The War on Drugs threatens trade and important cultural relationships between El Paso and its Mexican counterpart, Juarez. For merely discussing the merits of the War on Drugs, the state of Texas and federal government threatened the withdrawal of funding from the city council in El Paso. Former El Paso city council member Beto O’Rourke spoke at the Cato Institute’s conference, “Ending the Global War on Drugs” on November 15, 2011.