Jaime O. Perez’s Response To Proposal By Civic Leaders To Legalize Marijuana

Editor’s Note: Jaime O. Perez, El Paso County Chief of Staff and candidate for El Paso County Judge, has released the following opinion piece in opposition of those El Paso civic leaders advocating a revamping of the country’s marijuana laws.

Marijuana Madness By Jaime O. Perez

A guest column by well-known members of the progressive regime in El Paso: Oscar J. Martinez, Kathy Staudt, Susie Byrd, Beto O’Rourke and Steve Ortega, suggests that U.S. consumption of drugs “plays an overwhelming role in fueling the violence in Jurez and elsewhere in Mexico and that illicit cash and arms flows from the United States into Mexico play a direct and powerful role in sustaining the cartels and in fomenting the massive killing of people in (Juarez).”

It further suggests that “the U.S.’s 40-year War on Drugs has been a dismal social, economic and policy failure.”

To solve these intractable problems, their prescription is simple. The U.S. must engage –

1. ?An aggressive U.S. national educational campaign that encourages people to refrain from the use of illegal drugs;”

2. “U.S. drug policy initiatives that do not result in wasting government funds and wind up empowering criminal gangs and trafficking organizations.”; and

3. ?Repeal of the ineffective U.S. marijuana drug laws in favor of regulating, controlling and taxing the production, distribution, sale and consumption of marijuana by adults (over 17).”

Their goal is simple, to legalize marijuana because they assume that once marijuana is legal and 70 percent of the profits from it are captured by the U.S. government instead of by cartels, the violence in Mexico will stop.

The logical leap is astounding.

How will violence in Mexico be quelled by INCREASING demand for drugs in the U.S.? They do not explain.

How will violence in Mexico be quelled by limiting demand to heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine? They do not explain.

How will violence be quelled in Mexico by praying for peace? They do not explain.

How will demand by those under 17 be controlled when more adults over 17 have access to marijuana? They do not explain.

The fact is that northern Mexico is no longer being governed by Mexico City. It has become a no man’s land of cartel spheres of influence. The nation has suffered a de facto implosion and no matter what the U.S. does, it will not get better any time soon.

The solution can come only with a bi-national approach to securing the U.S. borders that may necessarily include a militarization of the border and expulsion of those citizens in this country without permission; and a bi-partisan re-tooling of national drug policy.

Warmest Regards,

Jaime O. Perez