Alternatives to drug war championed at conference

By Sandra Dibble
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. September 28, 2009

EL PASO, Texas — It's been called the U.S. war on drugs — a tough-minded government policy that for decades has targeted traffickers and addicts with prosecution and punishment.

But that policy came into question last week during a conference that brought together an unusually broad grouping of policymakers, academics and community activists from Mexico and the United States.

Instead of discussing how to capture more drug lords, seize bigger caches of weapons and further beef up border security, they proposed alternatives such as creating social programs to raise the quality of life for impoverished Mexicans vulnerable to joining the drug trade. They also advocated for comprehensive programs to prevent and treat drug addiction on both sides of the border, expand needle-exchange programs and decriminalize the use of marijuana so it can be better regulated.

The conference was held in El Paso, Texas, which has a close-up view of the daunting battle against drug trafficking. This city sits side by side with Mexico's Ciudad Juarez, where warfare among rival drug organizations has led to a record homicide rate.

About 3,200 people have been killed there during the past 20 months. Much of that toll is the result of the drug groups competing to control a major smuggling corridor to the United States, which has the world's largest demand for illegal drugs.

“It seems that we supply the dead, and the United States (supplies) the drug consumers,â€