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Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Drug Stance Defended

.....O'Rourke referred to the El Paso-Juarez metropolitan area as the largest bi-national community in the world and pointed out the murders in Juarez and the six drug-related kidnappings in El Paso as prove the war on drugs has failed. "This 40 year drug war is actually making things worse," he said, "it has not decreased the availability of drugs in the U.S."

When Sanchez pressed him on conditions in Juarez, O'Rourke responded by calling Juarez a failed city and added its mayor and city council members all live in El Paso.  "The drug cartels are literally in control of our sister city and the drug war is actually making them richer," said O'Rourke.

The city councilman went on to say he and many others in El Paso feel it is only a matter of time before drug-related violence destabilizes the Mexican government. "We'll have to face the prospect of a failed state," O'Rourke warned.

O'Rourke closed his argument by reminding Sanchez that El Paso is the third safest large city in the U.S. and many are just worried about some of the violence in Juarez crossing the border into the Sun City. "You'd be surprised at some of the positive feedback I have received," he said. "We want a different status quo. The current status quo is simply not working."

Near the end of the interview, Sanchez outlined two key points by a recent Harvard University study on the legalization of narcotics. The federal government would save $44 billion in law enforcement costs and collect an extra $33 billion by taxing narcotics if legalization became a reality, according to the study.

CNN

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It appears Mr. O'rourke has done his home work. Now in addittion to the 77 billion he talks about just think at the billions more that would be saved in the courts, cop cars, radio's, closing of prisons, and a lot more. Every state would be a big winner even after setting up some treatment centers and increased the availability of mental health centers. It seems the benefits would far out weight any so called loss of public safety. djw

Anonymous said...

Look at the horrible example of legalization of alcohol. It touches almost every family. The human cost is horrible of this "legal" drug. We, as a society, have to consider if we want to help others or if we want to turn our backs on them.
If we set levels for abuse on MJ, for example,that might help. However, for cocaine and heroin, those who take those drugs have little hope of recovery. These drugs WILL KILL YOU and unless there is a desire to correct the mental and physical abuse of these drugs, they will kill. We need to continue to jail the major distributors of these killers, but offer treatment to the poor souls caught in addiction to them.mpc

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