WEBVTT

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What has the War on Drugs 
done to the world?

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Look at the murder and mayhem in Mexico,

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Central America, so many 
other parts of the planet,

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the global black market estimated

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at 300 billion dollars a year,

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prisons packed in the 
United States and elsewhere,

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police and military drawn 
into an unwinnable war

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that violates basic rights, 
and ordinary citizens

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just hope they don't get 
caught in the crossfire,

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and meanwhile, more people using

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more drugs than ever.

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It's my country's history 
with alcohol prohibition

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and Al Capone, times 50.

NOTE Paragraph

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Which is why it's 
particularly galling to me

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as an American that we've 
been the driving force

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behind this global drug war.

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Ask why so many countries criminalize

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drugs they'd never heard of,

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why the U.N. drug treaties emphasize

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criminalization over health,

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even why most of the money worldwide

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for dealing with drug abuse goes not

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to helping agencies but those that punish,

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and you'll find the good old U.S. of A.

NOTE Paragraph

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Why did we do this?

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Some people, especially in Latin America,

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think it's not really about drugs.

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It's just a subterfuge for advancing

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the realpolitik interests of the U.S.

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But by and large, that's not it.

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We don't want gangsters and guerrillas

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funded with illegal drug money

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terrorizing and taking over other nations.

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No, the fact is, America really is crazy

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when it comes to drugs.

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I mean, don't forget, we're 
the ones who thought

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that we could prohibit alcohol.

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So think about our global drug war

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not as any sort of rational policy,

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but as the international projection

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of a domestic psychosis.

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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But here's the good news.

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Now it's the Russians leading
the Drug War and not us.

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Most politicians in my country

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want to roll back the Drug War now,

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put fewer people behind bars, not more,

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and I'm proud to say as an American

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that we now lead the world

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in reforming marijuana policies.

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It's now legal for medical purposes

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in almost half our 50 states,

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millions of people can 
purchase their marijuana,

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their medicine, in government-
licensed dispensaries,

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and over half my fellow 
citizens now say it's time

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to legally regulate and tax marijuana

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more or less like alcohol.

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That's what Colorado and 
Washington are doing,

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and Uruguay, and others 
are sure to follow.

NOTE Paragraph

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So that's what I do:

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work to end the Drug War.

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I think it all started growing up

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in a fairly religious, moral family,

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eldest son of a rabbi,

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going off to university where I

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smoked some marijuana

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and I liked it. (Laughter)

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And I liked drinking too, but it was obvious

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that alcohol was really the
more dangerous of the two,

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but my friends and I could get busted

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for smoking a joint.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, that hypocrisy kept bugging me,

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so I wrote my Ph.D dissertation
on international drug control.

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I talked my way into the State Department.

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I got a security clearance.

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I interviewed hundreds of DEA
and other law enforcement agents

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all around Europe and the Americas,

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and I'd ask them,

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"What do you think the answer is?"

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Well, in Latin America, they'd say to me,

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"You can't really cut off the supply.

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The answer lies back in the U.S.,

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in cutting off the demand."

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So then I go back home and I talk to people

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involved in anti-drug efforts there, and they'd say,

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"You know, Ethan, you can't 
really cut off the demand.

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The answer lies over there.
You've got to cut off the supply."

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Then I'd go and talk 
to the guys in customs

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trying to stop drugs at the borders,

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and they'd say, "You're 
not going to stop it here.

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The answer lies over there,

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in cutting off supply and demand."

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And it hit me:

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Everybody involved in this

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thought the answer lay in that area

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about which they knew the least.

NOTE Paragraph

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So that's when I started 
reading everything I could

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about psychoactive drugs: 
the history, the science,

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the politics, all of it,

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and the more one read,

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the more it hit you how a thoughtful,

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enlightened, intelligent 
approach took you over here,

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whereas the politics and laws of my country

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were taking you over here.

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And that disparity struck me as this incredible

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intellectual and moral puzzle.

NOTE Paragraph

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There's probably never been

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a drug-free society.

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Virtually every society

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has ingested psychoactive substances

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to deal with pain, increase 
our energy, socialize,

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even commune with God.

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Our desire to alter our consciousness

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may be as fundamental as our desires

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for food, companionship and sex.

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So our true challenge

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is to learn how to live with drugs

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so they cause the least possible harm

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and in some cases the 
greatest possible benefit.

