1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:05,266 --> 00:00:09,400 [man] We are sending a bad message with the Medical Marijuana Laws 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:09,444 --> 00:00:12,621 and the federal government really needs to speak out against it 5 00:00:12,664 --> 00:00:14,840 and show some leadership there. 6 00:00:16,277 --> 00:00:18,235 There is a powerful lobby 7 00:00:18,279 --> 00:00:20,498 arguing for the legalization of drugs 8 00:00:20,542 --> 00:00:23,675 and that claims that drugs, particularly marijuana and hashish 9 00:00:23,719 --> 00:00:25,938 are not harmful to young people. 10 00:00:26,809 --> 00:00:28,767 [judge] We have these drugs in our society. 11 00:00:28,811 --> 00:00:30,943 They're going to be here like it or not. 12 00:00:30,987 --> 00:00:35,078 We have a choice, we can either have drugs in our society with drug lords, 13 00:00:35,122 --> 00:00:36,471 or without drug lords. 14 00:00:37,863 --> 00:00:40,170 We know that when drugs are legal, they're cheaper, 15 00:00:40,214 --> 00:00:43,130 they're more available than they're promoted as we've seen for alcohol. 16 00:00:43,173 --> 00:00:46,698 So, I think alcohol would be the last model we want to look at for marijuana. 17 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:54,663 I know annually we have well over a thousand young people dying in this country 18 00:00:54,706 --> 00:00:57,666 because they're caught up in the illegal drug market. 19 00:01:01,148 --> 00:01:02,975 Focus on the real bottom line. 20 00:01:03,019 --> 00:01:05,239 I want to reduce both the harms of drugs 21 00:01:05,282 --> 00:01:07,719 and I want to reduce the harms of our failed policies. 22 00:01:07,763 --> 00:01:09,504 [echoing] Policies... 23 00:01:13,029 --> 00:01:16,424 I mean the easiest way for most people in this country 24 00:01:16,467 --> 00:01:19,253 and really throughout much of the world to understand 25 00:01:19,296 --> 00:01:22,865 the absurdity of the war on drugs is to focus on marijuana. 26 00:01:33,441 --> 00:01:37,140 [Dan] The drug war that I think we are experiencing today 27 00:01:37,184 --> 00:01:41,144 has its roots in Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign 28 00:01:41,188 --> 00:01:43,799 because of the unrest of the 60's, 29 00:01:43,842 --> 00:01:46,628 the student demonstrations against the Vietnam War. 30 00:01:49,065 --> 00:01:52,155 [reporter] Thousands of demonstrators opposed to the Vietnam War 31 00:01:52,199 --> 00:01:55,506 assembled in the nation's capital for a mass protest. 32 00:01:55,550 --> 00:01:59,119 Military police contained the crowd, but clashes soon break out. 33 00:01:59,641 --> 00:02:03,732 The two-day protest ends with over 600 arrested and the widespread opinion 34 00:02:03,775 --> 00:02:07,257 that the demonstration made everyone a loser. 35 00:02:07,301 --> 00:02:11,131 [Dan] The long, hot summer riots in such places as Detroit and Newark... 36 00:02:11,174 --> 00:02:13,481 [reporter] With the coming of the long, hot summers, 37 00:02:13,524 --> 00:02:17,615 for three years has had to face the tragic consequences of riots. 38 00:02:17,659 --> 00:02:20,270 Negroes claim they have waited long enough for equal rights. 39 00:02:21,924 --> 00:02:24,100 [Dan] The public was in a panic. 40 00:02:24,144 --> 00:02:26,581 Middle America was in kind of a panic. 41 00:02:26,624 --> 00:02:29,627 Every night on the evening news it just looked like the country was coming unglued 42 00:02:29,671 --> 00:02:34,676 and Richard Nixon ran in '68 on a law-and-order platform. 43 00:02:34,719 --> 00:02:37,722 "I am going to restore law and order to the United States." 44 00:02:38,245 --> 00:02:42,292 [Nixon] It is time for an honest look at the problem of order in the United States. 45 00:02:42,336 --> 00:02:46,775 So, I pledge to you, we shall have order in the United States. 46 00:02:46,818 --> 00:02:48,864 Well, he gets elected 47 00:02:48,907 --> 00:02:52,433 and then he discovers federal government has very little role 48 00:02:52,476 --> 00:02:55,653 under the Constitution, in law and order. 49 00:02:55,697 --> 00:02:58,526 Law and order is a local and state matter. 50 00:02:58,569 --> 00:03:04,140 And in John Mitchell's office and several people who were there told me about this meeting 51 00:03:04,184 --> 00:03:08,579 in which Mitchell is saying, "Come on people, we got to come up with a way 52 00:03:08,623 --> 00:03:11,582 to project the federal government into law and order." 53 00:03:11,626 --> 00:03:17,762 And they kick around some ideas and finally somebody says, "Well, there's drugs." 54 00:03:19,416 --> 00:03:22,245 Do you want to join me here? Won't you be seated please, ladies and gentlemen. 55 00:03:22,289 --> 00:03:23,551 Come on Dr. Jaffe, yeah. 56 00:03:24,247 --> 00:03:25,640 Mr. Krogh, Mister... 57 00:03:25,683 --> 00:03:27,729 -Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. -Fine. All right. 58 00:03:30,079 --> 00:03:32,603 Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to summarize for you the meeting that I have just had 59 00:03:32,647 --> 00:03:36,955 with the bipartisan leaders which began at 8 o'clock and was completed two hours later. 60 00:03:38,043 --> 00:03:42,918 I began the meeting by making this statement which I think needs to be made to the nation. 61 00:03:43,832 --> 00:03:49,794 America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. 62 00:03:50,752 --> 00:03:57,324 In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new all-out offensive. 63 00:03:58,238 --> 00:04:01,850 I have asked the Congress to provide the legislative authority 64 00:04:01,893 --> 00:04:05,070 and the funds to fuel this kind of an offensive. 65 00:04:05,114 --> 00:04:08,248 Nixon creates the Drug Enforcement Administration 66 00:04:08,291 --> 00:04:13,035 and this is half law enforcement and half Hollywood. 67 00:04:18,649 --> 00:04:23,741 They go out and start Eliot Nessing around the country 68 00:04:23,785 --> 00:04:26,266 and making sure that the cameras are there. 69 00:04:38,582 --> 00:04:42,543 In 1993, I had an interview with John Ehrlichman and this was the interview 70 00:04:42,586 --> 00:04:44,980 that got me started on this in an earnest way. 71 00:04:45,589 --> 00:04:49,071 I was in the habit, every time I talked to Richard Nixon, or he talked to me 72 00:04:49,114 --> 00:04:53,075 of taking very careful notes because, usually, it involved assignments 73 00:04:53,118 --> 00:04:55,164 that I had to carry out, one kind or another. 74 00:04:55,207 --> 00:04:58,385 And I started asking him these wonky questions about drug policy 75 00:04:58,428 --> 00:05:01,518 and he held up a hand and he said, "Can we cut the bullshit? 76 00:05:01,562 --> 00:05:04,304 Can I-- can I just tell you what this was all about?" 77 00:05:05,392 --> 00:05:09,657 And he said, "The '68 campaign and the Nixon White House thereafter 78 00:05:09,700 --> 00:05:14,314 had two enemies: black people and the anti-war Left. 79 00:05:15,053 --> 00:05:18,056 And we needed a way to mess them up. 80 00:05:18,753 --> 00:05:22,626 We needed a way to arrest their leaders, to break up their meetings, 81 00:05:22,670 --> 00:05:26,848 to delegitimize their gatherings 82 00:05:26,891 --> 00:05:31,026 and most of all to vilify them on the evening news night after night. 83 00:05:31,069 --> 00:05:37,249 And it was easy to associate blacks with heroin and the anti-war Left with marijuana." 84 00:05:37,293 --> 00:05:42,254 At the time of Richard Nixon, you were either, you know, part of his generation 85 00:05:42,298 --> 00:05:44,996 and appalled by drug use, saw it as a moral issue, 86 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:47,390 or you were part of the counterculture. 87 00:05:47,434 --> 00:05:48,957 It was us versus them. 88 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,176 Everyone here seems to emphasize the kids. 89 00:05:51,220 --> 00:05:53,527 How can you communicate with them when they got flowers in their ears 90 00:05:53,570 --> 00:05:56,225 where they can't hear and hair down to their hip pockets? 91 00:05:56,268 --> 00:06:00,621 Many of us are concerned that a large percentage of our young people 92 00:06:00,664 --> 00:06:03,580 are breaking the law by smoking marijuana. 93 00:06:03,624 --> 00:06:05,843 I know you thought about this problem 94 00:06:05,887 --> 00:06:08,585 and I wonder if you could give us some of your thoughts on it. 95 00:06:08,629 --> 00:06:11,240 Well, to make a point, as you know there is a commission 96 00:06:11,283 --> 00:06:14,374 that is supposed to make recommendations to me about this subject. 97 00:06:14,417 --> 00:06:17,464 Richard Nixon convenes a Presidential Commission on marijuana, 98 00:06:17,507 --> 00:06:24,209 which, basically, says marijuana is almost harmless and should not be criminalized. 99 00:06:24,253 --> 00:06:29,519 The recommendation of the Commission in its first report 100 00:06:29,563 --> 00:06:35,743 is that we do not feel that private use or private possession in one's own home 101 00:06:35,786 --> 00:06:38,659 should have the stigma of criminalization. 102 00:06:38,702 --> 00:06:45,056 That people who experiment should not be criminalized for that particular behavior. 103 00:06:45,100 --> 00:06:51,846 Richard Nixon very publicly rejects the findings of his own Commission 104 00:06:51,889 --> 00:06:55,980 and that's the last time a president convenes a commission on marijuana. 105 00:06:56,024 --> 00:07:00,550 I shall continue to oppose efforts to legalize marijuana. 106 00:07:00,594 --> 00:07:05,555 I became the White House Drug Czar in July 1st of 1973. 107 00:07:05,599 --> 00:07:09,254 Nixon's advisor, who I was working with, said to me, 108 00:07:09,298 --> 00:07:12,693 "The president is going to make the decisions about marijuana. 109 00:07:12,736 --> 00:07:15,304 You can make the decisions about heroin, 110 00:07:15,347 --> 00:07:19,177 but if you say anything good about decriminalization of marijuana, you're out of here. 111 00:07:19,221 --> 00:07:22,485 He was elected president and not you." And that was it. 112 00:07:22,529 --> 00:07:27,534 I do think that it was a-- it was a moment when the world changed. 113 00:07:27,577 --> 00:07:32,756 I shall soon propose a revision of the entire Federal Criminal Code 114 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:37,021 which will give us tougher penalties against drugs and against crime. 115 00:07:37,500 --> 00:07:43,288 A war on drugs is basically the assumption or presumption 116 00:07:43,332 --> 00:07:47,205 that anybody who has anything to do with certain drugs 117 00:07:47,249 --> 00:07:50,513 needs to be treated like a criminal, needs to be punished, 118 00:07:50,557 --> 00:07:52,907 viewed as somebody who can have their freedom taken away, 119 00:07:52,950 --> 00:07:55,170 their property, their home taken away. 120 00:07:55,213 --> 00:07:59,827 Somebody who is regarded as immoral and for whom it makes sense for the state 121 00:07:59,870 --> 00:08:03,483 to spend oodles of money, basically trying to find these people, 122 00:08:03,526 --> 00:08:07,138 arrest and prosecute them, and convict them and incarcerate them. 123 00:08:07,182 --> 00:08:09,532 [cell door closes] 124 00:08:09,576 --> 00:08:12,317 I actually started my undercover work at the beginning of the war on drugs. 125 00:08:12,361 --> 00:08:16,321 When I joined the State Police in 1964, we had 1700 troopers 126 00:08:16,365 --> 00:08:19,411 and we had a seven-man narcotic unit. 127 00:08:19,455 --> 00:08:25,330 In 1970, in one step overnight grew to a 76-person Narcotics Bureau, 128 00:08:25,374 --> 00:08:27,637 all paid for by the federal government. 129 00:08:27,681 --> 00:08:31,249 That was when Nixon got Congress to pass funding bills 130 00:08:31,293 --> 00:08:33,817 that would give massive amounts of money 131 00:08:33,861 --> 00:08:37,778 to any Police Department that was willing to hire officers to fight his war on drugs. 132 00:08:37,821 --> 00:08:41,521 As I talked to the people from New York State 133 00:08:41,564 --> 00:08:45,699 I realized the need for money to deal with this problem. 