Dealing Death and Drugs

El Paso city representatives Beto O'Rourke and Susie Byrd have been powerless bystanders as the murders attributed to the drug war in Juarez--El Paso's sister city on the United States and Mexico Border--have exceeded six thousand persons since January 1, 2008. They have learned firsthand that the current US drug laws and policies don't work. The United States must try something else. Quickly. O'Rourke and Byrd decided to write this general reader to explain their argument for legalization. Using Juarez as their guide, they illustrate how the economic machinery of illegal drugs operates and they explain why this has led to the tragic slaughter of human beings. They describe the dope supply chain, the business operations of the cartels on both sides of the border, the US prison industrial complex, the criminal justice system, the arms dealers, and the border protection industrial complex. Perhaps most importantly, they portray how US and Mexican teenagers alike are entrapped in the vicious business of illegal drugs. Beto O'Rourkeis a fourth generation El Pasoan who is completing his second term on the El Paso city council. He has become a go-to guy in the national and international media for discussing drug legalization as sound public policy. Susie Byrdis also serving her second term on the El Paso city council. Previously she had served as a top aide to mayor Ray Caballero, and she was sales director of Cinco Puntos Press. She co-edited The Late Great Mexican Border: Reports from a Disappearing Line.