Pubdate: Mon, 02 Oct 2006
Source: Pueblo Chieftain (CO)
Copyright: 2006 The Star-Journal Publishing Corp.
Contact:  http://www.chieftain.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1613
Author: Nick Bonham
Cited: Amendment 44 http://www.safercolorado.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Amendment+44

DRUG EXPERT SAYS PROPOSED LAW WOULD INCREASE MARIJUANA USE

Tom Gorman, a former undercover narcotics detective  from California,
said drug use in America is on the  decline and voting to legalize an
ounce or less of  marijuana in Colorado would drive it back up.

Gorman, local director of the national High Intensity  Drug
Trafficking Area organization, brought that  message to Pueblo last
week.

Even though no one attended the night event at Pueblo  Community
College, Gorman, who now lives in Denver,  discussed with Pueblo
Police Chief Jim Billings what he  sees as the problems of Amendment
44 which seeks to  legalize possession of small amounts of pot.

"It's a bad law," Gorman said. "Drug use is down and  this could have
a reverse effect. I have spent my  career trying to comfort families
who have lost loved  ones in accidents and deaths from people who were
  stoned."

Even if Colorado voted to legalize pot, federal law  still classifies
the drug illegal. The problem with the  federal law, Gorman said, is
enforcement.

"Oh, we have federal law, but it's not going to be  enforced," Gorman
said. "The federal government doesn't  have the manpower. The DEA
deals with tons and kilos of  marijuana. They won't be able to enforce
on these  smaller amounts," of marijuana.

Gorman and Billings said that Pueblo is on law  enforcement's
drug-trafficking radar because of its  location on Interstate 25 and
its close proximity to  ever-growing Colorado Springs.

The last large drug bust came in Oct. 2004 when Pueblo  police played
a role in toppling an international drug  ring. Pueblo and Peyton,
near Colorado Springs, were  said to be hubs for a drug ring that
stretched from El  Paso, Texas, to Chicago and New York.

Code named Choque (Spanish for "crash"), the bust  confiscated 5,000
pounds of cocaine and $11 million in  suspected drug money from a
ranch in Peyton.  Twenty-nine federal indictments were handed out in
the  operation, lauded as one of the biggest drug  investigations of
that year.

Gorman said drug traffickers aren't the sole supporters  of Amendment
44.

"It's people who have a real liberal view, who want  government to
stay out of their life," he said.

According to a handout produced by Guarding Our  Children Against
Marijuana, drug use among teenagers is  down 20 percent from 2002, and
drug use has dropped  almost 50 percent from its popularity in the
1960s and  70s.