The U.S.'s 40-year "War on Drugs" has been "probably the greatest public-policy failure of all time" according to former federal drug agent Terry Nelson, just one of the many drug-war critics who gathered at a recent conference in El Paso, Texas to discuss alternatives to the current approach to drug policy.

The San Antonio Express-News reported Sept. 28 that the conference was hosted by the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and attracted academics, drug experts, journalists, and law-enforcement officials from the U.S. and Mexico. "After 40 years and all the money spent, with U.S. consumption as high as ever, people languishing in prison for possession of soft drugs like marijuana and the violence in Mexico worse than ever, it seems to me that something has to change," said UTEP professor Kathleen Staudt.

Nelson said that legalizing and regulating drugs, along with education, would be the logical alternative. Others noted that addiction treatment is far more cost-effective than incarceration.

"We cannot repeal the law of supply and demand," said Orange County, Calif., Judge James Gray. "Maybe we should stop being moralists and start being managers."

The Obama administration's drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, was invited to attend but declined at the last minute, according to organizers. However, the Drug Enforcement Administration's intelligence chief, Anthony Placido, presented a rigorous defense of the current policy and the argument against legalization.

"Ultimately what we are talking about is the obligation of the state to protect its citizens," said Placido. "It's about mind-altering substances that destroy human life and create the violence you see only a few blocks from here ... We went to war after 9-11 when 3,100 people were killed. Thirty-eight thousand die every year in this country from drugs."

El Paso is just across the border from Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, which has been wracked by violence associated with the government's crackdown on the country's powerful drug cartels. Mexico also recently decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs, which some advocates at the conference called for the U.S. to do, as well.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Sept. 28 that El Paso councilman Beto O'Rourke has called for an open discussion of drug-policy reform. "We have a front-row seat to a failed policy," O'Rourke said. "There are a lot of things we can do differently, and one of the things is pursue a model of decriminalization of some drugs."

The conference plan originated last year after El Paso Mayor John Cook vetoed a unanimously approved City Council resolution calling for "an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition of narcotics." U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) told local lawmakers that the resolution could threaten federal funding for the city.