The pressure is building on El Paso City Council members as telephone calls and e-mails continue to come to their offices about Tuesday’s vote on overriding Mayor John Cook’s veto of a resolution that urged a national debate on drug legalization.

Cook is hoping he’ll get the three votes he’ll need to sustain the veto and that the council will go on to support to original resolution submitted by the city’s Border Relations Committee.

At issue is the amendment city Rep. Beto O’Rourke added to the resolution calling for “an honest open national debate on ending the prohibition on narcotics.”

The resolution declared solidarity for the city and residents of Juarez who are caught up in a drug cartel war and to urge the U.S. government to take steps including cutting down on gun-running to Mexico and money laundering, and to spend more money on drug treatment and prevention programs.

The council approved the resolution unanimously with O’Rourke’s amendment last Tuesday, and Cook vetoed it several hours later because of the amendment.

The mayor has been spending much of his time by his mother’s bed in the hospital and says he is “pretty disengaged” from the brewing fight over the resolution.

But he did get an email off to one supporter of his veto who, apparently, has been doing some organizing of her own on the issue.

“I need folks to be contacting their reps.” Cook’s email reads. “I can tell you that all the potheads have sent their e-mails and they are encouraging the reps to stand by their decision.

“Why does the silent majority remain silent?

“We have certainly attracted attention to our city, but I don't think the attention is positive.

"The override of my veto is this Tuesday. Hope folks react.”

Cook has said he is concerned about how the resolution, which is being widely misunderstood, will reflect on El Paso, especially now.

”My concern, and I talked to our congressman about it yesterday, is that President Obama is going to be meeting with Mexican President Calderon on the drug issue,” Cook said. “I think what you’re seeing with all the violence going is the concentration on the drug war, and to me, it would send a mixed message having a City Council asking to legalize drugs or for a debate about it and, then, on the other hand, you have the future president of the United States talking about continuing the efforts to support Mexico in its war on drugs.

“To me the timing of it just couldn’t be worse.”

Some members of City Council have made themselves unavailable for interviews about the resolution.

Editor's note: The following paragraph was edited and the one after that added at 6:40 p.m. Monday, Jan. 12, to reflect Reyes' explanation for missing the O'Rourke breakfast and ABC-7 News Xtra. Newspaper Tree today reported that U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, missed appearances with O'Rourke on ABC-7 News Xtra program Sunday night and at O’Rourke’s breakfast meeting today.

However, Reyes' spokesman Vince Perez called this afternoon and said the suggestion that Reyes backed out of the events was incorrect. Reyes' appearance on KVIA was never scheduled, Perez said, and the congressman missed O'Rourke's breakfast meeting because he was summoned to Washington for a meeting with Mexican President Calderon.

Reyes today issued a statement through Perez regarding the Calderon meeting, and ABC-7 confirmed that Reyes was invited but had not committed.

City Rep. Steve Ortega, an O’Rourke ally, said support and opposition to the resolution were about even at his breakfast meeting today and that his e-mail is running about 50-50 “with slightly more I in favor of the resolution.”

“I think we did the right thing on Tuesday, and I’m going to stand by the action that I took,” Ortega said.

One El Paso organization that has campaigned for years against alcohol and drug use, the Rio Grande Safe Communities Coalition, has yet to step into the fray.

The organization’s executive director, Mary Ellen Hernandez, said she personally supports the resolution without the O’Rourke amendment.

“I can’t speak for the whole coalition, but we have a much bigger problem here with alcohol and underage drinking,” Hernandez said. “Adding drugs to this problem will only create a bigger problem here on our border.”

“The resolution was very well written except for that one area. Everything else in it was very true and honest, and I do applaud them (the Border Relations Committee) for that.”

There is no question that more money and attention need to be spent on drug education, prevention and treatment.

“We would like to see a national program on the prevention of drug and alcohol use, instead of the hit and miss that we do,” Hernandez said.

To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagrouop.com or call (915) 351-0605