A U.S. Border Patrol agent fired his service weapon at several alleged drug smugglers who were throwing rocks at him and another agent. The incident happened at around 7 p.m. Monday near the B&M International Bridge in Brownsville, said Border Patrol spokeswoman Rosalinda Huey. The agents were patrolling when they encountered several people who appeared to be carrying bundles of marijuana, authorities said. When the agents confronted the individuals, they began throwing rocks at the agents, Huey said. [continues 143 words]
EDINBURG - Five Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office employees are no longer employed after an internal investigation. Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino announced the four terminations and resignation in a news release Monday morning. The dismissals come after a round of drug tests at the Sheriff's Office. Citing privacy concerns, Trevino would not confirm the five employees failed drug tests. Sources familiar with the situation said the deputies had failed their drug tests. Deputy Amando Guerra resigned amid the internal investigation. Deputy David Ortiz was terminated. [continues 282 words]
Sentenced to several years in state prison for a drug conviction, Graciano Castaneda instinctively knew he needed to belong to a group to survive the prison system, which he described as a dangerous society for those that enter alone. Castaneda, who spent eight year in prison in the 1990s for two drug convictions, had an older brother in the Mexican Mafia, a notorious prison gang. Later in his life, he would lose the mother of his children to the Mexican Mafia. A high-ranking member of the gang ordered her murder. [continues 1202 words]
Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Sam Hurd was arrested last week on federal drug charges for dealing a large amount of drugs in the Chicago,Ill., area. One of Hurd's contacts, who met with informants, was employed at a business in Coppell. Hurd's contact, who goes by the name of T.L., is a co-conspirator, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to court documents, T.L. was employed at a repair shop in Coppell and conducted deals with informants multiple times in Coppell over a five-month period. [continues 432 words]
Re: Dec. 8 Suzanne Wills commentary, "We lost the war on drugs." This commentary is a wonderful summation of all the ills caused by the so-called war on drugs. I am a Christian, a retired prison chaplain and the mother of a son who has had a long battle with drugs. I can speak from very close and personal experience. It is bad enough when a loved one is already a victim of what he thought was something good, but to be treated as a criminal because of it adds insult to injury. Between 85 and 90 percent of Americans claim to be Christians. When are those people going to wise up and realize that the drug war is destroying our youth far more than the drugs? We have created the drug cartels just as Prohibition created the mafia. Please keep running this kind of article. Maybe bit by bit some will listen. Martha J. Walker Mjreklaw@aol.com Leander [end]
Re: Dec. 8 Suzanne Wills commentary, "We lost the war on drugs." Thanks American Statesman for publishing this timely, enlightened commentary. It is morally bankrupt to punish nonviolent adults for making a safer health choice, cannabis or marijuana, compared to other legal medicinal or social drugs. Regulate cannabis like alcohol and tobacco or just reclassify it as the herbal supplement it is scientifically. The people believe in self-government and self-medication. Less than 1 percent of Americans are actually addicted to anything illegal. Incarceration costs seven times treatment. Restore public and law enforcement safety. Change to ethical policy and show fiscal responsibility. Use resources to catch more violent and sexual predators, or incarcerate people who are morally bankrupt, selling drugs to children or driving intoxicated. Save lives instead of ruining them. Restore justice, the guardian of liberty. Colleen McCool info@mccoolportraits.com Stephenville [end]
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK - The bloody drug war in Mexico shows no sign of relenting. Neither do calls for tighter border security amid rising fears of spillover violence. This hardly seems a time the U.S. would be willing to allow people to cross the border legally from Mexico without a customs officer in sight. But in this rugged, remote West Texas terrain where wading across the shallow Rio Grande undetected is all too easy, federal authorities are touting a proposal to open an unmanned port of entry as a security upgrade. [continues 1180 words]
Two associates of a Gulf Cartel "plaza boss" pleaded guilty to giving false statements to federal agents, according to court documents. Francisco Javier Escalante Jimenez and German Alejandro Huizar Marroquin appeared in federal court Tuesday morning, and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement in exchange for leniency in sentencing, the plea agreement states. Authorities arrested the men in Port Isabel this October with Rafael Cardenas Vela, an alleged Gulf Cartel leader in Matamoros. A federal grand jury returned an indictment in November that alleged Jimenez and Marroquin lied to U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents about the true identity of Cardenas Vela, who is accused of managing drug distribution cells for the Gulf Cartel. [continues 288 words]