NOTE Paragraph

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I'll tell you something else I learned,

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that the reason some drugs 
are legal and others not

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has almost nothing to do 
with science or health

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or the relative risk of drugs,

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and almost everything to do with who uses

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and who is perceived 
to use particular drugs.

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In the late 19th century,

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when most of the drugs that
are now illegal were legal,

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the principal consumers 
of opiates in my country

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and others were middle-aged white women,

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using them to alleviate aches and pains

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when few other analgesics were available.

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And nobody thought about 
criminalizing it back then

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because nobody wanted to 
put Grandma behind bars.

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But when hundreds of thousands of Chinese

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started showing up in my country,

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working hard on the railroads and the mines

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and then kicking back in the evening

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just like they had in the old country

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with a few puffs on that opium pipe,

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that's when you saw the 
first drug prohibition laws

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in California and Nevada,

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driven by racist fears of Chinese

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transforming white women

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into opium-addicted sex slaves.

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The first cocaine prohibition 
laws, similarly prompted

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by racist fears of black men 
sniffing that white powder

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and forgetting their proper place

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in Southern society.

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And the first marijuana prohibition laws,

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all about fears of Mexican migrants

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in the West and the Southwest.

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And what was true in my country,

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is true in so many others as well,

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with both the origins of these laws

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and their implementation.

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Put it this way,

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and I exaggerate only slightly:

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If the principal smokers of cocaine

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were affluent older white men

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and the principal consumers of Viagra

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were poor young black men,

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then smokable cocaine would be easy to
get with a prescription from your doctor

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and selling Viagra would get you 
five to 10 years behind bars.

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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I used to be a professor teaching about this.

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Now I'm an activist, a human rights activist,

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and what drives me is my shame

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at living in an otherwise great nation

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that has less than five percent
of the world's population

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but almost 25 percent of the
world's incarcerated population.

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It's the people I meet 
who have lost someone

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they love to drug-related 
violence or prison

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or overdose or AIDS

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because our drug policies emphasize

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criminalization over health.

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It's good people who have lost their jobs,

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their homes, their freedom, 
even their children

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to the state, not because they hurt anyone

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but solely because they chose to use one drug

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instead of another.

NOTE Paragraph

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So is legalization the answer?

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On that, I'm torn:

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three days a week I think yes,
three days a week I think no,

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and on Sundays I'm agnostic.

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But since today is Tuesday,

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let me just say that legally 
regulating and taxing

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most of the drugs that 
are now criminalized

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would radically reduce 
the crime, violence,

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corruption and black markets,

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and the problems of adulterated
and unregulated drugs,

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and improve public safety,

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and allow taxpayer resources to be developed

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to more useful purposes.

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I mean, look, the markets 
in marijuana, cocaine,

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heroin and methamphetamine

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are global commodities markets

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just like the global markets 
in alcohol, tobacco,

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coffee, sugar, and so many other things.

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Where there is a demand,

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there will be a supply.

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Knock out one source and another

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inevitably emerges.

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People tend to think of prohibition

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as the ultimate form of regulation

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when in fact it represents 
the abdication of regulation

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with criminals filling the void.

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Which is why putting criminal laws and police

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front and center in trying to control

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a dynamic global commodities market

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is a recipe for disaster.

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And what we really need to do

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is to bring the underground drug markets

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as much as possible aboveground

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and regulate them as intelligently as we can

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to minimize both the harms of drugs

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and the harms of prohibitionist policies.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, with marijuana, that obviously means

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legally regulating and taxing it like alcohol.

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The benefits of doing so are
enormous, the risks minimal.

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Will more people use marijuana?

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Maybe, but it's not going to be young people,

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because it's not going to be legalized for them,

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and quite frankly, they already have

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the best access to marijuana.

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Right? I think it's going to be older people.

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It's going to be people in their 40s and 60s

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and 80s who find they prefer a little marijuana

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to that drink in the evening or the sleeping pill

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or that it helps with their arthritis or diabetes

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or maybe helps spice up a long-term marriage.

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And that just might be a net public health benefit.

NOTE Paragraph

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As for the other drugs,

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look at Portugal, where nobody goes to jail

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for possessing drugs,

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and the government's made a serious commitment

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to treating addiction as a health issue.

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Look at Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands,

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Denmark, England, where people who have

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been addicted to heroin for many years

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and repeatedly tried to quit and failed

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can get pharmaceutical heroin and helping services

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in medical clinics, and the results are in:

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illegal drug abuse and disease

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and overdoses and crime and arrests all go down,

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health and well being improve,

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taxpayers benefit,

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and many drug users even
put their addictions behind them.

