El Paso law officers oppose marijuana legalization

By Diana Washington Valdez

El Paso's top law enforcement leaders voiced their opposition to the legalization of marijuana during the Texas Lyceum conference Friday titled "Have We Lost the War on Drugs."
The morning session included El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen, District Attorney Jaime Esparza, Bill Glaspy, DEA Special Agent in Charge, and Douglas Lindquist, FBI Special Agent in Charge.
"Marijuana is not a harmless drug, and it is not a victimless drug," Esparza said. "I believe it is a gateway drug, and that makes it dangerous."

Lindquist said drug-trafficking organizations produce numerous victims along the way, including impoverished people in Mexico who are used as "mules" to transport drugs across the border.
An example he gave is someone who was caught at the border carrying a burlap sack with 60 to 80 pounds of marijuana.
"Is that person a victim? I would say, yes," Lindquist said.

Glaspy said the medical and scientific communities should be the ones that determine whether marijuana is safe to consume. He said this was not the process that was used in states where voters passed referendums legalizing marijuana. Instead, he said, legislatures and public opinion were the ones that decided the outcomes.
Alaska, Colorado, Washington and Oregon legalized marijuana, and 23 states, including Texas and New Mexico, adopted laws that allow the use of marijuana or marijuana components for medical purposes, according to NORML, a national organization that advocates to legalize the responsible use of marijuana.

Lindquist said his counterparts in states that legalized marijuana are reporting increases in DUI's associated with cannabis, and unregulated levels of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main active ingredient in marijuana, have reached as much as 50 percent, compared to 3 percent of THC levels in the past. Such high levels are causing some people to hallucinate. "It's a totally different drug now," he said.

Allen said educating people about the harmful effects of drugs, including marijuana, may help to deter some from trying them in the first place. Allen and Esparza both said there is a connection between drug abuse and other crimes.
In Texas, possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and up to a $2,000 fine.
Before the conference, Colt DeMorris, president of the El Paso chapter of NORML, said he was glad that Texas Lyceum was sponsoring a mainstream public policy discussion on cannabis reform.

"It's about time the facts get out. The drug war hurts society more than people know. It's a failed drug war that cost the taxpayer loads of money," DeMorris said. "We definitely need more sensible policy when it comes to drugs. Cannabis as a Schedule I drug isn't sensible, nor is it backed by science. As a matter of fact, science shows otherwise in terms of medicine."
The most dangerous drugs are among those classified by the federal government as Schedule I, and include heroin and LSD.

During another session Friday, judges and defense lawyers discussed the challenges of using sentencing guidelines and political pressures that lead to sentencing legislation that unduly punish the people at the low end of drug-trafficking organizations.
The experts agreed that there are no easy answers for the best way to handle drug offenses, especially when they involved violators without previous criminal records and who were ignorant about their role in drug delivery schemes.

Criminal defense lawyer Jim Darnell said he would like to see the judicial system do away with sentencing guidelines, even if they are not mandatory, and for judges to be able to exercise greater discretion in meting out punishments.
"We are paying a fortune to incarcerate people who don't need to be incarcerated," Darnell said.
The conference, which began at the University of Texas at El Paso, continues today at Southwest University Park, with speakers that include state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez and DeMorris.