Beginning next spring, all of Denison Independent School District's athletes will be tested for drug use, but district officials stressed that the purpose of the policy is not punitive. "We want to give (students) a reason to say no to the peer pressure that they face on a daily basis," Assistant Superintendent George Hatfield said to the board on Tuesday. The board voted unanimously - with Vice President Bruce Hysmith and member Doug Holzbog absent - to approve the policy. The policy will require all 7th through 12th grade athletes and cheerleaders and their parents to consent to testing before the students can participate in the activities. Initially everyone in the programs will be tested. Then 7th grade, 9th grade, and all new athletes must take an initial drug test. Additionally, every six weeks, a random group of students, between 5 and 20 percent, will be tested. Once a student tests positive, that student will be tested every six weeks for a year. [continues 451 words]
The Denison School Board will likely at its board meeting on Tuesday set in motion the start of construction at Hyde Park, Lamar and Mayes elementaries. With the drawings done, the board will at 6:30 p.m. consider guaranteed maximum prices for these schools. The meeting will be in the Board Room, 1201 S. Rusk Ave. The prices will be the absolute most the district can expect to pay for the projects. Meeting documents state that the actual guaranteed maximum prices will be distributed at the meeting with a recommendation provided then. [continues 238 words]
Grayson County Sheriff's Office is awaiting the final toxicology results regarding the death of Eric Del Hand, 26, who died at a local hospital Wednesday after being transported there from the Grayson County Jail. Sheriff's Office Sgt. Rickey Wheeler said that Mr. Hand had been arrested by Denison police at 7:15 p.m. on outstanding warrants and taken to the Denison city jail. He was transferred to the Grayson County Jail at 8:39 p.m. Wednesday. There, he was placed in a holding cell until 9:30 p.m., when the jail corrections officers began the booking process. [continues 277 words]
BONHAM - The Fannin County Sheriff's Office was still searching late Saturday for a man who escaped custody last Wednesday. Fannin County Sheriff Donnie Foster reported that [name redacted], 33, managed to climb through the back-seat window on a patrol car after being handcuffed and placed under arrest. Foster said officials believe the suspect possibly ran to a nearby residence and may have been taken from that area in a vehicle, thereby avoiding the tracking dogs. The Sheriff's Office narcotics investigators obtained and executed a search and arrest warrant on a home in Bonham, with the help of Bonham police, which had been the target of a narcotics investigation. Foster said the suspect, a woman, and two toddler-age children were home. The search uncovered a cache of marijuana, cash, and a handgun and a large amount of ammunition, which Foster said is indicative of drug distribution. [continues 182 words]
HUNTSVILLE -- The use, manufacturing and selling of methamphetamines is the latest drug epidemic to plague this country and like it is in a lot of areas, there is a growing problem in Walker County. Meth, as it is known on the streets, is a psychoactive drug that increases alertness, concentration, energy and could enhance euphoria. It is highly addictive and easy to make, which are two of the reasons as to why it is becoming increasingly popular for both users and dealers. [continues 877 words]
Ex-Inmate Describes Seeing Corruption, Killing, Beatings A U.S. citizen from the El Paso area, recently freed from a Mexican prison in Ciudad Juarez, said he witnessed government corruption, heard the killing of a gang leader by federal police, and personally watched a controversial police chief beat inmates with a two-by-four. The firsthand account by Shohn Huckabee, 24, provides a rare view into life behind bars and reaffirms allegations made by thousands of Mexican prisoners, whose complaints often go nowhere. The allegations also raise questions about how much Mexico has done to improve its weak judicial system, one of the goals of U.S. aid under the Merida Initiative. [continues 1050 words]
When President Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration by executive order 40 years ago, the promise was a diminishing market for illegal drugs and a decrease in crime and violence. The reality has been much different. In the early 1970s very few Americans had ever used an Illegal drug. Now nearly half of us have. Illegal drugs are available to anyone willing to pursue them. The violence in producing countries in Central and South America and transit countries such as Mexico and the Caribbean has increased to the point that it threatens the stability of some governments. [continues 611 words]
For the past few days, a Texas Department of Public Safety task force has been in Grayson and Cooke counties to assist the locally-assigned troopers with traffic enforcement. One of the results is the arrest of a Tulsa man on a charge of money laundering. DPS Trooper Mark Tackett said that troopers stopped 37-year-old Stephen Chappelle on a traffic violation. Chappelle was going south on U.S. Highway 75 about 1:20 p.m. Wednesday. During the traffic stop, troopers became suspicious, or as Tackett put it, "noticed something was not right." They asked for consent to search the vehicle, and Chappelle denied that request. So, the troopers used a specially-trained police dog who conducted an open-air search around the vehicle and indicated there was something not right. [continues 143 words]
