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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Local Texas Politician Resigns Over Drug Scandal



California has its corrupt town of Bell (though certainly there are more), and Texas has its own gem of a town in Socorro.

The El Paso Times has numerous excellent articles detailing the problems facing Socorro due to the conduct (or misconduct) of its elected officials. This particular article is of interest to us at the Drunk Politician Blog.

Given that Socorro is a southern border town, what type of criminal activity do you think might be occurring there? Well, one Socorro City Councilman, Luis Varela, recently resigned from office due to his alleged involvement with - you guessed it – illegal drugs.

Varela is accused of selling weed and cocaine. He was arrested in November, allegedly with 27.5 grams of cocaine and around 44 pounds of marijuana. Hey, we know times are tough, but is it that bad that politicians have to turn into major illegal drug suppliers? Or are voters that clueless that we have to elect drug pushers?

Varela has an interesting record. Read more here. Was he a Democrat or a Republican? Actually we here at the Drunk Politician Blog and Substance Abuse CLE don’t know and we don’t care. If you are interested, it should be easy enough to find out by reading the El Paso Times articles, but it doesn’t matter to us. When it comes to problems with drugs and alcohol (using or selling) we have learned that no one political party has a monopoly.

Question authority.

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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Pennsylvania State Representative Busted For Smoking Weed



Pleads Guilty to Reduced Charge!

Should marijuana be legalized? One politician might argue yes. Pennsylvania State Representative Paul Costa was arrested after a police officer observed the politician sharing a joint at a Pittsburgh Steeler tailgate party on October 3rd. The full story by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is here.

On November 24, 2010, Costa pled guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct and was fined $50. That story is here from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Costa is a member of House committees on commerce, liquor control, tourism and recreational development, and transportation. His brother is a state senator and his cousin is a former police chief of Pittsburgh and now serves as a state representative.

Costa happens to be a Democrat. But we must point out that the abuse of substances is conducted by members of each political party.

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