134 00:08:45,742 --> 00:08:50,573 I am glad that in this administration we have increased the amount of money 135 00:08:50,617 --> 00:08:54,403 for handling the problem of dangerous drugs, sevenfold. 136 00:08:54,446 --> 00:08:56,927 It will be six hundred million dollars this year. 137 00:08:56,971 --> 00:09:01,584 To the extent money can help in meeting the problem of dangerous drugs, 138 00:09:01,628 --> 00:09:03,238 it will be available. 139 00:09:03,281 --> 00:09:06,589 This is one area where we cannot have budget cuts 140 00:09:06,633 --> 00:09:10,114 because we must wage what I have called total war 141 00:09:10,158 --> 00:09:13,683 against public enemy number one in the United States: 142 00:09:13,727 --> 00:09:15,032 the problem of dangerous drugs. 143 00:09:15,076 --> 00:09:16,817 [Cole] It was all a numbers game. 144 00:09:16,860 --> 00:09:19,559 The whole idea was to get as many arrested as possible. 145 00:09:19,602 --> 00:09:22,605 We used to joke that if we arrested the devil himself, 146 00:09:22,649 --> 00:09:26,174 we'd let him go if he gave up three of these demons. 147 00:09:26,217 --> 00:09:29,481 And the reporters would go away and they would write horror stories. 148 00:09:30,004 --> 00:09:33,747 And the next morning, the public would pick up those papers 149 00:09:33,790 --> 00:09:36,576 and read them and shake their head and say, 150 00:09:37,925 --> 00:09:38,882 "Give it to him. 151 00:09:40,144 --> 00:09:40,928 Give it to him." 152 00:09:42,103 --> 00:09:43,539 And we'd get the money 153 00:09:45,149 --> 00:09:47,369 and then we'd go out and do even worse the next time around. 154 00:10:11,523 --> 00:10:16,659 I was working undercover for the state police, in the suburbs of New Jersey. 155 00:10:16,703 --> 00:10:20,054 Since we didn't have real drug dealers out there, 156 00:10:20,097 --> 00:10:25,886 the administration targeted me on small friendship groups of young people. 157 00:10:25,929 --> 00:10:30,891 And when I infiltrated one of these friendship groups and became their friend, 158 00:10:30,934 --> 00:10:34,068 come Friday night somebody might say, "Hey, you want to get high?" 159 00:10:34,111 --> 00:10:37,637 Someone might say, "Yeah, while you're in the city, pick me up a couple of joints." 160 00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:40,422 We're talking about five dollars worth of drugs. 161 00:10:41,336 --> 00:10:45,906 We'd have a big raid and we'd swoop into their neighborhoods five o'clock in the morning 162 00:10:45,949 --> 00:10:50,084 with hundreds of police. Kick down their doors and drag them out in chains. 163 00:10:50,127 --> 00:10:53,478 And when we got them all lined up against that back wall, 164 00:10:53,522 --> 00:10:57,308 my boss would come out and he would say, "You see that? 165 00:10:57,352 --> 00:11:01,617 There's a hundred major drug dealers we took out of your community." 166 00:11:01,661 --> 00:11:03,967 [policeman] Everybody remain seated where you are. 167 00:11:04,011 --> 00:11:08,189 [Cole] Back then in 1970, we didn't have a whole bunch of laws about drugs. 168 00:11:08,232 --> 00:11:12,367 We only had one law. That law said it's illegal to distribute 169 00:11:12,410 --> 00:11:14,717 a controlled dangerous substance. 170 00:11:14,761 --> 00:11:19,417 One joint was the same as a hundred pounds of marijuana. 171 00:11:19,461 --> 00:11:24,684 Since we only had one law there was only one punishment, seven years in state prison. 172 00:11:24,727 --> 00:11:28,775 [reporter] Don Crow was convicted of selling marijuana to an undercover agent. 173 00:11:28,818 --> 00:11:30,602 There seemed reason for hope. 174 00:11:30,646 --> 00:11:32,692 It was his first offense after all 175 00:11:32,735 --> 00:11:35,390 and the amount had been small, less than one ounce, 176 00:11:35,433 --> 00:11:40,134 but the jury saw its duty, sentence 50 years in prison. 177 00:11:40,177 --> 00:11:45,661 For Crow, 25 years old, newly returned from Vietnam, it was a bitter pill. 178 00:11:45,705 --> 00:11:49,665 I had the feeling that I was fighting for my country and for my fellow man. 179 00:11:52,059 --> 00:11:58,021 And it is kind of depressing to know that I should come back and be given 50 years 180 00:11:58,935 --> 00:12:03,723 for allegedly selling some-- a little marijuana. 181 00:12:04,419 --> 00:12:08,423 [mother] This is a Purple Heart that he received the first time that he was wounded. 182 00:12:08,466 --> 00:12:12,819 [reporter] There is a mother's pride as Mrs. Crow recounts Don's military record, 183 00:12:12,862 --> 00:12:15,038 but it is hard for her, too. 184 00:12:15,082 --> 00:12:17,606 He loved his country, she says. 185 00:12:17,649 --> 00:12:19,434 He was a good boy. 186 00:12:19,477 --> 00:12:21,175 It all starts off with 187 00:12:22,567 --> 00:12:25,788 no hope, lack of education, 188 00:12:25,832 --> 00:12:28,617 not being able to actually enter the system. 189 00:12:28,660 --> 00:12:30,924 I can't enter the system. I can't get in. 190 00:12:30,967 --> 00:12:34,884 I can't make a living wage, but over here is a way. 191 00:12:34,928 --> 00:12:37,844 And now, you try to do that and you end up in prison, 192 00:12:37,887 --> 00:12:40,760 or you end up with your life, you know, devastated. 193 00:12:41,282 --> 00:12:44,764 We snatched them off the streets in the prime of their life 194 00:12:44,807 --> 00:12:47,679 when they were trying to get their education. 195 00:12:48,855 --> 00:12:52,206 "How are they going to get a job? They're drug dealers." 196 00:12:52,249 --> 00:12:53,337 That's what we labeled them. 197 00:12:53,381 --> 00:12:54,817 That's what everybody thinks. 198 00:12:54,861 --> 00:12:56,993 Nobody wanted to hire them. 199 00:12:57,037 --> 00:12:59,604 So, what do they do? Well, they turn right back to the drug culture, 200 00:12:59,648 --> 00:13:02,782 the very group we say we're trying to save them from, 201 00:13:02,825 --> 00:13:06,394 only now they become real drug dealers. 202 00:13:07,047 --> 00:13:09,223 And that is how 203 00:13:10,398 --> 00:13:16,970 this became the self-perpetuating, constantly expanding, policy disaster. 204 00:13:18,014 --> 00:13:22,497 An interesting thing emerges as the drug war heats up. 205 00:13:22,540 --> 00:13:24,412 As it becomes more and more serious. 206 00:13:24,455 --> 00:13:28,155 As the kicking in more doors and taking away more people 207 00:13:28,198 --> 00:13:33,116 and giving people longer and longer sentences for trivial amounts of marijuana. 208 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:40,645 What emerges is an organized, well-funded opposition to the drug war. 209 00:13:40,689 --> 00:13:45,041 Organizations like NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws 210 00:13:45,085 --> 00:13:48,610 that mount an organized response. 211 00:13:48,653 --> 00:13:50,960 It's not just the stoned hippies in the back of a van. 212 00:13:51,004 --> 00:13:54,746 These are lawyers. These are people with money. 213 00:13:54,790 --> 00:13:59,664 These are people with some influence and power and access to the media. 214 00:13:59,708 --> 00:14:01,884 [man] Last year in this country 215 00:14:01,928 --> 00:14:04,713 there were two hundred and twenty-six thousand marijuana-related arrests. 216 00:14:04,756 --> 00:14:06,889 And although the police sometimes tell us 217 00:14:06,933 --> 00:14:09,457 that they're only interested in the pusher or the seller as they say, 218 00:14:09,500 --> 00:14:12,808 the fact is that only 7% of those arrests were against the seller. 219 00:14:12,852 --> 00:14:15,855 93% of those arrests were for possession and use. 220 00:14:15,898 --> 00:14:20,294 Now what that means is that there were about 200,000 young people in this country last year 221 00:14:20,337 --> 00:14:23,906 who were given an unnecessary criminal record and all that and all that involved 222 00:14:23,950 --> 00:14:26,517 for the rest of their life simply because they smoked grass, 223 00:14:26,561 --> 00:14:28,693 something which is a relatively harmless thing to do. 224 00:14:28,737 --> 00:14:31,087 So we're not trying to encourage the use of the drug, 225 00:14:31,131 --> 00:14:34,525 in fact, we're trying to discourage it, but we're trying to get the country to understand 226 00:14:34,569 --> 00:14:38,094 that there are other means to discourage the use of drugs other than the criminal law. 227 00:14:38,138 --> 00:14:41,706 And, in this case, the use of the criminal law causes more harm than the drug itself. 228 00:14:41,750 --> 00:14:44,013 I give NORML, you know, a lot of credit. 229 00:14:44,057 --> 00:14:48,191 The role that they played in the 70s and Keith Stroup's pioneering role. 230 00:14:48,235 --> 00:14:51,151 I mean, they really helped to break open this issue. 231 00:14:51,194 --> 00:14:57,461 In 1970 I founded NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 232 00:14:57,505 --> 00:14:59,594 as a marijuana smokers lobby. 233 00:14:59,637 --> 00:15:03,554 We took the Marijuana Commission report in any state in America 234 00:15:03,598 --> 00:15:07,384 where we could identify, usually a young progressive legislator 235 00:15:07,428 --> 00:15:10,648 willing to introduce a Marijuana Decriminalization Bill. 236 00:15:10,692 --> 00:15:13,956 We not only provided support for the legislator, 237 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,741 we brought out expert witnesses at our expense 238 00:15:16,785 --> 00:15:21,181 to testify that states should do what the Marijuana Commission recommended. 239 00:15:21,224 --> 00:15:26,447 And as a result, between 1973, when Oregon was the first state 240 00:15:26,490 --> 00:15:29,929 to adopt a modified version of marijuana decriminalization... 241 00:15:29,972 --> 00:15:32,888 In Oregon, possession of up to an ounce of marijuana 242 00:15:32,932 --> 00:15:36,065 no longer is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. 243 00:15:36,109 --> 00:15:40,548 Now marijuana smoking is punishable only by a fine like a traffic fine, 244 00:15:40,591 --> 00:15:43,159 maximum penalty $100. 245 00:15:43,203 --> 00:15:48,512 To 1978, we had a total of 11 states that stopped arresting minor marijuana offenders 246 00:15:48,556 --> 00:15:50,558 and we thought we were on our way to victory. 247 00:15:50,601 --> 00:15:54,257 In fact, we figured within five years we would be finished. 248 00:15:54,301 --> 00:15:58,348 We would have marijuana smokers decriminalized all across the country. 249 00:15:58,392 --> 00:16:00,176 [cheering] 250 00:16:08,228 --> 00:16:11,927 The portfolio legalizing marijuana probably hit close to 30 percent in the late 70's, 251 00:16:11,971 --> 00:16:15,061 kind of at the era of that decade of live-and-let-live. 252 00:16:15,104 --> 00:16:19,543 It was fairly open in the culture at that point, mostly the youth culture. 253 00:16:19,587 --> 00:16:21,589 [rock music] 254 00:16:26,898 --> 00:16:28,944 [Anthony] Hey, you want to get high, man? 255 00:16:28,988 --> 00:16:31,077 Does Howdy Doody got wooden balls, man? 256 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:34,950 I've got a joint here, man, I've been saving for a special occasion. 257 00:16:39,955 --> 00:16:46,396 Is that a joint, man? I can probably smoke this whole joint, man and still walk away, man. 258 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:48,398 Wouldn't be no problem at all, man. 259 00:16:51,358 --> 00:16:53,534 [Pedro] Dog, talk it out, man. 260 00:16:58,408 --> 00:17:00,802 Kinda grabs you by the booboo, don't it? 261 00:17:00,845 --> 00:17:04,893 The FBI claims that a huge shipment of grass which they are calling "killer dope" 262 00:17:04,936 --> 00:17:07,461 has been smuggled into New York City. 263 00:17:07,504 --> 00:17:12,248 The bureau urges users not to smoke the weed which is greenish brown in color, 264 00:17:12,292 --> 00:17:15,686 not particularly seedy and contains mostly cannabis buds. 265 00:17:15,730 --> 00:17:19,821 Warning symptoms are a mild euphoria, a slight rise in the pulse rate, 266 00:17:19,864 --> 00:17:24,130 some hallucination and death by laughter within 15 minutes of ingestion. 