O'ROURKE'S PROPOSAL IS COMMENDABLE

I highly commend Councilman Beto O'Rourke for his proposal that our city
government should seek "E an honest, open, national debate on ending the
prohibition of narcotics."

Our mayor vetoed this proposal because he claimed that it was an "anomaly"
to the original resolution on solving border problems.

For me, Councilman O'Rourke's courageous, enlightened, farsighted proposal
made the rest of the resolution an anomalous regurgitation of old drug-war
strategy. It must have amused the drug cartels.

Councilman O'Rourke's subsequent failure to garner support for an override
of the mayor's veto stemmed from the feeble claims by U.S. Rep. Silvestre
Reyes and several state legislators that O'Rourke's ideas might cause
federal and state governments to cut off funds for El Paso. Some
councilpersons reacted to these claims by not voting against the mayor's
veto.

Thus, our nation's irrational drug policy careens down the same old roads
of failure because most of our politicians, ever mindful of their voters'
support, cower under the proscriptions mandated by the threat of political
retribution.

They dare never whisper "drug legalization" or criticize religions that
denounce legalizing drugs. They dare never open their minds to finding a
more efficacious cure for an old ailment.

Robert E. Lingle / West El Paso