NOTE Paragraph

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Look at New Zealand, which recently enacted a law

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allowing certain recreational drugs to be sold legally

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provided their safety had been established.

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Look here in Brazil, and some other countries,

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where remarkable psychoactive substance,

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Ayahuasca, can be legally bought and consumed

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provided it's done so within a religious context.

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Look in Bolivia and Peru,

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where all sorts of products made from the coca leaf,

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the source of cocaine,

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are sold legally over the counter

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with no apparent harm to people's public health.

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I mean, don't forget, Coca-Cola
had cocaine in it until 1900,

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and so far as we know was no more addictive

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than Coca-Cola is today.

NOTE Paragraph

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Conversely, think about cigarettes:

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nothing can both hook you and kill you like cigarettes.

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When researchers ask heroin addicts

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what's the toughest drug to quit, most say cigarettes.

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Yet in my country and many others,

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half of all the people who were ever addicted

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to cigarettes have quit

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without anyone being arrested or put in jail

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or sent to a "treatment program"

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by a prosecutor or a judge.

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What did it were higher taxes

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and time and place restrictions on sale and use

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and effective anti-smoking campaigns.

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Now, could we reduce smoking even more

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by making it totally illegal? Probably.

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But just imagine the drug war nightmare

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that would result.

NOTE Paragraph

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So the challenges we face today

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are twofold.

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The first is the policy challenge

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of designing and implementing alternatives

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to ineffective prohibitionist policies,

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even as we need to get better at regulating

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and living with the drugs that are now legal.

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But the second challenge is tougher,

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because it's about us.

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The obstacles to reform lie not just out there

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in the power of the prison industrial complex

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or other vested interests that want to keep things

00:13:06.654 --> 00:13:08.080
the way they are,

00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:11.920
but within each and every one of us.

00:13:11.920 --> 00:13:15.970
It's our fears and our lack of knowledge

00:13:15.970 --> 00:13:22.670
and imagination that stands in the way of real reform.

00:13:22.670 --> 00:13:27.240
And ultimately, I think that boils down to the kids,

00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:30.985
and to every parent's desire
to put our baby in a bubble,

00:13:30.985 --> 00:13:34.315
and the fear that somehow
drugs will pierce that bubble

00:13:34.315 --> 00:13:36.244
and put our young ones at risk.

00:13:36.244 --> 00:13:38.314
In fact, sometimes it seems like the entire

00:13:38.314 --> 00:13:41.970
War on Drugs gets justified as one great big

00:13:41.970 --> 00:13:44.216
child protection act,

00:13:44.216 --> 00:13:47.823
which any young person can tell you it's not.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:47.823 --> 00:13:51.929
So here's what I say to teenagers.

00:13:51.929 --> 00:13:55.615
First, don't do drugs.

00:13:55.615 --> 00:13:59.405
Second, don't do drugs.

00:13:59.405 --> 00:14:02.825
Third, if you do do drugs,

00:14:02.825 --> 00:14:05.367
there's some things I want you to know,

00:14:05.367 --> 00:14:09.410
because my bottom line as your parent is,

00:14:09.410 --> 00:14:12.391
come home safely at the end of the night

00:14:12.391 --> 00:14:15.924
and grow up and lead a healthy and good adulthood.

00:14:15.924 --> 00:14:21.537
That's my drug education mantra: safety first.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:21.537 --> 00:14:25.193
So this is what I've dedicated my life to,

00:14:25.193 --> 00:14:27.701
to building an organization and a movement

00:14:27.701 --> 00:14:30.561
of people who believe we need to turn our backs

00:14:30.561 --> 00:14:32.606
on the failed prohibitions of the past

00:14:32.606 --> 00:14:35.305
and embrace new drug policies grounded in science,

00:14:35.305 --> 00:14:38.736
compassion, health, and human rights,

00:14:38.736 --> 00:14:40.884
where people who come from
across the political spectrum

00:14:40.884 --> 00:14:42.865
and every other spectrum as well,

00:14:42.865 --> 00:14:44.599
where people who love our drugs,

00:14:44.599 --> 00:14:45.938
people who hate drugs,

00:14:45.938 --> 00:14:48.250
and people who don't give a damn about drugs,

00:14:48.250 --> 00:14:51.684
but every one of us believes that this War on Drugs,

00:14:51.684 --> 00:14:55.931
this backward, heartless, disastrous War on Drugs,

00:14:55.931 --> 00:14:59.030
has got to end.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:59.030 --> 00:15:00.873
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:00.873 --> 00:15:05.880
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:15.042 --> 00:15:17.722
Thank you. Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:17.722 --> 00:15:19.943
Chris Anderson: Ethan,

00:15:19.943 --> 00:15:23.182
congrats, quite the reaction.

