I was pleased
to read that the El Paso City Council unanimously called for a long
overdue discussion on the effectiveness of our nation's drug policies.

You might be surprised that a veteran anti-drug agent would be glad
the council specifically said drug legalization should be included in
this new national conversation.

But in my view, based on what I saw on both sides of the border over
my career, ending drug prohibition is the only sure-fire way to end
the cartel violence that is terrorizing El Paso's sister city of
Ciudad Juarez and others across Mexico.

The cartel leaders who control illegal drug production and
distribution never hesitate to kill each other, police or anyone who
stands in the way of their rich profits.

And the alarming increase in illegal drug-market violence Mexico has
seen over the last two years is because of -- and not despite --
President Felipe Calderon's ramped-up war against traffickers. As
top bosses are busted, others violently struggle to take their place,
and the cycle continues.

Only when we take away their profit margins by legalizing drugs will
the cartels' financial incentive for murder disappear.

It perplexes me that Mayor John Cook and other observers dismiss
outright the notion that we should even talk about ending
prohibition, as if not discussing it has fostered great results for us so far.

Keeping drugs illegal has meant spending over a trillion tax dollars
on enforcement, millions of people incarcerated in the U.S. and
virtually no impact on drug use rates since the war began in 1970.

And, just since the beginning of 2007, it has meant death for the
almost 7,000 people caught up in Mexico's drug trade violence. Some
of them were cartel members, but many were police, soldiers or
kidnapping victims.

We can no longer afford to avoid talking about whether or not the
"war on drugs" is working.

An Associated Press story on the El Paso resolution says discussing
drug legalization is a "tough sell to a newly minted Congress facing
the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and two wars."
But those factors make it all the more important we begin this
conversation, and urgently.

The fact is, ending prohibition will improve both our economy and
national security. Just as we legalized alcohol 75 years ago to help
dig our way out of the Depression and put gangsters like Al Capone
out of business, legalizing drugs today will save money and hurt
cartels' and terrorists' bottom lines.

Thankfully, more and more people are starting to realize this. Three
out of four Americans now say the "war on drugs" is a failure, and
they think legalization would be a better option than stopping drugs
at the border or eradicating drugs in their countries of origin,
according to a recent Zogby poll.

El Paso Councilman Beto O'Rourke should be applauded for paying
attention and noticing that not only is prohibition a failure, but
that voters are fed up with politicians' senselessly scared
silence. This important conversation can only begin when champions
like him speak first for the silent majority.

Federally, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., recently announced plans to create a
blue-ribbon commission to evaluate America's criminal justice and
drug policies that put so many of our citizens behind bars at such
great expense.

Hopefully, more public officials in El Paso, Washington, D.C. and
other American cities, as well as in Mexico and across the globe,
will join this important discussion.

There's a lot to say.