WHEREAS, over 23 million people in the United States are affected by substance abuse, including many members of our community; and

WHEREAS, a study by the Rand Corporation showed that spending on drug interdiction of the sort conducted in Colombia is 23 times less effective in reducing illegal drug use than treatment of drug users in the United States; the U.S. has spent $4.7 billion on Plan Colombia since 2000, primarily in training, equipment and intelligence for the Colombian Armed Forces, in what was promoted as a plan to reduce by half the cultivation of coca leaves, a primary ingredient of cocaine, by 2005; and, the most recent data released by the State Department shows that more land in Colombia was cultivated with coca in 2006 -- 388,000 acres -- than when the effort began in 2000; and

WHEREAS, retail cocaine prices fell and purity of cocaine on the street increased between 2003 and 2006, according to the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, and recent reported increases in street price of cocaine are not the result of counter-drug programs in South America, where “cocaine production appears to be stable or increasing,” according to the Justice Department National Drug Threat Assessment for 2008; and

WHEREAS, many units of the Colombian Army, including the commander of the Colombian Army, have been credibly reported to have collaborated with paramilitary death squads, themselves declared by the State Department to be a Foreign Terrorist Organization, but very few have been successfully prosecuted for their atrocities, and an investigation by international jurists and Colombian human rights organizations documented 955 extrajudicial executions committed by the Colombian armed forces from July 2002 to June 2007, representing an increase of 65% from the previous five years, and only two of which had resulted in a judicial conviction and sentence, and in August 2007, six Colombian military officers who were recipients of U.S. military training were charged by Colombian prosecutors with serving in the organization of a drug mafia baron included on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, thus making U.S. assistance to the Colombian Army an asset to the very entities the policy purportedly targets; and

WHEREAS, a study by Amnesty International and the Fellowship of Reconciliation concluded that in Colombia, “geographic regions with the highest levels of reported extrajudicial executions of civilians by members of the armed forces in 2006 were also largely regions with the most military units receiving US assistance”; and

WHEREAS, the administration of President Bush proposes to expand such failed strategies to other nations, including Mexico, where the “Merida Initiative” would designate up to $500 million in mostly military, police and surveillance equipment and involve unaccountable civilian mercenaries, and to Afghanistan, where a plan to aerially fumigate poppies is opposed by Afghan and European officials, Pentagon officials and Members of Congress; and the United States Comptroller General reported in August 2007 that "the U.S. government is on a 'burning platform' of unsustainable policies and practices," including "fiscal deficits" and "overseas military commitments”; and

WHEREAS, Congressional Representative for Santa Cruz, the Honorable Sam Farr, has consistently supported both reductions in military spending and efforts to increase drug treatment funding, and

WHEREAS, the U.S. government should not provide arms and military assistance to any government that is directly connected to and associated with paramilitary death-squad organizations that are listed on the U.S. State Department terrorist list and is linked with organized drug export criminal organizations, and

WHEREAS, human rights violations and impunity enjoyed by the Colombian armed forces are comparable to those of Guatemalan and Indonesian forces in recent years and the United States suspended assistance to the Guatemalan and the Indonesian militaries because of human rights violations.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Santa Cruz City Council HEREBY 1) recognizes the leadership of Congressman Sam Farr in advocating for reduced military spending and greater respect for human rights by the federal government; 2) declares that U.S. drug policy should be fundamentally re-oriented toward programs for demand reduction in the United States and to support the rights of people with the disease of alcoholism and drug dependency to receive effective treatment; 3) urges Representative Farr to step up his leadership to terminate all military assistance to the Colombian Army, and to re-direct these funds to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for substance abuse prevention and treatment programs; 4) calls for a policy toward Colombia that at its forefront promotes respect for human rights and the rule of law, by conditioning economic aid to the Colombian government on effective action to end impunity for human rights violations and collaboration with paramilitary groups; and 5) opposes proposals to expand into Mexico and Afghanistan the failed strategies of aerial fumigation and militaristic approaches to drug trafficking.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Santa Cruz Mayor publicize the City Council’s action and send a letter to mayors elsewhere in California encouraging them to take a similar stand on this issue and to send copies of this Resolution to Representative Farr and to Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein; and

Encourages local residents to contact friends and family in other congressional districts to ask them to communicate on the above issues with their own Congressional representatives.