Add Houston Mayor Annise Parker to the growing list of officials calling for a new approach to the nation’s drug laws, especially when it comes to marijuana.

She said as much during an interview this week with community public radio’s Dean Becker, for his Cultural Baggage Radio Show.

“I agree with you that we need a complete rethinking of the nation’s drug laws,” she told Becker, according to a transcript of the show. “We have seen over and over again that outright prohibition doesn’t work. We saw that in the 20’s when the prohibition in this country fueled the rise of organized crime.”

Becker, who broadcasts from KPFT in Houston, has made drug legalization his mission.

An audio clip of the interview is posted on this page.

Here are a few more of her comments:

Seeks a balance

“At the same time we don’t want in any way to send a message that illegal drugs are approved or appropriate but we need to figure out a way to go to managing these drugs rather than simply saying, ‘Don’t do it’ or ‘We are going to treat all illegal drugs the same.’”

The American conversation:

“What you see again in America is beginning to have an adult conversation in many places about marijuana and once that works its way through the justice system across America, through our state legislatures and I think that…well, it’s not going to happen quickly…I think, too, that public opinion is going to shift on marijuana and then it will be decriminalized in most states.”

Not all drugs alike:

“There are still lots and lots of drugs out there that…Kush, for example, is one where if you are considering pot you are not likely to go out and disturb other people. The first time you indulge in “potpourri” or Kush or so-called synthetic marijuana you could very well go out in a psychotic state and injure yourself or others and you have to make a distinction between different types of drugs and the impact they have on people.”