267 00:17:24,173 --> 00:17:25,914 [crowd laughs] 268 00:17:27,350 --> 00:17:30,788 In an effort to aid the FBI in its investigation, 269 00:17:30,832 --> 00:17:34,357 Weekend Update is undertaking its own analysis of marijuana 270 00:17:34,401 --> 00:17:37,578 sent to us anonymously by any viewers who may be worried. 271 00:17:37,621 --> 00:17:41,886 Simply place a small sample of the suspected cannabis in an envelope 272 00:17:41,930 --> 00:17:48,937 and send it immediately to Chevy Chase, Apartment 12, 827 West 81st street, New York City... 273 00:17:49,372 --> 00:17:52,593 When Nixon left and Gerald Ford was the president, 274 00:17:52,636 --> 00:17:55,161 I was the White House Drug Czar. 275 00:17:55,204 --> 00:18:01,558 I was a hero with NORML and High Times as a guy who was interested in decriminalization. 276 00:18:01,602 --> 00:18:03,169 And I liked that idea. 277 00:18:03,212 --> 00:18:05,562 I supported that idea as the White House Drug Czar. 278 00:18:05,606 --> 00:18:09,349 [Baum] Jimmy Carter at that time was-- I think he was a pragmatic individual. 279 00:18:09,392 --> 00:18:14,136 You know he had that really classic and crucial line, "The harms of drug laws 280 00:18:14,180 --> 00:18:17,574 should not do more harm to people than the drugs themselves." 281 00:18:17,618 --> 00:18:21,622 I support a change in law to end federal and criminal penalties 282 00:18:21,665 --> 00:18:23,928 for possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. 283 00:18:24,451 --> 00:18:29,412 Leaving the states free to adopt whatever laws they wish concerning marijuana. 284 00:18:29,456 --> 00:18:34,722 I think Jimmy Carter was influenced initially by his drug adviser, Dr. Peter Bourne, 285 00:18:34,765 --> 00:18:37,290 and he was telling him it made no sense 286 00:18:37,333 --> 00:18:39,509 to treat marijuana smokers like criminals. 287 00:18:39,553 --> 00:18:43,296 I was Director of the Office of Drug Abuse Policy. 288 00:18:43,339 --> 00:18:48,475 And our policy was if people are suffering adverse effects from any of these drugs, 289 00:18:48,518 --> 00:18:53,697 we should set up programs to treat them, as we had begun to do with alcohol 290 00:18:53,741 --> 00:18:57,527 after countless decades of, you know, condemning alcoholics. 291 00:18:57,571 --> 00:19:02,358 We'd have yet to find a serious medical consequence related to marijuana... 292 00:19:02,402 --> 00:19:05,013 [man] Let me-- just one more question... 293 00:19:05,056 --> 00:19:08,625 Somewhat to my surprise, we have not found serious health conse-- consequences in approximately 294 00:19:08,669 --> 00:19:11,454 20 million dollars of research in the last five years. 295 00:19:11,498 --> 00:19:15,502 But the thing that we do know, though, is that we will be saving the lives and careers 296 00:19:15,545 --> 00:19:18,983 of a lot of young people that would otherwise be destroyed 297 00:19:19,027 --> 00:19:23,205 by maintaining criminal penalties and putting people in jail for possession. 298 00:19:23,249 --> 00:19:25,207 Dr. Peter Bourne was someone I knew. 299 00:19:25,251 --> 00:19:30,212 I would see him several times a month in a professional situation 300 00:19:30,256 --> 00:19:34,347 and we considered ourselves political allies, no doubt about that. 301 00:19:34,390 --> 00:19:38,960 I didn't disagree with him particularly in terms of his position on marijuana. 302 00:19:39,395 --> 00:19:43,573 He and I really had a falling out over the paraquat issue. 303 00:19:43,617 --> 00:19:50,101 I had been advised at some point that the government was beginning to spray paraquat 304 00:19:50,145 --> 00:19:52,930 and paraquat was an incredibly dangerous herbicide 305 00:19:52,974 --> 00:19:56,456 that if you took a teaspoon in your mouth, it'll kill you. 306 00:19:56,499 --> 00:19:58,197 It's that deadly. 307 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:01,635 They were spraying it on marijuana crops in Mexico 308 00:20:01,678 --> 00:20:06,248 in order to cut down on the Mexican marijuana that was coming into the U.S. 309 00:20:06,292 --> 00:20:11,253 And so, we really thought that they were-- they were poisoning marijuana smokers. 310 00:20:11,297 --> 00:20:17,390 He became seamless on paraquat and I mean, it was all blatant nonsense. 311 00:20:17,433 --> 00:20:20,871 Once Peter and I began to fight over the paraquat issue 312 00:20:20,915 --> 00:20:27,922 it made it difficult for us to work on other issues where we did have common values. 313 00:20:27,965 --> 00:20:30,229 Here's the bottom line: 314 00:20:30,272 --> 00:20:34,320 the health concern that we felt at the time turned out to be overblown. 315 00:20:34,363 --> 00:20:40,021 At the end of that dispute, unfortunately, was also the end of Dr. Bourne's tenure 316 00:20:40,064 --> 00:20:44,634 as Drug Czar and within a few months the end of my first tenure 317 00:20:44,678 --> 00:20:46,506 as executive director of NORML. 318 00:20:46,549 --> 00:20:50,901 I don't doubt for a moment that some of the confidence we had 319 00:20:50,945 --> 00:20:54,557 to fight to the death on the paraquat issue 320 00:20:54,601 --> 00:20:57,995 may well have been impacted by my own drug use 321 00:20:58,039 --> 00:21:01,260 and drug use of other people I was working with at the time. 322 00:21:01,303 --> 00:21:06,308 The activists in the 70's who played such a pioneering role in helping to open this up 323 00:21:06,352 --> 00:21:12,532 at the same time sort of became undisciplined in their rhetoric. 324 00:21:12,575 --> 00:21:17,493 Important thing is that make sure your congressman knows that 10 grams of marijuana 325 00:21:17,537 --> 00:21:20,714 is not enough, 10 grams won't do it! 326 00:21:20,757 --> 00:21:23,064 And then, basically, what happens is things turn around. 327 00:21:23,107 --> 00:21:27,111 I think, you know, as marijuana is used more extensively in society 328 00:21:27,155 --> 00:21:31,333 and as you see a problem emerging among high school kids who are waking and baking, 329 00:21:31,377 --> 00:21:34,423 I think, you know, there's-- there's real serious concerns there. 330 00:21:34,467 --> 00:21:39,080 Well, as a kid, you say well, he does this or he does that and the lines are very clear 331 00:21:39,123 --> 00:21:42,039 what you expect, right? Or what he feels he has to do. 332 00:21:42,083 --> 00:21:44,303 But now we're in a kind of gray area, 333 00:21:44,346 --> 00:21:49,177 17, and I'm saying to myself, "Oh, what do I expect? 334 00:21:49,220 --> 00:21:53,094 What can I expect? What should he be doing?" 335 00:21:53,137 --> 00:21:56,663 We had a big discussion in my U.S. history class 336 00:21:57,185 --> 00:22:01,407 and Mr. Sean talked about pot in the United States, you know. 337 00:22:01,450 --> 00:22:03,365 [friend] With Sean? 338 00:22:03,409 --> 00:22:06,107 [kid] Yeah, he was like comparing it was prohibition, you know. 339 00:22:06,150 --> 00:22:08,065 That's why I stayed out of school today. 340 00:22:09,458 --> 00:22:17,553 There was a changed in the world that was very profound and it started in 1977. 341 00:22:17,597 --> 00:22:24,430 A mother in Atlanta, Keith Schuchard wrote a letter to the esteemed director 342 00:22:24,473 --> 00:22:27,084 of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, that's me. 343 00:22:28,085 --> 00:22:31,741 And she said, "You are the problem." 344 00:22:32,916 --> 00:22:36,790 I mean, not that I got a lot of letters, but that got my attention. 345 00:22:36,833 --> 00:22:38,705 What in the world is she talking about? 346 00:22:39,488 --> 00:22:43,536 She said, "You are fighting the battle about marijuana 347 00:22:43,579 --> 00:22:47,931 and you're missing what the point is. The point is kids. 348 00:22:48,541 --> 00:22:52,196 You're mixing up kids and adults as if it's one problem. 349 00:22:53,023 --> 00:22:56,810 The issue is kids smoking pot." 350 00:22:56,853 --> 00:22:59,552 In this country and all of the Western countries, 351 00:22:59,595 --> 00:23:04,731 a very powerful drug culture, a drug legalization lobby, 352 00:23:04,774 --> 00:23:08,865 and they have managed to get a message out quite strongly that many drugs are harmless, 353 00:23:08,909 --> 00:23:11,302 particularly, marijuana and hashish. 354 00:23:11,346 --> 00:23:16,743 So that the tremendous epidemic of marijuana smoking that went on in the 1970s 355 00:23:16,786 --> 00:23:19,223 was based on ignorance about the health effects. 356 00:23:19,267 --> 00:23:24,098 We gave a seventh-grade birthday party in our backyard and were quite surprised 357 00:23:24,141 --> 00:23:27,362 to find out that kids were smoking marijuana 358 00:23:27,406 --> 00:23:31,845 and it revealed to us a culture that we had no idea that was out there. 359 00:23:31,888 --> 00:23:37,285 That was already absorbing and recruiting young kids as young as twelve-thirteen years old. 360 00:23:37,328 --> 00:23:40,419 We called all the parents of the kids who were at the party 361 00:23:40,462 --> 00:23:43,204 and asked them to come over and let them know what had going on. 362 00:23:43,247 --> 00:23:46,425 It didn't matter if we liked them, if we were the same politics and religion, 363 00:23:46,468 --> 00:23:48,470 but we all had kids who knew each other 364 00:23:48,514 --> 00:23:50,777 and so, we better get to know each other, too. 365 00:23:50,820 --> 00:23:53,736 We had already been worried about our daughter, her personality changes, 366 00:23:53,780 --> 00:23:58,393 lack of interest in school, a whole sense of drift among her friends, etc. 367 00:23:58,437 --> 00:24:03,311 It was about a week after the party that we asked people to come to our home then 368 00:24:03,354 --> 00:24:05,444 and it was quite awkward and difficult. 369 00:24:05,487 --> 00:24:10,492 Some of the parents were quite hostile and very serious denial, 370 00:24:10,536 --> 00:24:13,669 but, eventually, a father stood up and said, 371 00:24:13,713 --> 00:24:17,368 "I know this is going to be hurtful and it's going to be difficult for you to hear, 372 00:24:17,412 --> 00:24:19,936 but this is what I've learned about what's going on." 373 00:24:19,980 --> 00:24:23,026 One of the things that was happening in that period of time 374 00:24:23,070 --> 00:24:25,464 where marijuana was coming into use, 375 00:24:25,507 --> 00:24:27,944 parents didn't have any idea what it was. 376 00:24:29,032 --> 00:24:31,774 They were being told that it was just a harmless giggle, 377 00:24:31,818 --> 00:24:33,820 or the Academy of Pediatrics 378 00:24:33,863 --> 00:24:36,518 thought it was just a phase that young people would go through. 379 00:24:36,562 --> 00:24:40,087 It was really being ignored, the dangers and risks 380 00:24:40,130 --> 00:24:43,482 and, obviously, that helped increase it greatly. 381 00:24:43,525 --> 00:24:47,137 The parents and the families across our nation 382 00:24:47,573 --> 00:24:50,967 must understand the danger involved 383 00:24:51,011 --> 00:24:53,187 from the biological standpoint 384 00:24:53,709 --> 00:24:57,191 and then from the social aspect of the child's world; 385 00:24:57,234 --> 00:25:01,587 what is being created in the child's world that's encouraging the drug use. 386 00:25:01,630 --> 00:25:05,982 We noticed that parents had doubts about marijuana. 387 00:25:06,026 --> 00:25:10,900 They were hearing and reading from magazines and seeing on TV, and funny movies 388 00:25:10,944 --> 00:25:14,382 like Cheech & Chong and so forth, "Well, maybe it's not so bad, 389 00:25:14,425 --> 00:25:17,559 or what are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to tell our kids not to do it?" 390 00:25:17,603 --> 00:25:22,085 [reporter] This is the American child's favorite illegal chemical, marijuana. 391 00:25:22,129 --> 00:25:26,002 [reporter] Today, more high school kids have tried it than haven't and except for alcohol, 392 00:25:26,046 --> 00:25:29,919 more kids smoke pot every day than all other drugs combined. 