The international drug trade has always had a currency problem. The more aggressive an illicit organization becomes at moving narcotics into the U.S., the more cash it accumulates. At some point, all those dollars have to be processed or the business chokes on its own sordid success. Federal investigators for years have employed the old dictum - follow the money - but with a twist. At some point in the hunt for the really bad guys at the top, agents sometimes become custodians of the cash, picking it up in great bundles, depositing it in accounts and then watching as the drug underworld moves the millions earned on the streets. [continues 395 words]
In 1913, El Paso became one of the first cities to ban marijuana. Other communities soon followed suit, and by 1937 the drug was banned by the federal government. The drive to prohibit marijuana was not motivated by efforts to reduce dependence, improve health outcomes or alleviate criminal activity in the general population. Its prohibition has a much more dubious provenance in the fears and prejudices that accompanied growing Mexican migration at the beginning of the 20th century. That march towards marijuana prohibition has helped create a lucrative marijuana economy. Mexican drug cartels smuggle many things into the US, but marijuana is the most profitable portion of the cartel's portfolio. Marijuana has the larger customer base with the most stable demand and steady prices. And, the Mexican cartels own the value of the marijuana from farm to market. [continues 303 words]
Regarding "Rare public divide between police, DA" (Page A1, Wednesday), cheers for Pat Lykos and her efforts to move Houston law enforcement toward a more productive use of time and money. National polls for decades have shown the general public wants more attention paid to violent crime, drunk drivers, child abusers and the like, as opposed to arrests of people not shown to have harmed anyone but who simply possessed minor amounts of illegal drugs. Most of these arrests are for marijuana, a drug that is not only much less dangerous than alcohol, but one that tends to suppress the violent behavior more strongly correlated with alcohol than with any other drug. [continues 268 words]
FORT WORTH -- Struggling economies, drug violence along the U.S./Mexico border and immigration are great challenges vexing today's global leaders and young people must step from the sidelines to become future pioneers with solutions, former Mexican president Vicente Fox told hundreds of high school and college students Wednesday at Texas Christian University. "Today, it's time for leaders," Fox told a crowd that included high school students from across North Texas. "You will have to build that future that is coming." [continues 538 words]
HIDALGO, Texas - Clyde knows a thing or two about men hiding. If there's someone squatting in the bush near the Rio Grande, the 5-year-old gelding will prick up his ears, give a snort and stop in his tracks, despite gentle rib kicks from his rider. If people make a run for the river, he'll crash through brush and branches after them. Or he could be quiet as a breath and walk right up to a circle of unsuspecting smugglers. [continues 786 words]
Re: Nov. 19 Arnold Garcia column, "Effects of Mexican drug war lasting, far-reaching." Garcia's description of the bleak situation caused by criminal violence in Mexico is accurate as far as he goes. He fails to name the reason for the situation - global drug prohibition - or the solution - replace that policy with drug regulation and destroy the cartels' monopoly. A number of Latin American leaders are not so reticent. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is outspoken in calling for legalization and regulation of all drugs. [continues 78 words]
The high walls of Alexander Estates, an affluent development nestled near this border city's country club and golf course, were supposed to keep the narcotics world at bay. But when federal agents raided the stately home of a downtown perfume salesman in January, it reinforced a notion that is feared by Texas leaders: The drug war spillover from Mexico is much broader than shootouts and kidnappings -- it is cloaked in the seemingly routine business transactions of the border economy. Neighbors stood, mouths agape, as federal agents seized loads of cash from the home of Vikram Datta, a polite family man who acquaintances said was so concerned with the quality of Laredo schools that he moved his teenage daughters back to their native New York. Federal agents leveled an accusation that shocked other residents: that Datta, 51, was a major player in the Black Market Peso Exchange, a decades-old system of laundering drug money and reinvesting it back into the economy. [continues 1383 words]
In recent years, small-town police and prosecutors along smuggling corridors in Texas have had a field day seizing the assets of motorists accused of drug-related offenses. We don't quibble with vigorous law enforcement - except when the pursuit of money overtakes justice as the main goal. In Shelby County and the town of Tenaha, southeast of Tyler, seizure practices have crossed way over the line. Now a federal investigation could land District Attorney Lynda Kaye Russell and other officials in court to answer for questionable practices that had the effect of encouraging drug traffickers while striking fear into the law-abiding public. [continues 387 words]
