Reply #21: Watch El Paso, as a bellweather: first in anti-pot laws, maybe the first to dump...

[SteveM]

those laws. Some speculation: For the second time in less than 2 years, the WOD, Inc., esp. marijuana prohibition, is under attack by many citizens and even the City Council of El Paso. There seems little support or continuing the WOD, but as expected, for now, the council refused to act, even on de-criminalization. Central to the discussion: the ultra-violence in Juarez, and the wracked quality of life, there. (This from an unremembered T.V. news feed last week.)

El Paso knows all too well the violence can spread into El Paso. The gangs running things in Mexico are, politically and militarily, the match for the Mexican government. They have the ability to franchise into this country all manner of activities (this may have been completed with regards the vertical integration of meth). Huge sums of untaxed, unrecorded monies plus the "expertise" of Mexican gangs pose the same threats to El Paso as exist in Juarez and beyond.

El Paso is a strong RKBA city with a heavily-armed civilian population. No doubt, this keeps the gangs from using the same genocide/cleansing terror-styles they exercise in their own country. But can that be sufficient to prevent more crime and chaos in the future? This open debate may represent a "greening" of many in the region who face not only the day-to-day blood-grind of prohibition, but can no longer reconcile drug prohibition and an "un-prohibited" right to keep and bear arms, and have opted for the obvious. Cali, Oregon and the college towns are one thing, but there is "play" in the politics of this border city.