00:15:23.182 --> 00:15:25.926
That was a powerful talk.

00:15:25.926 --> 00:15:29.234
Not quite a complete standing O, though,

00:15:29.234 --> 00:15:30.921
and I'm guessing that some people here

00:15:30.921 --> 00:15:33.187
and maybe a few watching online,

00:15:33.187 --> 00:15:37.287
maybe someone knows a teenager or a friend

00:15:37.287 --> 00:15:39.504
or whatever who got sick,

00:15:39.504 --> 00:15:42.500
maybe died from some drug overdose.

00:15:42.500 --> 00:15:44.386
I'm sure you've had these
people approach you before.

00:15:44.386 --> 00:15:46.557
What do you say to them?

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:46.557 --> 00:15:48.739
Ethan Nadelmann: Chris, the most
amazing thing that's happened of late

00:15:48.739 --> 00:15:50.980
is that I've met a growing number of people

00:15:50.980 --> 00:15:53.558
who have actually lost a sibling or a child

00:15:53.558 --> 00:15:55.184
to a drug overdose,

00:15:55.184 --> 00:15:57.160
and 10 years ago, those people just wanted to say,

00:15:57.160 --> 00:15:59.140
"Let's line up all the drug dealers and shoot them

00:15:59.140 --> 00:16:00.481
and that will solve it."

00:16:00.481 --> 00:16:01.776
And what they've come to understand

00:16:01.776 --> 00:16:04.659
is that the Drug War did nothing to protect their kids.

00:16:04.659 --> 00:16:06.108
If anything, it made it more likely

00:16:06.108 --> 00:16:08.210
that those kids were put at risk.

00:16:08.210 --> 00:16:09.820
And so they're now becoming part of this

00:16:09.820 --> 00:16:11.695
drug policy reform movement.

00:16:11.695 --> 00:16:13.385
There's other people who have kids,

00:16:13.385 --> 00:16:16.850
one's addicted to alcohol, the other
one's addicted to cocaine or heroin,

00:16:16.850 --> 00:16:18.278
and they ask themselves the question:

00:16:18.278 --> 00:16:20.595
"Why does this kid get to take one step at a time

00:16:20.595 --> 00:16:21.889
and try to get better

00:16:21.889 --> 00:16:23.453
and that one's got to deal with jail

00:16:23.453 --> 00:16:25.478
and police and criminals all the time?"

00:16:25.478 --> 00:16:26.948
So everybody's understanding,

00:16:26.948 --> 00:16:29.673
the Drug War's not protecting anybody.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:29.673 --> 00:16:31.754
CA: Certainly in the U.S., you've got political gridlock

00:16:31.754 --> 00:16:33.149
on most issues.

00:16:33.149 --> 00:16:34.881
Is there any realistic chance of anything

00:16:34.881 --> 00:16:38.227
actually shifting on this issue in the next five years?

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:38.227 --> 00:16:40.245
EN: It's quite remarkable. I'm getting all these calls

00:16:40.245 --> 00:16:42.126
from journalists now who are saying to me,

00:16:42.126 --> 00:16:44.130
"Ethan, it seems like the only two issues

00:16:44.130 --> 00:16:46.423
advancing politically in America right now

00:16:46.423 --> 00:16:49.314
are marijuana law reform and gay marriage.

00:16:49.314 --> 00:16:50.891
What are you doing right?"

00:16:50.891 --> 00:16:53.149
And then you're looking at bipartisanship breaking out

00:16:53.149 --> 00:16:55.771
with actually Republicans in the Congress

00:16:55.771 --> 00:16:58.840
and State Legislatures allowing bills to be enacted

00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:00.804
with majority Democratic support,

00:17:00.804 --> 00:17:03.320
so we've gone from being sort of the third rail,

00:17:03.320 --> 00:17:05.411
the most fearful issue of American politics,

00:17:05.411 --> 00:17:08.161
to becoming one of the most successful.

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:08.161 --> 00:17:10.104
CA: Ethan, thanks so much.
EN: Chris, thanks so much.

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:10.104 --> 00:17:13.264
CA: Thank you.
EN: Thank you. (Applause)