This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, November 16th, 2011.

I'm Caleb Brown.

El Paso, Texas is on the front lines in the war on drugs, but state and federal authorities

have stymied plans to openly discuss how the drug war

contributes to violence. Democrat Beto O'Rourke was on the El Paso City Council

when that confrontation erupted, he argues that legalizing marijuana is the first step toward a

rational drug policy in the United States. We spoke Tuesday at the Cato Institute's

conference ending the war on drugs. El Paso occupies a fairly unique position when it comes to the war on drugs physically and

because of that, several other factors, detail the El Paso's unique position.

Well, we face Ciudad Juad is in fact are joined to Ciudad Juarez by six international bridges.

Ciudwatt is having the notoriety of being

the deadliest city in the world today

with over 3,100 people murdered in that city

of about a million last year.

In El Paso, having the distinction

of being the safest US city last year

with five murders.

And those cities combined form the largest international metroplex in the world.

70 billion dollars or 20% of all U.S. Mexico trade passes through our ports of entry. There are 7 million border

crossings every year between the two cities and the plaza in Ciudad Juarez that is

now under dispute between the Sinolone and the Wadas cartel is perhaps one of the most

valuable drug plazas along the US-Mexico border through which hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in illegal drugs from marijuana to

...