393 00:25:29,963 --> 00:25:34,097 The kids like it because it feels good and what's more, it's harmless, 394 00:25:34,141 --> 00:25:36,360 or at least that's what the kids tell me. 395 00:25:36,404 --> 00:25:39,102 It's not bad for you. Nobody ever said it's bad for you. 396 00:25:39,146 --> 00:25:42,845 It might give you cancer or something, but so does everything else. 397 00:25:42,889 --> 00:25:48,372 They don't have any proof that pot hurts your body 398 00:25:48,895 --> 00:25:51,898 as it is, you know, not that, uh, 399 00:25:51,941 --> 00:25:55,597 I've heard that no scientist has proven, you know, 400 00:25:55,641 --> 00:25:58,208 that pot hurts your body in any kind of way. 401 00:25:58,252 --> 00:26:05,564 Between 1975 and 1978, youth marijuana use in this country exploded. 402 00:26:05,607 --> 00:26:09,829 And I watched, year after year, those numbers rise. 403 00:26:09,872 --> 00:26:15,356 By 1978, one in nine high school seniors in this country 404 00:26:15,399 --> 00:26:18,011 were smoking marijuana every day. 405 00:26:18,054 --> 00:26:24,408 As it picked up more and more at-- and as it became more of an issue in media coverage, 406 00:26:24,452 --> 00:26:28,369 Dr. DuPont, the government getting involved, it really took off. 407 00:26:28,412 --> 00:26:32,286 These were amateurs and grassroots people doing it on their own, 408 00:26:33,113 --> 00:26:37,073 wanting help and support and if we didn't get it, we were gonna do it anyway. 409 00:26:37,117 --> 00:26:41,469 I didn't have much problem with her taking a position 410 00:26:41,512 --> 00:26:45,212 that more attention should be played to marijuana use, 411 00:26:45,255 --> 00:26:48,128 particularly in the suburbs by white kids 412 00:26:48,737 --> 00:26:54,395 because I was too busy dealing with inner-city heroin addiction. 413 00:26:55,091 --> 00:26:59,574 I didn't personally think that marijuana should be much of a priority. 414 00:26:59,618 --> 00:27:06,233 The total focus had shifted from the damage we're doing to otherwise law-abiding citizens 415 00:27:06,276 --> 00:27:09,192 by treating them like criminals because they smoke, 416 00:27:09,236 --> 00:27:12,413 had all of a sudden shifted to these parents groups. 417 00:27:12,456 --> 00:27:15,503 At the time, we didn't take it very seriously. 418 00:27:15,546 --> 00:27:17,374 We thought it was a distraction. 419 00:27:17,418 --> 00:27:20,769 We thought that "Yes, we have to respond to those questions." 420 00:27:20,813 --> 00:27:27,471 But we couldn't imagine that a majority of the country would adopt that particular focus. 421 00:27:27,515 --> 00:27:28,951 But we were wrong. 422 00:27:28,995 --> 00:27:30,736 [Schuchard] Our interest was in prevention-- 423 00:27:30,779 --> 00:27:33,173 from keeping it from starting from the very beginning. 424 00:27:33,216 --> 00:27:36,350 The first thing was, you wanted the children to be honest with you. 425 00:27:36,393 --> 00:27:38,482 Listen, let's just get this all out in front. 426 00:27:38,526 --> 00:27:41,529 Look, you know, in front-- on the table, what's going on? 427 00:27:41,572 --> 00:27:44,401 Main thing we said, we're going to keep a sense of humor about this. 428 00:27:44,445 --> 00:27:46,839 It's not going to be all grim and miserable. 429 00:27:46,882 --> 00:27:49,058 We're going to keep a sense of humor. 430 00:27:49,102 --> 00:27:52,714 We confessed to them we were naiïve, out of it, didn't have a clue. 431 00:27:52,758 --> 00:27:55,586 Could they help us not make fools of ourselves? 432 00:27:55,630 --> 00:27:57,850 And that did strike with some of the kids. 433 00:27:57,893 --> 00:28:01,462 They didn't want their parents going out and saying things that were absurd 434 00:28:01,505 --> 00:28:05,858 without knowing what they were doing, if we were gonna go talk to PTA or anything else. 435 00:28:05,901 --> 00:28:10,471 The main thing is the absolute lack of information on the effects of drugs on kids. 436 00:28:10,514 --> 00:28:13,430 The fact that there was almost nothing out there about- 437 00:28:13,474 --> 00:28:15,694 these are very complicated chemicals, you know. 438 00:28:15,737 --> 00:28:19,306 The chemicals are strong enough to stop seizures in epilepsy. 439 00:28:19,349 --> 00:28:24,746 These are not, you know, mild benign things going into young kids' brains and bodies. 440 00:28:24,790 --> 00:28:28,881 We began looking around us and found out that our local village, 441 00:28:28,924 --> 00:28:32,145 our shopping malls, were full of kiddy drug paraphernalia. 442 00:28:32,188 --> 00:28:37,150 Comic books, Quaalude candies, root beer-flavored rolling papers, 443 00:28:37,193 --> 00:28:43,156 space gun marijuana shooters, a very attractive, fun and witty commercialized culture 444 00:28:43,199 --> 00:28:47,987 really targeted at that age group because at that time all over the country, 445 00:28:48,030 --> 00:28:53,427 12 was the average age of having their first experience with marijuana. 446 00:28:53,470 --> 00:28:58,737 This is designed to put some pot in and then you smoke the pot out of here. 447 00:28:58,780 --> 00:29:03,393 Now, you can toss a smoke to a friend if you want to. 448 00:29:03,437 --> 00:29:05,961 There are things like bongs that's B-O-N-G. 449 00:29:06,005 --> 00:29:10,139 You put the pot in here, light it, the smoke travels down here, collects, 450 00:29:10,183 --> 00:29:14,056 and then you get a concentrated volume of smoke by sucking in like this. 451 00:29:14,100 --> 00:29:17,886 And I think the label is instructive, "Bong, the only thing wasted is you." 452 00:29:17,930 --> 00:29:23,239 They're smoking at during their most important development years 453 00:29:23,283 --> 00:29:27,809 where the brain is developing, the emotions are developing. 454 00:29:27,853 --> 00:29:34,598 It numbs you to all of those feelings that you are learning how to handle 455 00:29:34,642 --> 00:29:38,298 and that's what makes marijuana so dangerous. 456 00:29:38,341 --> 00:29:42,171 That is what we're destroying with our children. 457 00:29:43,303 --> 00:29:46,306 [Gleaton] Dr. DuPont and Keith sat down and had a talk. 458 00:29:46,349 --> 00:29:49,178 Bob said, "This is a wonderful thing you're doing in your community, 459 00:29:49,222 --> 00:29:50,832 wonder if we can duplicate it." 460 00:29:50,876 --> 00:29:53,356 So, he asked Keith to write a book. 461 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:56,098 So, she did. She wrote one called, Parents Peers and Pot. 462 00:29:56,142 --> 00:29:59,449 And with that book the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIDA, 463 00:29:59,493 --> 00:30:02,148 was able to distribute more than a million copies. 464 00:30:02,191 --> 00:30:06,543 I think when they had a million copies requested they stopped printing it because they said, 465 00:30:06,587 --> 00:30:10,809 "We have too many requests. We can't keep printing it." I was stunned by that. 466 00:30:10,852 --> 00:30:14,682 I had no idea, but it shows how widespread the problem was. 467 00:30:14,725 --> 00:30:16,510 It worked best from the bottom up 468 00:30:17,163 --> 00:30:19,905 and especially, if you're talking about parents and kids, 469 00:30:19,948 --> 00:30:24,257 you're dealing with the strongest instinct in nature, which is protect your kids. 470 00:30:24,300 --> 00:30:30,480 They did a remarkable job in such a tiny amount of time of getting the attention 471 00:30:30,524 --> 00:30:35,964 of federal leaders, national leaders, and making this a national movement of parents 472 00:30:36,008 --> 00:30:38,532 wanting to push all drugs out of their community. 473 00:30:38,575 --> 00:30:42,449 It wasn't just marijuana, it was alcohol, it was tobacco, it was other illegal drugs 474 00:30:42,492 --> 00:30:44,625 and they did a very good job of doing that. 475 00:30:44,668 --> 00:30:47,367 The regular marijuana use and regular drug use fell 476 00:30:47,410 --> 00:30:50,587 in almost two-thirds in the period that they were active. 477 00:30:50,631 --> 00:30:54,722 There were probably a lot of other factors, but I can't help to think that the parent 478 00:30:54,765 --> 00:30:58,508 movement and this idea of changing the culture, which they did so effectively, 479 00:30:58,552 --> 00:31:00,293 wasn't one of those factors. 480 00:31:00,902 --> 00:31:08,910 By the time that Carter left, the scene had completely changed. 481 00:31:08,954 --> 00:31:13,393 Even in the Congress, not-- not just Reagan himself, 482 00:31:13,436 --> 00:31:18,311 but the whole attitude was we've been too soft on drugs. 483 00:31:18,354 --> 00:31:22,881 When I first came to Washington, I was Drug Czar under President Reagan. 484 00:31:22,924 --> 00:31:25,579 It was a difficult entry in a number of ways. 485 00:31:25,622 --> 00:31:30,671 One, because I'd never had a job with that much power and oversight and budget, 486 00:31:30,714 --> 00:31:33,804 but also because I was a pediatrician doing a job 487 00:31:33,848 --> 00:31:36,546 that the psychiatrist knew belonged only to them. 488 00:31:37,330 --> 00:31:42,161 I was there mainly because people in the White House were worried 489 00:31:42,204 --> 00:31:46,774 that the people in the fields were not paying any attention to marijuana 490 00:31:46,817 --> 00:31:51,257 and they wanted somebody in there who saw it their way, so that was me. 491 00:31:51,300 --> 00:31:56,915 The power of a First Lady to reach a national audience is always tremendous. 492 00:31:56,958 --> 00:32:02,790 She took on the drug issue and developed a slogan that was just a directive. 493 00:32:02,833 --> 00:32:05,532 What will you do when someone offers you drugs? 494 00:32:05,575 --> 00:32:07,882 [crowd] Just say no! 495 00:32:07,926 --> 00:32:09,840 She didn't invent that slogan. 496 00:32:09,884 --> 00:32:12,452 An elementary school in Oakland, California, had a contest 497 00:32:12,495 --> 00:32:15,020 and the kids came up with the contest "Just say no." 498 00:32:15,063 --> 00:32:19,154 And they won the contest and Nancy Reagan went out to give them a little award 499 00:32:19,198 --> 00:32:24,116 and the media picked it up that this is the entire national and international drug policy 500 00:32:24,159 --> 00:32:26,770 is, "Just say no." 501 00:32:26,814 --> 00:32:29,556 ♪ And the only thing that we're Here to say that the drugs Are fewer every day ♪ 502 00:32:29,599 --> 00:32:31,993 ♪ Cocaine and crack It's all got to go ♪ 503 00:32:32,037 --> 00:32:34,517 ♪ We got to learn To just say no ♪ 504 00:32:34,561 --> 00:32:35,475 Just say no. 505 00:32:35,518 --> 00:32:36,955 ♪ Just say no 506 00:32:38,260 --> 00:32:40,828 ♪ Just say no, just say no 507 00:32:40,871 --> 00:32:43,918 ♪ No, just say no 508 00:32:43,962 --> 00:32:45,920 ♪ Learning when to say no 509 00:32:45,964 --> 00:32:47,139 Hey, no. 510 00:32:47,182 --> 00:32:50,011 ♪ That's what you need to do 511 00:32:50,055 --> 00:32:51,621 ♪ Don't need it 512 00:32:51,665 --> 00:32:52,927 ♪ Say, no Don't need it ♪ 513 00:32:52,971 --> 00:32:54,581 ♪ Say, no 514 00:32:54,624 --> 00:32:56,583 ♪ Just say no To drugs to beat it ♪ 515 00:32:56,626 --> 00:32:59,716 ♪ Don't let a friend push You in to taking drugs ♪ 516 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:03,546 ♪ You got a right to say no 517 00:33:03,590 --> 00:33:04,678 ♪ No 518 00:33:04,721 --> 00:33:06,549 ♪ Right to say no 519 00:33:06,593 --> 00:33:09,726 If you just say no, you'll be saying yes to a whole lot more. 520 00:33:09,770 --> 00:33:13,861 What can be a better little slogan for elementary school? "Just say no." Why not? 521 00:33:13,904 --> 00:33:14,557 No. 522 00:33:14,601 --> 00:33:15,428 No thanks. 523 00:33:15,471 --> 00:33:16,211 No way! 524 00:33:16,255 --> 00:33:16,864 No. 525 00:33:16,907 --> 00:33:17,647 No. 526 00:33:17,691 --> 00:33:18,822 No. 527 00:33:18,866 --> 00:33:20,389 [man] Help them to just say no. 528 00:33:20,433 --> 00:33:25,307 When Nancy Reagan said, "Just say no," 529 00:33:27,309 --> 00:33:34,360 I think that was maybe the highest moment of the drug war, perhaps to this day. 530 00:33:34,403 --> 00:33:38,451 We laugh at Nancy Reagan for saying, "Just say no." 531 00:33:38,494 --> 00:33:41,106 But "Just say no" was a pretty good message. 