Re: "Mexico: Failed State?" Sunday Letters. Almost all of Sunday's letters to the editor about the Mexican drug war blamed either U.S. drug consumers or Mexican institutions without posing a reasonable solution. The fact of the matter is that only a permanent altering of the economics of the drug trade can lead to an opening for Mexico to reform itself. Taking marijuana out of the black market, regulating it and taxing it similar to alcohol would be a big blow to the cartels. Experts have said that 50 percent to 70 percent of the cartels' funding comes from marijuana, and Anthony Coulson, a former DEA special agent and supporter of the war on drugs, stated that if the U.S. were to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana, it would cause the cartels' infrastructure for trafficking hard drugs to collapse. In short, with 50 percent of Americans now in support of legalization, it's time for us to put the cartels out of business permanently. Bryan Milward Richardson [end]
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Helicopter Crashed Tuesday Near the Mexican Border While Supporting the Chase of a Pickup Truck Carrying Marijuana in South Texas, Officials Said. A pilot and observer were hospitalized for observation, but there were no serious injuries, CBP spokeswoman Gina Gray said. The crash occurred in a rural area south of San Juan and Alamo surrounded by farm fields, though the crash site appeared to be a small landfill. Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers restricted access to the site, but the white belly of the customs helicopter could be seen as it rested on its side in the distance. [continues 244 words]
Re: "A Border War of Words - Flawed study on narco-violence a disservice," Sunday Editorials. Thank you for pointing out the gross errors and exaggerations in the Texas Department of Agriculture's report on violence along the Texas/Mexico border. Baseless, alarmist propaganda got us into the drug war. Calm, unbiased, accurate information is essential if we are to get out. Suzanne Wills Drug Policy Forum of Texas Dallas [end]
Austin Homicides Up; Everything Else Down Tracking the national average, violent crimes reported to Austin police in 2010 decreased by 6% from the previous year. It was the fourth year in a row that violent crime has decreased nationally. Property crimes in Austin - burglary, larceny, and auto theft - also decreased last year, by roughly 4.6%, outpacing the national decline of 2.7%. That said, Austin saw a big spike in murder in 2010 - from 22 in 2009 to 38 in 2010, a 72% increase. [continues 186 words]
This week we've got lots of news from the feds (none of it particularly good), new drug laws on the books in Texas, and the connection between Facebook and crack. Lets get to it. Among the hundreds of new Texas laws that went into effect Sept. 1 are the state's new drug crackdowns. Specifically, the ban of both not-pot - - the synthetic marijuana mimicker known as "K2" or "Spice" - and the powdery stimulant known as a "bath salts." Possession - or manufacture or sale - of either can now net you a hefty prison term: Indeed, possession of less than a gram can earn up to two years in a state jail; possession of up to four grams can turn up to 10 years in the pen; possession of between four and 400 grams can get you up to 20 years; more than 400 grams can net you life in the clink. [continues 1253 words]
SEGUIN - The Seguin Police Department says Kush is no longer available as an over-the-counter marijuana and they are cracking down on the sales of the synthetic drug. "It is a synthetic form of marijuana that has been placed on the DEA's (Drug Enforcement Administration) list of banned substances," said Seguin Police Chief Kevin Kelso. "Up until that point it was kind of a legal marijuana, so folks were buying and stores were selling it like hotcakes because it was legal to buy. [continues 476 words]
Citing federal interference, the legislature has exempted Texas from federal energy standards regarding light bulbs. Texas State Rep. George Lavender hopes incandescent light bulb manufacturers will move to Texas and create jobs and tax revenue. In contrast, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, says he will not give U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's "Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011" a hearing. This is a pure states' rights bill. It makes no new law. According to Harvard economist Jeffery Miron, Texas spends $644,477,000 every year enforcing federal marijuana prohibition and loses potential tax revenue of $171,430,000. Where are conservative principles when we need them? Suzanne Wills Dallas [end]
Last year, after more than two decades of debate, Congress finally addressed a gross disparity in sentencing for crimes involving different types of cocaine, crack and powder. Now, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has adopted federal sentencing guideline revisions that would allow thousands of convicted drug offenders to petition for reduced prison terms. It's not a universally popular move, but it's a revision that makes sense. The federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine were well-intentioned but turned out to be an overreaction to drug-related violence in the mid-1980s. Lawmakers, concluding that crack was far more dangerous than the powered form of the drug, made mandatory minimum sentences for crack 100 times higher than those for powder. [continues 536 words]