532 00:33:41,149 --> 00:33:44,109 "Just say no" doesn't put anybody in prison. 533 00:33:44,718 --> 00:33:47,677 "Just say no" doesn't get anybody killed. 534 00:33:48,548 --> 00:33:54,206 "Just say no" I think was humane. 535 00:33:54,249 --> 00:33:57,470 Enjoy life to the fullest and to make it count. 536 00:33:58,123 --> 00:34:04,303 Say, yes to your life and when it comes to drugs and alcohol, just say no. 537 00:34:04,346 --> 00:34:07,262 And in there were the roots of a new drug policy. 538 00:34:07,306 --> 00:34:11,875 Just say no so loud that everyone around you can hear 539 00:34:11,919 --> 00:34:15,227 and if you do that drugs won't stand a chance. 540 00:34:15,270 --> 00:34:18,534 Mrs. Reagan just took it on instinctively. 541 00:34:18,578 --> 00:34:23,844 She had seen enough drug problems in kids and she just took it on as a mother. 542 00:34:23,887 --> 00:34:26,238 It was interesting because when I first met her, 543 00:34:26,281 --> 00:34:30,938 I said, "Mrs. Reagan, I have to confess, I'm a Democrat and I'm even an L word." 544 00:34:30,981 --> 00:34:33,767 She said, "An L word?" I said, "A Liberal." She said, "That's fine. 545 00:34:33,810 --> 00:34:36,117 This is bipartisan as I understand." 546 00:34:36,161 --> 00:34:38,859 And I said, "Yes, indeed." And she said, "Well, we're gonna keep it that way." 547 00:34:38,902 --> 00:34:42,732 She took it on as a mother, not as a First Lady. 548 00:34:42,776 --> 00:34:46,954 In fact, her staff didn't want her to take it on and when she came up with the idea, 549 00:34:46,997 --> 00:34:49,696 let's invite the First Ladies of the world to come, 550 00:34:49,739 --> 00:34:51,611 many people thought she was nuts, 551 00:34:51,654 --> 00:34:54,831 but that was an incredibly impressive and effective thing. 552 00:34:54,875 --> 00:34:59,314 And as we have found out, you know, moms are something to be reckoned with 553 00:34:59,358 --> 00:35:00,576 all over the world. 554 00:35:02,535 --> 00:35:06,495 Ronald Reagan, you know, he could see the political utility of the drug war 555 00:35:06,539 --> 00:35:09,150 and he's- and he's certainly profited. 556 00:35:09,194 --> 00:35:12,893 Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion 557 00:35:13,415 --> 00:35:16,766 that marijuana, pot, grass, whatever you want to call it, 558 00:35:16,810 --> 00:35:20,770 is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States 559 00:35:20,814 --> 00:35:26,689 and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects, but they are permanent ill effects. 560 00:35:26,733 --> 00:35:33,566 My position was always that the best way to handle a drug problem is to prevent it, 561 00:35:33,609 --> 00:35:37,396 or to offer counseling and cures, 562 00:35:38,136 --> 00:35:43,141 whereas for many other people they thought the best way was to stop it, to war it. 563 00:35:43,184 --> 00:35:45,621 There is only one way to stop an epidemic 564 00:35:45,665 --> 00:35:49,190 and that is to isolate the virus that causes it and destroy it. 565 00:35:49,234 --> 00:35:51,801 [MacDonald] The administration did go in a different direction. 566 00:35:51,845 --> 00:35:57,329 They believed it was a balanced approach. In my view, it was balanced on the wrong side. 567 00:35:57,372 --> 00:36:01,594 The American people want their government to get tough and to go on the offensive 568 00:36:01,637 --> 00:36:03,509 and that's exactly what we intend. 569 00:36:03,552 --> 00:36:06,251 You had Reagan come in and say this is all nonsense. 570 00:36:06,294 --> 00:36:09,689 It's all evil people, doing evil things. 571 00:36:09,732 --> 00:36:12,213 It doesn't matter what drug they're using. 572 00:36:12,257 --> 00:36:16,391 We need to worry about putting in prison these malevolent people 573 00:36:16,435 --> 00:36:19,829 who are doing these bad things and that will stop drug use. 574 00:36:19,873 --> 00:36:22,005 Drugs are menacing our society. 575 00:36:22,049 --> 00:36:25,705 They're threatening our values and undercutting our institutions. 576 00:36:25,748 --> 00:36:27,620 They're killing our children. 577 00:36:27,663 --> 00:36:29,970 Reagan was more of a moralist than Richard Nixon. 578 00:36:30,013 --> 00:36:31,667 Richard Nixon was not a moralist. 579 00:36:31,711 --> 00:36:35,410 Reagan-- Reagan's presidency coincides with the- 580 00:36:35,454 --> 00:36:38,021 with the rise of the evangelical churches... 581 00:36:38,065 --> 00:36:41,242 Hallelujah! You cannot drug the Holy Ghost! 582 00:36:41,286 --> 00:36:43,592 You can't do it, drug addict! 583 00:36:43,636 --> 00:36:48,771 The Holy Ghost will follow you to hell and back to bring you to Jesus Christ! 584 00:36:48,815 --> 00:36:52,601 He can set you free from drugs and put something in your life 585 00:36:52,645 --> 00:36:54,386 that will make life worth living! 586 00:36:56,736 --> 00:36:59,260 Conservatives in general took the view, 587 00:36:59,304 --> 00:37:03,612 people commit crimes and people use drugs because they're bad people. 588 00:37:03,656 --> 00:37:09,488 And the appropriate response is to punish them. 589 00:37:09,531 --> 00:37:13,361 And they say this with some justification. 590 00:37:13,405 --> 00:37:15,581 They would say the liberal idea 591 00:37:15,624 --> 00:37:20,020 that root causes are behind things like crime and drug abuse, 592 00:37:20,063 --> 00:37:22,892 is to say that everybody who is poor, 593 00:37:22,936 --> 00:37:26,200 and everybody who is black is potentially a criminal. 594 00:37:27,157 --> 00:37:32,032 And I'm a liberal, but I can see where that is a-- 595 00:37:33,163 --> 00:37:35,688 that is an unpleasant place to go. 596 00:37:35,731 --> 00:37:39,648 We're fighting the crusade for a drug-free America on many fronts. 597 00:37:39,692 --> 00:37:44,305 We've substantially increased the number of federal prosecutors and agents. 598 00:37:44,349 --> 00:37:46,829 When I first started working undercover, 599 00:37:46,873 --> 00:37:50,659 we had a very, very, small statewide drug unit. 600 00:37:50,703 --> 00:37:55,142 There were five people on my team, which had all of Southern Maryland. 601 00:37:55,185 --> 00:38:01,540 Almost like overnight, we went from a little small unit to a bureau. 602 00:38:01,583 --> 00:38:05,587 We ended up adding another Bureau to the Maryland State Police. 603 00:38:06,371 --> 00:38:10,766 So, now you're talking about hundreds of undercover operatives 604 00:38:10,810 --> 00:38:13,203 throughout the state of Maryland in just a few years. 605 00:38:13,247 --> 00:38:17,120 And as we go into Regan and that federal money starts pouring in, 606 00:38:17,164 --> 00:38:20,907 our pay increased dramatically during that period. 607 00:38:20,950 --> 00:38:26,216 And that's why so many cops liked Ronald Reagan, because we got raises. 608 00:39:04,559 --> 00:39:08,215 The federal government gives grants to every state, 609 00:39:08,258 --> 00:39:10,478 county, and municipal police department 610 00:39:10,522 --> 00:39:13,742 every year based on one thing: 611 00:39:14,395 --> 00:39:20,488 how many drug arrests did you make the year before? The more drug arrests, the more money. 612 00:39:20,967 --> 00:39:26,189 Where do you think police administrators are going to focus their police officers now? 613 00:39:26,233 --> 00:39:29,236 They don't get paid for arresting people for murder, 614 00:39:29,279 --> 00:39:34,720 they don't get paid for arresting rapists, they get paid for arresting drug violators. 615 00:39:34,763 --> 00:39:38,201 It's the only crime in the United States where police officers 616 00:39:38,245 --> 00:39:41,291 get paid extra money for making arrests. 617 00:39:41,335 --> 00:39:44,686 And the easier the arrest is the more likely they are to make it. 618 00:39:44,730 --> 00:39:49,125 So, we have what is called low-hanging fruit and that's where we make our arrest. 619 00:39:49,169 --> 00:39:52,346 [Franklin] Most of our efforts by large are for marijuana enforcement. 620 00:39:52,390 --> 00:39:56,219 And I think this is one of the reasons why at the management level you tend to see 621 00:39:56,263 --> 00:39:59,309 a lot of resistance to the change in marijuana laws, 622 00:39:59,353 --> 00:40:02,051 moving it from a place of illegality to legality. 623 00:40:02,095 --> 00:40:09,145 I had seen too many of my colleagues so wound up in the idea of a war on drugs 624 00:40:09,189 --> 00:40:16,457 that they had decided that in this particular situation, the means are justified by the ends. 625 00:40:16,501 --> 00:40:21,201 So, anything they could possibly do to get a drug dealer off the street was okay. 626 00:40:22,071 --> 00:40:24,334 Some of them were lying on the stand. 627 00:40:24,813 --> 00:40:27,903 Some of the guys felt like, "If I see this dealer out there. 628 00:40:27,947 --> 00:40:29,818 I know he's been dealing every day 629 00:40:29,862 --> 00:40:32,952 and I grab him at the one time he doesn't have drugs on him, 630 00:40:33,431 --> 00:40:35,998 well, maybe I'll just put some on him. 631 00:40:36,042 --> 00:40:41,003 He'll go to prison. I've done my job." We even had a name for it. It was called salting them. 632 00:40:44,442 --> 00:40:49,229 It distracts us from what we should be doing, finding the murderers, the rapists. 633 00:40:49,272 --> 00:40:54,364 When you arrest a rapist, he's been terrorizing a community or a neighborhood. 634 00:40:54,408 --> 00:40:56,149 You know what? The rape stops. 635 00:40:56,192 --> 00:40:58,499 You arrest the drug dealer who's hanging out on the corner, 636 00:40:58,543 --> 00:41:00,849 the drug selling doesn't stop, folks. 637 00:41:00,893 --> 00:41:05,027 If at anything, we the police, just cause the temporary void in the market 638 00:41:05,071 --> 00:41:07,290 that other crews and gangs are going to fight for. 639 00:41:07,334 --> 00:41:10,119 And they're gonna have shootouts in an attempt to fill that market. 640 00:41:10,163 --> 00:41:12,339 And then when you have their shootout, 641 00:41:12,382 --> 00:41:15,473 then you have months and months of retaliation resulting from that. 642 00:41:15,516 --> 00:41:18,650 We call it clearing corners and we create more violence 643 00:41:18,693 --> 00:41:21,479 in our neighborhoods and communities when we do this. 644 00:41:21,522 --> 00:41:26,092 [reporter] Ten years ago the efforts of Mrs. Dawson to stop the drug-dealing backfired. 645 00:41:26,135 --> 00:41:30,357 Their home at 1401 East Preston Street was set on fire. 646 00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:35,405 Five children and Carnell and Angela Dawson couldn't escape a Molotov cocktail. 647 00:41:35,449 --> 00:41:37,495 When people say, "How did the drug war get so violent?" 648 00:41:37,538 --> 00:41:40,541 It's like asking, how did alcohol prohibition get so violent? 649 00:41:40,585 --> 00:41:43,457 Drug markets had always had an element of violence to them, 650 00:41:43,501 --> 00:41:47,069 but tied together with other things going on in our culture in the late 80's, 651 00:41:47,113 --> 00:41:50,551 early 90's met with-- then we had this explosion of violence 652 00:41:50,595 --> 00:41:53,423 in American cities and sometimes beyond the cities. 653 00:41:53,467 --> 00:41:55,774 [Reagan] We've also strengthened the laws, 654 00:41:55,817 --> 00:42:00,822 so that we can now dispose of property that was bought with drug money. 655 00:42:01,431 --> 00:42:03,346 We don't have to give it back. 656 00:42:04,086 --> 00:42:06,045 The results: 657 00:42:06,088 --> 00:42:10,092 last year federal drug agents confiscated over half a billion dollars 658 00:42:10,136 --> 00:42:12,007 worth of drug-related assets. 659 00:42:12,051 --> 00:42:15,707 That's when civil forfeiture policies came to life. 660 00:42:15,750 --> 00:42:20,407 Initially designed to go after drug kingpins and all their proceeds 661 00:42:20,450 --> 00:42:25,586 from their illegal businesses, that's what civil forfeiture policies were for. 662 00:42:25,630 --> 00:42:30,939 But then, there came a time when we busted up most of the major drug operations. 663 00:42:30,983 --> 00:42:35,683 We turned five major organizations into five hundred street corner operations. 664 00:42:35,727 --> 00:42:38,817 So, as the drug kingpins within our communities went away 665 00:42:38,860 --> 00:42:43,822 and now everybody's out there for themselves with their own little operations, 666 00:42:43,865 --> 00:42:46,651 we didn't stop our civil forfeiture policies, 667 00:42:46,694 --> 00:42:50,089 we just took those civil forfeiture policies and aimed them 668 00:42:50,132 --> 00:42:53,266 to every John Doe citizen that's out there. 669 00:42:53,309 --> 00:42:55,485 You don't even have to arrest somebody, you know. 670 00:42:55,529 --> 00:43:00,708 When you stop a car, if you find that there's a lot of money in that car 671 00:43:00,752 --> 00:43:02,275 then you can seize the money. 672 00:43:02,318 --> 00:43:05,060 And you don't even have to arrest the person. 673 00:43:05,104 --> 00:43:08,237 And it quite literally is a license to steal. 674 00:43:20,815 --> 00:43:26,125 The reason these forfeiture dollars are so important to police leaders 675 00:43:26,168 --> 00:43:32,871 is that they have discretion to spend them any kind of way that they choose fit. 676 00:43:32,914 --> 00:43:38,267 And whenever you give a pile of money to a law enforcement official 677 00:43:38,311 --> 00:43:44,534 with uncontrolled spending limits that's a very, very, bad place to be. 678 00:43:44,578 --> 00:43:46,798 How do you decide forfeiture funds? 679 00:43:46,841 --> 00:43:48,669 There's some limitations on it, you know. 680 00:43:48,713 --> 00:43:52,238 It's actually-- there's not really on the forfeiture stuff. 681 00:43:52,281 --> 00:43:55,937 We just usually base it on something that would be nice to have. 682 00:43:55,981 --> 00:43:59,158 That we-- we can't get in the budget, for instance. 683 00:44:00,333 --> 00:44:05,294 So, you know, we try not to use it for things that we need to depend on, 684 00:44:05,338 --> 00:44:07,470 you know, because we need to go ahead and have those purchased 685 00:44:07,514 --> 00:44:09,690 but it's kind of like pennies from heaven, you know. 686 00:44:09,734 --> 00:44:11,866 It gets you a toy or something that you need. 687 00:44:11,910 --> 00:44:14,086 This is the way we typically look at it. 688 00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:21,267 Sometimes when you look at the progress or lack of progress on drug law or reform, 689 00:44:21,310 --> 00:44:25,401 you- you have to acknowledge that it has a lot to do 690 00:44:25,445 --> 00:44:28,970 with whether there's been a high-profile victim. 691 00:44:29,014 --> 00:44:32,452 And probably the best example of that in my lifetime 692 00:44:32,495 --> 00:44:35,194 was a wonderful all-American basketball player, 693 00:44:35,237 --> 00:44:39,067 drafted number one that year by the Boston Celtics, Len Bias. 694 00:44:39,111 --> 00:44:40,939 He graduated from the University of Maryland. 695 00:44:40,982 --> 00:44:43,811 He was the highest ranked player in the entire country. 696 00:44:43,855 --> 00:44:47,075 [commentator] Notice how he gets it under control and then he goes up strong. 697 00:44:47,119 --> 00:44:49,817 He likes to see your big guys do that. That's a big basket. 698 00:44:49,861 --> 00:44:52,515 [Baum] Congress is very basketball crazy. 699 00:44:52,559 --> 00:44:55,388 Congress-- it's kind of a basketball culture. 700 00:44:55,431 --> 00:45:00,523 And Len Bias for basketball watching America, he was America's sweetheart. 701 00:45:00,567 --> 00:45:05,311 The Boston Celtics select Len Bias of the University of Maryland. 702 00:45:05,354 --> 00:45:08,401 [Bias] I knew what was going to happen when the guy came over to me when I was sitting down 703 00:45:08,444 --> 00:45:12,927 and said, "Are you packed to go to Boston? And I said, "Uh, yes. I am." 704 00:45:12,971 --> 00:45:17,236 So, I'm happy to be picked by Boston and I'm going to go out there and play the best I can. 705 00:45:17,279 --> 00:45:25,505 June 19th, 1986, that was the day that changed the way we think about drugs, 706 00:45:25,548 --> 00:45:27,725 it changed all kinds of policies. 707 00:45:27,768 --> 00:45:32,642 When Len Bias death occurred, there was enormous national media- 708 00:45:32,686 --> 00:45:34,819 international media attention about it. 709 00:45:34,862 --> 00:45:38,779 Mr. Bias died of cocaine intoxication, 710 00:45:39,345 --> 00:45:44,742 which interrupted the normal electrical activity of his brain. 711 00:45:44,785 --> 00:45:50,269 Up to Len Bias' death crack cocaine had been on the streets and thousands of kids had died. 712 00:45:50,312 --> 00:45:52,662 And a thousand people have been incarcerated behind it, 713 00:45:52,706 --> 00:45:57,232 but because someone so famous and someone so prominent died, 714 00:45:57,276 --> 00:46:00,061 all of a sudden it became a national epidemic. 715 00:46:00,105 --> 00:46:05,371 It was a tragedy for him, it was a tragedy for his family, but it should not have been the basis 716 00:46:05,414 --> 00:46:09,679 to formulate national drug policy, but it was for a number of years. 717 00:46:11,507 --> 00:46:16,774 I call him the Archduke Ferdinand of the war on drugs because 718 00:46:18,253 --> 00:46:21,779 his death is perfect for the drug war. 719 00:46:21,822 --> 00:46:24,303 Tip O'Neill is Speaker of the House. He's a Democrat 720 00:46:24,869 --> 00:46:31,876 and he is screaming at his staff, "Write me some goddamn legislation. 721 00:46:31,919 --> 00:46:35,662 We need to get out in front of this." "We" meaning the Democrats. 722 00:46:35,705 --> 00:46:41,102 There weren't any in-depth studies, they weren't fact-based. 723 00:46:41,146 --> 00:46:43,365 They weren't evidence-based. 724 00:46:43,409 --> 00:46:45,454 [Baum] And what the Democrats come up with... 725 00:46:45,498 --> 00:46:48,631 [man] The yea's are 97, the nays are 2. 726 00:46:48,675 --> 00:46:50,764 ...is mandatory minimum sentences. 727 00:46:50,808 --> 00:46:53,549 This is something that had to be dealt with and of course, you know, 728 00:46:53,593 --> 00:46:56,639 election year fever did take hold of some people. 729 00:46:56,683 --> 00:47:01,427 [Baum] This idea is manufactured that lenient judges are letting drug users 730 00:47:01,470 --> 00:47:05,387 and drug dealers off too easily and we are going to tie the hands of judges. 731 00:47:05,431 --> 00:47:09,696 It is the most wildly anti-democratic step you can take. 732 00:47:09,739 --> 00:47:12,568 It was McCarthyism on steroids. 733 00:47:12,612 --> 00:47:17,138 It was McCarthyism with all the hysteria and the paranoia both externally and internally, 734 00:47:17,182 --> 00:47:19,532 but with this extraordinary budget, 735 00:47:19,575 --> 00:47:23,710 and throwing not just a handful of people behind bars, but millions, millions. 736 00:47:23,753 --> 00:47:29,672 During the mid-1980's into the later 1980's, it just got crazy. 737 00:47:29,716 --> 00:47:36,201 Mandatory minimum sentencing, tougher drug sentencing laws, and it was a complete disaster. 738 00:47:36,244 --> 00:47:41,902 If you look at this moment in time on a graph of incarceration for this country 739 00:47:41,946 --> 00:47:46,864 that's literally the beginning of our prison population boom in this country, 740 00:47:46,907 --> 00:47:51,520 going from, you know, roughly around 500,000 people in prison in this country 741 00:47:51,564 --> 00:47:53,827 to where we are today at 2.3 million. 742 00:47:53,871 --> 00:47:57,439 The gravest domestic threat facing our nation today is drugs. 743 00:47:57,483 --> 00:48:03,097 We need more prisons, more jails, more courts, more prosecutors. 744 00:48:03,141 --> 00:48:06,057 We are determined to enforce the law. 745 00:48:06,100 --> 00:48:08,276 Punishment that is swift and certain. 746 00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:11,018 You will be caught and when you're caught, 747 00:48:11,062 --> 00:48:16,763 you will be prosecuted and once you're convicted, you will do time. 748 00:48:16,806 --> 00:48:20,114 Caught, prosecuted, punished. 749 00:48:48,969 --> 00:48:51,015 While I was a judge, 750 00:48:51,058 --> 00:48:53,539 it was a learning experience because I'm a former drug warrior 751 00:48:53,582 --> 00:48:55,715 who used to prosecute those drug cases, 752 00:48:55,758 --> 00:48:58,892 but I'd see us churning low-level drug offenders through the system 753 00:48:58,936 --> 00:49:01,155 in my own courtroom for no good purpose. 754 00:49:01,199 --> 00:49:04,637 So, I did something extremely unusual for a sitting trial court judge 755 00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:07,161 and on April the 8, 1992, 756 00:49:07,205 --> 00:49:10,469 held a press conference telling the world as much as I could 757 00:49:10,512 --> 00:49:14,864 that our system of drug policy was not working, drug prohibition did not work, 758 00:49:14,908 --> 00:49:18,520 and we'd have to come to our senses because there were alternatives. 759 00:49:18,564 --> 00:49:21,567 The tougher we get with regard to marijuana prosecution, 760 00:49:21,610 --> 00:49:23,917 literally, from my experience as a judge 761 00:49:23,961 --> 00:49:26,572 and I have seen this on in Orange County forever, 762 00:49:26,615 --> 00:49:29,792 the softer we get with the prosecution of everything else, 763 00:49:29,836 --> 00:49:32,970 and that is something that we simply have so many resources 764 00:49:33,013 --> 00:49:35,929 and if we're spending them in prosecutions of marijuana, 765 00:49:35,973 --> 00:49:40,107 we are not spending them for prosecutions of rape, homicide, etc. 766 00:49:40,151 --> 00:49:45,634 I have seen numbers of federal judges appointed by people like Nixon and Reagan, for example. 767 00:49:45,678 --> 00:49:49,073 I mean they're really conservative people on the bench in tears 768 00:49:49,116 --> 00:49:53,251 because the law forced them to have to sentence this person standing 769 00:49:53,294 --> 00:49:56,210 in front of them to 20 to 30 years in prison. 770 00:49:56,254 --> 00:49:57,820 And they apologize. 771 00:49:57,864 --> 00:50:00,127 What they say, "I have to do this. I have to follow the law." 772 00:50:00,171 --> 00:50:03,391 It's great politics but it's rotten government. 773 00:50:03,435 --> 00:50:05,654 Just wipe me out, straight off the mouth for nothing. 774 00:50:05,698 --> 00:50:07,917 Put yourself here for such a small wrong, you know. 775 00:50:07,961 --> 00:50:10,659 You know what I'm saying? I want to know why I'm being treated 776 00:50:10,703 --> 00:50:12,226 like I murdered somebody, you know. 777 00:50:13,097 --> 00:50:16,709 Politicians want to get reelected, plain and simple. 778 00:50:17,275 --> 00:50:21,844 And one of the issues is that they suck from the same trough 779 00:50:21,888 --> 00:50:25,109 that they see others making headway with. 780 00:50:25,152 --> 00:50:29,852 In 25 years, crime has been a hot political issue, 781 00:50:30,505 --> 00:50:32,681 used too often to divide us 782 00:50:33,421 --> 00:50:38,600 while the system makes excuses for not punishing criminals in doing the job. 783 00:50:38,644 --> 00:50:44,171 Under Clinton, Clinton sort of said, "Well, you want a war on drugs? 784 00:50:44,215 --> 00:50:47,305 I'll hire this general and run it." 785 00:50:47,348 --> 00:50:51,526 And so, he used very much the military model 786 00:50:51,570 --> 00:50:53,354 to deal with the drug problem. 787 00:50:53,398 --> 00:50:57,097 I mean I-- I know well and like Barry McCaffrey, 788 00:50:57,141 --> 00:51:02,711 but he came with zero knowledge or experience with drug abuse. 789 00:51:02,755 --> 00:51:07,673 General McCaffrey has faced down many threats to America's security from guerilla warfare 790 00:51:07,716 --> 00:51:12,721 in the jungles of Vietnam to the unprecedented ground war in the sands of Desert Storm. 791 00:51:13,461 --> 00:51:18,510 Now, he faces a more insidious, but no less formidable enemy in illegal drugs. 792 00:51:18,553 --> 00:51:26,039 As much as I admired President Clinton, I thought his criminal justice policies were misguided. 