Fighting an exhausting, expensive war with little progress to show draws into question the strategy and wisdom of continuing the fight. So it goes with this nation's most wearisome and longest-declared war: the war on drugs. This month is the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's famous call for a national offensive against drug abuse, which he called "public enemy number one." It often feels like the enemy is winning. The reasons are many. Despite estimates that the war has cost up to $1 trillion, use of illicit drugs is holding steady or showing sharp increases in different groups. In the past 20 years, a national study found, illicit drug use has been climbing among all ages of young people. [continues 374 words]
In reply to Greg Sagan's opinion column on June 14 ("Anger, fear spur prison building boom"), I thank Sagan for having the courage to speak out against the war on drugs. The war on drugs has been going on for decades and it is not working. While it is failing, it also is ruining a lot of lives. This war is waged against our own citizens. Drug abuse is and will always be a real problem in our society, but treating the addicted like criminals does not help. Some drugs like marijuana, alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine can be used responsibly and people should retain, or in the case of marijuana regain the right to use these drugs for recreation or spiritual purposes. [continues 88 words]
Even As It Works to Beef Up Security, the U.S. Government Is Turning Up Hundreds of Agents WHO May Already Be Compromised WASHINGTON -- He was an ambitious drug smuggler with ties to a Mexican cartel; she a newly minted U.S. Border Patrol agent wooed into a romance with the trafficker. "I asked her if she wanted to hang out with me, and she said yes," recalled Diego Esquivel, who, according to court testimony, hoped to start smuggling more lucrative shipments on his own. "I asked her what I could do to avoid being caught. ... She provided information." [continues 825 words]
Regarding "Hard stuff; Get real about dealing with illegal drugs" (Page B11, Tuesday), don't look to the Obama administration for change. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy immediately rejected the high-profile Global Commission on Drug Policy call for reform and defended the "balanced drug control efforts" of the federal government. These so-called balanced efforts have given the land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world. Prohibition-related violence has caused upward of 35,000 deaths in Mexico over the past four years. Despite criminal penalties, the U.S. has higher rates of drug use than European Union countries like Portugal that have decriminalized. With national debt soaring, we can no longer afford to throw good money after bad drug policy. Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C. [end]
Our last national commission on drug abuse was in 1973, and it begged us to "redirect" a strategy built on "incorrect assumptions." This commission is the means to assessment and accountability that we should have done ourselves long ago. We have reaped the whirlwind of dogged persistence in the face of miserable failure. Jerry Epstein, president, Drug Policy Forum of Texas [end]
Regarding "Hard stuff; Get real about dealing with illegal drugs" (Page B11, Tuesday), the emperor has no clothes. Thank you for your editorial praising the report of the Global Commission on Drugs. That commission, whose membership included some of the most conservative Republicans from recent administrations, showed what almost everyone knows but is afraid to mention: The 40-year-old War on Drugs is a costly and destructive failure. It's time to strip this tired old fraud bare and look for better ways to deal with the problems of drug misuse. [continues 87 words]
My congratulations on a good first effort to change our staggeringly stupid drug laws. I am not your most likely fan, being Republican, mostly Libertarian, and quite conservative. What may be reassuring to you is that your fans in this effort are not just liberals. Many of my friends, who generally think about the same way as I do politically, are sick of the waste and terrible damage these laws are creating. I would love to see a really comprehensive poll of how the ordinary citizen feels. It might be a surprise. President Fox's comments are also a good start. ("Fox didn't mince words," Page B6, May 11). Harry Dunn, Houston [end]
The quote from the Global Commission on Drug Policy states the obvious solution quite well, i.e., that governments must end the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others. There was no way to fight a successful war on drugs, just as there was no way the constitutional amendment on prohibition of alcohol could be successful. Now is the time for the U.S. to decriminalize drugs, just as we decriminalized alcohol in 1933 through repeal of Prohibition. [continues 84 words]
Following the release of the report from the Global Commission on Drugs, the U.S. drug czar's office sought to challenge the intellect of current and former presidents of foreign nations as well as esteemed U.S. officials with the response that these high-echelon leaders from around the world were "misguided." The drug czar and his fellow drug war addicts must find the courage to debate this issue in an open, public venue. The Chronicle, by way of their editorial, has hastened the arrival of that glorious day. Thank you! Dean Becker, Houston [end]