793 00:51:26,083 --> 00:51:29,303 Those who commit crimes should be punished. 794 00:51:29,347 --> 00:51:34,395 And those who commit repeated violent crimes should be told. 795 00:51:34,439 --> 00:51:39,618 When you commit a third violent crime, you will be put away and put away for good. 796 00:51:39,661 --> 00:51:42,490 Three strikes and you are out. 797 00:51:43,187 --> 00:51:47,147 I think he knew better and I think he would acknowledge that now. 798 00:51:47,191 --> 00:51:51,630 I signed a bill that made the problem worse and I want to admit it. 799 00:51:52,152 --> 00:51:54,937 In that bill there were longer sentences 800 00:51:56,983 --> 00:52:04,599 and most of these people are in prison under state law, but the federal law set a trend. 801 00:52:06,514 --> 00:52:09,126 And that was overdone. We were wrong about that. 802 00:52:09,648 --> 00:52:14,261 A law-abiding person, it might sound like it makes sense. 803 00:52:14,305 --> 00:52:19,005 You're gonna go commit three felonies, obviously, you're a habitual criminal 804 00:52:19,048 --> 00:52:21,660 and you're not gonna go back. 805 00:52:21,703 --> 00:52:25,229 But you don't understand, you know, I've had guys that went to jail for fighting with a girl, 806 00:52:25,272 --> 00:52:30,625 okay? That's the felony and then inside prison, catch two more. 807 00:52:31,104 --> 00:52:33,672 You can strike out in jail. People don't know that. 808 00:52:33,715 --> 00:52:38,198 So, you could be a square guy to go to jail for DUI, end up going to jail. 809 00:52:38,242 --> 00:52:40,635 End up somebody tries to rape you. 810 00:52:40,679 --> 00:52:44,161 You catch a felony in there and he you're on your way to the three-strikes. 811 00:52:44,204 --> 00:52:47,076 I definitely know it was a foul law. 812 00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:51,211 I know that it-- it's-- it's got a lot of people stuck for life 813 00:52:51,255 --> 00:52:53,866 that don't deserve being in there for life. 814 00:52:53,909 --> 00:52:58,218 There was a U.S. senator from Virginia named Jim Webb who was looking at these statistics. 815 00:52:58,262 --> 00:53:05,138 We have 5% of the world's population, 25% of the world's known prison population 816 00:53:05,182 --> 00:53:11,057 and at the same time, we have about 7 million people who have been involved 817 00:53:11,100 --> 00:53:14,191 in the criminal justice system in one way or another. 818 00:53:14,234 --> 00:53:19,500 Many of them who were marked for life with the stigma of having been in prison. 819 00:53:19,544 --> 00:53:22,764 Either we are the most criminally minded people in the world, 820 00:53:22,808 --> 00:53:25,114 or we're doing something wrong. Which do you think? 821 00:53:25,158 --> 00:53:28,379 A shocking new study by the American Civil Liberties Union 822 00:53:28,422 --> 00:53:31,773 has found that more than 3200 people nationwide 823 00:53:31,817 --> 00:53:35,821 are serving life terms without parole for nonviolent offenses. 824 00:53:35,864 --> 00:53:41,087 The crimes that led to life sentences include stealing gas from a truck, shoplifting, 825 00:53:41,130 --> 00:53:45,439 possessing a crack pipe, facilitating a ten-dollar sale of marijuana, 826 00:53:45,483 --> 00:53:48,225 and attempting to cash a stolen check. 827 00:53:48,268 --> 00:53:53,317 Of those prisoners 80% are behind bars for drug-related crimes. 828 00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:59,845 65% are African-American, 18% are white and 16% are Latino. 829 00:53:59,888 --> 00:54:04,415 Evidence of what the ACLU calls extreme racial disparities. 830 00:54:04,458 --> 00:54:07,635 You know, one of the issues that's tremendously sad 831 00:54:07,679 --> 00:54:10,812 is what's happened to the black community, 832 00:54:10,856 --> 00:54:16,296 where so many fathers are separated now from their families. 833 00:54:16,340 --> 00:54:19,604 And that's been a real concern of ours is this racial bias, 834 00:54:19,647 --> 00:54:22,476 not only in penalties, but also in reporting and things. 835 00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:28,439 If you were to randomly stop a hundred black kids and a hundred white kids 836 00:54:28,482 --> 00:54:32,660 in any neighborhood in America, roughly the same percent 837 00:54:32,704 --> 00:54:35,228 would have a little bit of weed in their pocket, 838 00:54:35,881 --> 00:54:41,147 but in virtually every city in America, the black kid is three, 839 00:54:41,190 --> 00:54:45,847 five to ten times more likely to be stopped and arrested and given a criminal record 840 00:54:45,891 --> 00:54:47,458 than the white kid. 841 00:54:47,501 --> 00:54:50,156 And most people, including white people who are 842 00:54:50,199 --> 00:54:52,289 kind of indifferent to the issues around race, 843 00:54:52,332 --> 00:54:54,291 kind of get that that's not fair. 844 00:54:54,334 --> 00:54:57,946 [Cole] In the most racist, political regime in modern history, 845 00:54:57,990 --> 00:55:00,645 that would be the apartheid government of South Africa, 846 00:55:00,688 --> 00:55:03,735 in 1993, the year before that fell, 847 00:55:03,778 --> 00:55:08,479 they imprisoned black men at the rate of 851 per hundred thousand. 848 00:55:08,522 --> 00:55:14,049 But you know, in the United States by 2008, under our prohibition government, 849 00:55:14,093 --> 00:55:18,663 we imprisoned black men eight or nine times the rate we imprison white people. 850 00:55:19,664 --> 00:55:24,495 Anybody who looks at that one statistic and doesn't see institutionalized racism 851 00:55:26,105 --> 00:55:28,194 must have a sheet over their head. 852 00:55:28,237 --> 00:55:31,763 The war on drugs is like the new Jim Crow. 853 00:55:31,806 --> 00:55:36,115 It is aimed at controlling black folks and making money off folk. 854 00:55:36,158 --> 00:55:40,337 Think of the money that's being made off of all these black folks in prison. 855 00:55:40,380 --> 00:55:43,818 The people at the bottom, let's keep them at the bottom. 856 00:55:43,862 --> 00:55:45,864 And this is an easy way to do it. 857 00:55:45,907 --> 00:55:48,649 Incarcerate them, decimate their families, 858 00:55:48,693 --> 00:55:52,392 destroy their chances of making it into the world. 859 00:55:52,436 --> 00:55:55,439 Once they go to prison, they'll never get a chance to- 860 00:55:55,482 --> 00:55:58,529 even if they now want to be legit, move up. 861 00:55:59,356 --> 00:56:03,229 It's a fucked up paradox that gets you stuck. 862 00:56:04,535 --> 00:56:09,148 The people who are suffering the most are the citizens. 863 00:56:09,191 --> 00:56:13,195 These are the people who every day deal with the increased murder rate, 864 00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:17,678 whether it's Chicago, whether it's Baltimore, whether it's Newark, New Jersey, 865 00:56:17,722 --> 00:56:19,376 whether it's Washington, DC. 866 00:56:19,419 --> 00:56:21,682 It's the citizens that live in these communities 867 00:56:21,726 --> 00:56:25,338 where these gangs and crews are fighting each other every day over corners. 868 00:56:26,034 --> 00:56:28,123 I think most people fail to realize, even cops. 869 00:56:28,167 --> 00:56:29,821 They are also victims of the war on drugs. 870 00:56:29,864 --> 00:56:32,432 They are serious victims of the war on drugs. 871 00:56:32,476 --> 00:56:36,654 All you have to do is turn on any TV and look at the news, or turn on YouTube and see the- 872 00:56:36,697 --> 00:56:41,615 the dissension, the hate and the problems that we have between police and- 873 00:56:41,659 --> 00:56:45,358 and mainly our poor, black, and brown communities because of this. 874 00:56:47,316 --> 00:56:50,537 When I started working on the drug war in the early 90's 875 00:56:50,581 --> 00:56:54,715 to me what was most offensive was the clamping down of debate 876 00:56:54,759 --> 00:56:58,589 to question the drug war was tantamount to forbidden speech. 877 00:56:59,154 --> 00:57:05,726 We were really specifically enjoined from debating our way 878 00:57:05,770 --> 00:57:10,035 toward a rational management of drug abuse in this country. 879 00:57:10,078 --> 00:57:14,474 If you want to put the drug dealer out of business overnight is legalize drugs. 880 00:57:14,518 --> 00:57:15,910 There's no drug dealer. 881 00:57:15,954 --> 00:57:16,998 [arguing] 882 00:57:18,565 --> 00:57:23,309 It's slime like you in the White House, I'd puke on you! 883 00:57:24,179 --> 00:57:25,529 [crowd cheer] 884 00:57:33,275 --> 00:57:38,803 I they think there is a sense in which the fanaticism and the willful propaganda... 885 00:57:38,846 --> 00:57:42,284 One of the DEA judge said they compared intoxicity to aspirin. 886 00:57:42,328 --> 00:57:44,635 Marijuana is overwhelmingly safer. 887 00:57:44,678 --> 00:57:49,466 He says that marijuana-- he said that marijuana is perhaps one of the most- 888 00:57:49,509 --> 00:57:52,599 safest psychoactive substances ever known to man. 889 00:57:52,643 --> 00:57:53,905 [crowd laughs] 890 00:57:54,514 --> 00:57:58,387 Very simply-- everybody please... 891 00:57:58,431 --> 00:58:03,436 Mayor Koch talks about throwing youthers into jail. 892 00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:04,872 [arguing] 893 00:58:07,396 --> 00:58:12,445 I actually think that they helped to delegitimize the anti-marijuana movement. 894 00:58:12,489 --> 00:58:16,449 Its extremism is part of what brings it down. 895 00:58:16,493 --> 00:58:21,541 If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terrorism in America. 896 00:58:21,585 --> 00:58:27,939 The early days of the war on terror were scary and I-- it just seemed to me 897 00:58:27,982 --> 00:58:34,249 that the public was in no mood for patent political nonsense surrounding it. 898 00:58:35,599 --> 00:58:42,388 It seems to me that in the United States, we've always had a demon. 899 00:58:42,431 --> 00:58:48,525 That something in American political culture requires us to have a demon. 900 00:58:48,568 --> 00:58:50,309 You know, go back to Salem. 901 00:58:52,485 --> 00:58:54,182 Alcohol was a demon. 902 00:58:54,226 --> 00:58:58,186 I say alcohol must go! 903 00:58:59,666 --> 00:59:02,364 [Baum] Communism was a demon for a long time. 904 00:59:02,408 --> 00:59:06,412 [man] In recognizing a communist, physical appearance counts for nothing. 905 00:59:06,978 --> 00:59:11,635 If he openly declares himself to be a communist, we take his word for it. 906 00:59:11,678 --> 00:59:16,030 [Baum] And all kinds of things were justified in the name of fighting communism. 907 00:59:16,988 --> 00:59:20,992 It seemed very clear to me at the end of the-- of the 80's, in the early 90's 908 00:59:21,035 --> 00:59:25,300 that we were just pivoting to this new demon and now we have a war on terror. 909 00:59:25,344 --> 00:59:32,090 Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. 910 00:59:33,352 --> 00:59:37,312 It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach 911 00:59:37,878 --> 00:59:42,622 has been found, stopped and defeated. 912 00:59:42,666 --> 00:59:47,845 [Baum] We have torqued our Constitution into a pretzel in the name of the war on terror, 913 00:59:47,888 --> 00:59:52,153 the way we did with drugs, a generation before that. 914 00:59:52,197 --> 00:59:53,764 This is what we do. 915 00:59:56,070 --> 01:00:02,076 When 9/11 happened, I remember that morning thinking, "And here we go again," you know. 916 01:00:02,120 --> 01:00:03,730 "It is happening again." 917 01:00:05,253 --> 01:00:11,042 The drug war then felt the way the war on terror feels now. 918 01:00:11,085 --> 01:00:16,351 It's very hard to question the premises of the war on terror. 919 01:00:16,395 --> 01:00:18,745 You got to be very careful. 920 01:00:18,789 --> 01:00:22,793 Maybe in 25 years, we'll be able to talk about the war on terror more openly 921 01:00:22,836 --> 01:00:24,969 and more casually than we do now. 922 01:00:25,012 --> 01:00:30,583 We are free now to rationally debate 923 01:00:30,627 --> 01:00:35,327 different ways of managing the problem of drug abuse in this country 924 01:00:35,370 --> 01:00:37,372 and I celebrate that. 925 01:00:37,416 --> 01:00:40,985 The fact of the matter is psychoactive drugs have existed 926 01:00:41,028 --> 01:00:43,030 in most societies throughout the world. 