When David Simon, creator of HBO's late dramatic crime series The Wire, heard through news media that Atty. Gen. Eric Holder wanted to see the series return for a sixth season, he offered the nation's top prosecutor a deal. He'll start working on a sequel season, Simon responded in an email to the Times of London, "if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanizing drug prohibition." Holder was not available for comment, but it's a safe bet that Simon's deal asks too much of the Obama administration. Despite its declarations to the contrary, Team Obama appears to be stuck in the same old 40-year-old rut better known as the "war on drugs." [continues 622 words]
Union Pacific Refuses To Pay, Says It's Unable To Stop Smugglers EL PASO, Texas - A border security program to X-ray every train rolling into the country has prompted as much as $400 million in fines against U.S. railroads, which are held responsible for the pungent bales of marijuana, tight bundles of cocaine, and anything else criminals cram into the boxcars and tankers as they clickety-clack through Mexico. Union Pacific, the largest rail shipper on the U.S.-Mexico border and the largest recipient of fines, refuses to pay what now amounts to more than $388 million in fines, up from $37.5 million three years ago when the screening began. [continues 276 words]
Way This Nation Has Fought War On Drugs Is Nothing To Celebrate, Says Clarence Page When David Simon, creator of HBO's late dramatic crime series "The Wire," heard that Attorney General Eric Holder wanted to see the series return for a sixth season, he offered the nation's top prosecutor a deal. He'll start working on a sequel season, Simon responded in an email to the Times of London, "if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanizing drug prohibition." [continues 665 words]
When David Simon, creator of HBO's late dramatic crime series "The Wire," heard that Attorney General Eric Holder wanted to see the series return for a sixth season, he offered the nation's top prosecutor a deal. He'll start working on a sequel season, Simon responded in an email to the Times of London, "if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanizing drug prohibition." Holder was not available for comment, but it's a safe bet Simon's deal asks too much of the Obama administration. Despite declarations to the contrary, Team Obama appears to be stuck in the 40-year-old rut better known as the "war on drugs." [continues 622 words]
Get Real About Dealing With Illegal Drugs Along with abortion, gun control and gay marriage, drug legalization is one of the truly thorny issues confronting American society. It raises contentious questions touching on criminality, morality, health and addiction, immigration, even national security. Like the other issues, drug legalization frequently resists rational discussion. For the most part, people have their minds made up. There's compelling reason to change that mindset and put drug legalization on the table for reasoned discussion and debate. The illegal drug trafficking through Mexico has become murderous -- and expensive. It's simply unconscionable to allow the status quo to continue. And doing so will require forthright attention to the issue of demand for illegal drugs in this country -- the engine that drives the drug violence. [continues 256 words]
EL PASO - Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, bringing his peace caravan to U.S. soil, said Saturday that the United States needs to halt the flow of illegal weapons, cut its demand for illegal drugs, and suspend its 40-year war on drugs, which he said is only generating bloodshed in Mexico and forcing thousands to flee north. The caravan ended its six-day journey Saturday by crossing the border into El Paso, one of the safest U.S. cities and home to tens of thousands of Mexicans who have left their homeland in the past three years. Sicilia's son was among an estimated 40,000 people killed in criminal violence since late 2006. [continues 346 words]
Regarding Judith McGinnis' thoughtful June 2 column, the U.S. drug war has given the land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world. Prohibition-related violence has caused upward of 35,000 deaths in Mexico over the past four years. Despite criminal penalties, the U.S. has higher rates of drug use than European Union countries such as Portugal that have decriminalized. With skyrocketing national debt threatening the long-term viability of the U.S. economy, this country can no longer afford to throw good money after bad drug policy. Robert Sharpe Arlington, Va. [end]
Martha Rivera Alanis deserves more than a certificate for "outstanding civic courage." She should get a medal for being a kindergarten teacher in a combat zone. Alaniz was recognized Monday for her quick thinking in the face of what is an all too common occurrence in Mexico. The sound of gunfire outside her Monterrey school activated Alanis' drop and cover instinct. She got a classroom of 15 terrified 5 and 6-year-olds to put their ears to the floor and wait for the shooting to stop. [continues 276 words]
NEAR DONNA -- A U.S. Border Patrol agent spotted the men as they approached the floodway levee under the moonlight early Friday morning. She focused an infrared telescope on the figures, tracking seven men as they marched north near Farm-to-Market Road 493 about 2:15 a.m. Friday, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in McAllen. Each person carried a large bundle with about 35 pounds of marijuana strapped to their backs. The agent quietly kept the LORIS scope focused on the figures for nearly two hours. [continues 1117 words]
Inside Texas