927 01:00:43,074 --> 01:00:45,598 There's almost never been a human society 928 01:00:45,642 --> 01:00:49,254 that did not use one psychoactive drug or another, right? 929 01:00:49,297 --> 01:00:54,520 We know that these drugs can be used for good, as medicines, for spiritual benefits, 930 01:00:54,563 --> 01:00:59,220 for relaxation, and we also know that these drugs can be used for bad. 931 01:00:59,264 --> 01:01:02,746 It can be used in ways that cause horrible devastation to human bodies 932 01:01:02,789 --> 01:01:05,618 and human lives and human community. 933 01:01:05,662 --> 01:01:08,621 [man] Gone are the pleasurable sensations of the drug. 934 01:01:08,665 --> 01:01:11,755 Now, to feel normal, he must have his narcotic. 935 01:01:11,798 --> 01:01:13,670 [Nadlemann] We're not gonna get rid of drugs. 936 01:01:14,366 --> 01:01:17,369 We can't build a moat between those drugs and our communities, 937 01:01:17,412 --> 01:01:21,155 between those drugs and our schools, and our children. 938 01:01:21,199 --> 01:01:25,899 Therefore, the only real choice is not to ask how do we get rid of drugs? 939 01:01:25,943 --> 01:01:31,731 The only real choice is to ask, how do we learn to live with these drugs? 940 01:01:31,775 --> 01:01:35,126 How do we learn to live with the reality of psychoactive substances 941 01:01:35,169 --> 01:01:40,479 in our midst in such a way that they cause the least possible harm 942 01:01:40,522 --> 01:01:44,222 and, in some cases, the greatest possible benefit? 943 01:01:44,265 --> 01:01:47,791 '96 we got medical marijuana in California. 944 01:01:47,834 --> 01:01:49,749 It changed the world. 945 01:01:49,793 --> 01:01:54,406 It was a political success and now it's sweeping the country. 946 01:01:54,449 --> 01:01:58,845 [reporter] Ten states have passed laws permitting the use of medical marijuana. 947 01:01:58,889 --> 01:02:01,935 Polling has shown that a large majority of Americans 948 01:02:01,979 --> 01:02:04,590 consistently support the use of medical marijuana. 949 01:02:04,633 --> 01:02:08,725 I can vouch for the fact that some very sick people are benefitted from marijuana. 950 01:02:08,768 --> 01:02:13,033 Sick people that have AIDS and cancer can use marijuana and benefit by... 951 01:02:13,077 --> 01:02:15,383 People are actually moving to Colorado 952 01:02:15,427 --> 01:02:17,821 to gain access to a special kind of medical marijuana. 953 01:02:17,864 --> 01:02:21,172 Arizona's first legal medical marijuana... 954 01:02:21,215 --> 01:02:23,783 [reporter] Boston's very first a medical marijuana dispensary. 955 01:02:23,827 --> 01:02:26,003 Sixty-five medical marijuana dispensaries... 956 01:02:26,046 --> 01:02:28,353 [reporter] Heading today patients can legally buy medical... 957 01:02:28,396 --> 01:02:29,920 [reporter] Marijuana laws now in effect... 958 01:02:29,963 --> 01:02:31,704 Trying to legalize marijuana from... 959 01:02:31,748 --> 01:02:33,793 ...South Carolina to the... 960 01:02:33,837 --> 01:02:36,448 Marijuana will soon be available at New York state sanction. 961 01:02:36,491 --> 01:02:38,189 Medical marijuana is officially legal by law. 962 01:02:38,232 --> 01:02:39,668 It is open for business. 963 01:02:39,712 --> 01:02:40,887 No more! 964 01:02:40,931 --> 01:02:41,975 Drug war! 965 01:02:42,019 --> 01:02:43,020 No more! 966 01:02:43,063 --> 01:02:44,761 Drug war! 967 01:02:46,806 --> 01:02:51,115 When you look at what the Obama administration decided in the summer of 2013, 968 01:02:51,158 --> 01:02:54,248 when, you know, Attorney General Holder in the White House, essentially, 969 01:02:54,292 --> 01:02:57,817 gave Colorado and Washington a qualified green light 970 01:02:57,861 --> 01:03:00,777 to proceed with implementing their new legalization laws. 971 01:03:09,307 --> 01:03:14,703 What's remarkable is to see the increase from barely a quarter of the country 972 01:03:14,747 --> 01:03:19,752 favoring the legalization of marijuana in the mid-80's to close to 60% today. 973 01:03:19,796 --> 01:03:25,018 So, I think as with alcohol policy, where basically we have an extraordinary diversity 974 01:03:25,062 --> 01:03:27,934 of policies between different localities in different states 975 01:03:27,978 --> 01:03:31,982 I think that we will have and we need to have a diversity of policies 976 01:03:32,025 --> 01:03:35,812 both with local norms and preferences, and also with good evidence. 977 01:03:35,855 --> 01:03:38,031 Drug war is ending. 978 01:03:38,553 --> 01:03:47,040 Marijuana is legal in multiple jurisdictions in the United States and around the world. 979 01:03:47,649 --> 01:03:51,436 The states of Colorado and California and Oregon and the others, 980 01:03:51,479 --> 01:03:55,048 they have decided we are going to give up 981 01:03:56,528 --> 01:04:02,621 our power to arrest and harass vast numbers of people. 982 01:04:02,664 --> 01:04:03,840 That's huge. 983 01:04:05,493 --> 01:04:09,367 I did not think I would live long enough to see this. 984 01:04:10,107 --> 01:04:12,892 Um, the cat is out of the bag. 985 01:04:12,936 --> 01:04:14,459 The toothpaste is out of the tube. 986 01:04:14,502 --> 01:04:17,897 You can put it any way you want. It's happening. 987 01:04:17,941 --> 01:04:23,424 I try to be careful even in my enthusiasm with all the progress we've made 988 01:04:23,468 --> 01:04:26,036 in the last several years towards full legalization. 989 01:04:26,079 --> 01:04:33,652 I still try to remind myself to be cautious and not assume that our total victory is inevitable 990 01:04:33,695 --> 01:04:38,918 because I learned in the 70's that public opinion sometimes can shift 991 01:04:38,962 --> 01:04:40,615 and can shift fairly quickly. 992 01:04:40,659 --> 01:04:43,618 This drug is dangerous. You cannot play with it. 993 01:04:43,662 --> 01:04:46,491 It's not funny. It's not something to laugh about. 994 01:04:47,492 --> 01:04:50,277 Good people don't smoke marijuana. 995 01:04:50,321 --> 01:04:53,715 It's a lot of money to me being spent 996 01:04:55,892 --> 01:04:58,416 to not solve the problem. 997 01:04:58,982 --> 01:05:00,635 It didn't solve the problem. 998 01:05:00,679 --> 01:05:04,161 I don't think the war on drugs stopped drugs ever. 999 01:05:04,204 --> 01:05:06,903 I don't think anyone's ever said I can't get high. 1000 01:05:07,642 --> 01:05:10,994 What I would hope is, is that we're less focused on warehousing people 1001 01:05:11,037 --> 01:05:13,518 as opposed to rehabilitating people. 1002 01:05:13,561 --> 01:05:17,696 The bottom line is, is that you can push people into the criminal justice system. 1003 01:05:17,739 --> 01:05:23,006 You can fill up the jails and the prison, but if you aren't doing something to change 1004 01:05:23,049 --> 01:05:27,184 that person's mindset while they're in that system, or more importantly, 1005 01:05:27,227 --> 01:05:30,274 change their support system when they come out on the back end, 1006 01:05:30,317 --> 01:05:32,319 it becomes a vicious cycle. 1007 01:05:32,363 --> 01:05:38,282 By far the greatest value would be to educate, to prevent, to early treat- 1008 01:05:38,325 --> 01:05:40,806 that's not the way the budget works out. 1009 01:05:40,849 --> 01:05:43,287 I am not a fan of long sentences. 1010 01:05:43,330 --> 01:05:46,203 I don't think that's a great idea for anybody, really. 1011 01:05:46,246 --> 01:05:49,989 It's expensive and I think to me what's important in corrections 1012 01:05:50,033 --> 01:05:52,470 is community corrections, helping people. 1013 01:05:52,513 --> 01:05:55,864 But you've got to be tough enough to say, "If a guy's not going to support this, 1014 01:05:55,908 --> 01:05:59,172 they can go with the program, or you have to be able to go to jail." 1015 01:05:59,216 --> 01:06:04,308 I am very interested in using the criminal justice to promote public health. 1016 01:06:04,351 --> 01:06:08,877 We do need criminal justice and we do need treatment and we want them to work together 1017 01:06:08,921 --> 01:06:10,531 a lot better than they are. 1018 01:06:10,575 --> 01:06:12,011 Now that's not popular. 1019 01:06:12,055 --> 01:06:14,318 You got to make a choice, Dr. DuPont. 1020 01:06:14,361 --> 01:06:17,364 Do you believe in prison, or do you believe in treatment? Oh, I believe in both. 1021 01:06:17,408 --> 01:06:19,801 Oh, well, you're a criminal justice guy. 1022 01:06:19,845 --> 01:06:21,847 No that's not true. 1023 01:06:21,890 --> 01:06:25,024 And I think every effort it should be made in the prison population 1024 01:06:25,068 --> 01:06:27,896 to have real job training programs and rehabilitation programs 1025 01:06:27,940 --> 01:06:29,724 because so many of those people 1026 01:06:29,768 --> 01:06:32,292 who get involved when they're teenagers are very young. 1027 01:06:32,336 --> 01:06:34,991 They aren't making real choices to do this. 1028 01:06:35,034 --> 01:06:37,210 They're caught up in something. 1029 01:06:37,254 --> 01:06:41,649 Being around weed my whole life, and being around Cypress Hill, being around Snoop Dogg, 1030 01:06:41,693 --> 01:06:48,569 being around my buddy Shiny Shine and Beatmaster V who smoked one continuous joint 1031 01:06:48,613 --> 01:06:52,704 all day long, you know, I never found a problem with weed. 1032 01:06:52,747 --> 01:06:54,488 I never smoked weed. 1033 01:06:54,532 --> 01:06:59,928 I sold weed, but I never smoked it because I just was- 1034 01:06:59,972 --> 01:07:03,454 just always trying to be hustling on all cylinders at all times, 1035 01:07:03,497 --> 01:07:06,283 you know what I'm saying? You know weed always made me feel like 1036 01:07:06,326 --> 01:07:09,460 I gotta go to the gym in an hour, you know. 1037 01:07:09,503 --> 01:07:15,074 We can fight about adults about marijuana use, but we don't have a fight about kids. 1038 01:07:15,118 --> 01:07:17,816 NORML doesn't want the kids to do it. 1039 01:07:17,859 --> 01:07:20,906 The tobacco industry, the alcohol industry, at least officially, 1040 01:07:22,168 --> 01:07:23,517 don't want to do that. 1041 01:07:23,561 --> 01:07:26,303 We can cut together on that issue. 1042 01:07:26,346 --> 01:07:28,957 When people start using these drugs at later ages, 1043 01:07:29,001 --> 01:07:31,612 they're much less likely to get strung out on them. 1044 01:07:31,656 --> 01:07:33,397 They're much less likely to have them ruin their lives. 1045 01:07:33,440 --> 01:07:35,877 They got more at stake to lose. 1046 01:07:35,921 --> 01:07:39,316 That doesn't mean they have no problem, but it comes down with age. 1047 01:07:39,359 --> 01:07:45,626 The vulnerability is prior to 21 or even 25 when the brain is still developing. 1048 01:07:45,670 --> 01:07:54,548 I would argue that we need to abandon our drug war mentality and our war on drug mentality 1049 01:07:54,592 --> 01:07:58,378 not because these drugs aren't dangerous, but because they are. 1050 01:07:58,422 --> 01:08:03,905 Now, let's turn it around and go back with some of these people in prison need to be set free. 1051 01:08:03,949 --> 01:08:05,864 They need to just let them go. 1052 01:08:05,907 --> 01:08:08,562 And they can do it, they could free the beds. 1053 01:08:08,606 --> 01:08:14,177 They-- I mean, it's-- it's not impossible to say, "Oh, you're in here on a marijuana charge 1054 01:08:14,220 --> 01:08:18,181 where you've just been expunged. And just go home." And let them go home. 1055 01:08:18,224 --> 01:08:21,706 You know I'm saying? If you're in here for marijuana, plus you killed four people, 1056 01:08:21,749 --> 01:08:24,056 you guys stay. You ain't getting out. 1057 01:08:24,100 --> 01:08:26,450 But if you're just here for marijuana, go on home. 1058 01:08:26,493 --> 01:08:29,322 You know I'm saying? Go home, figure it out, you know. 1059 01:08:29,931 --> 01:08:30,932 Why not? 1060 01:08:37,200 --> 01:08:39,115 ♪♪♪ 1061 01:10:40,148 --> 01:10:41,149 [music ends]