Drug War Facts

This week on Century Of Lies we speak with Dr. Ciara Torres, a researcher and postdoctoral research fellow at the Columbia University School of Social Work; and with Phil Smith, reporter and editor at the Drug War Chronicle and AlterNet; plus part of an interview with Billy Murphy, Jr. the legendary Baltimore criminal defense attorney who represented the family of Freddie Gray, a young man who was murdered by Baltimore police in 2015.

This week we continue preparing for the UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs, which will be held April 19 and 20 at UN headquarters in New York, by hearing from two of reform's leading opponents: Singapore and Russia.

This week we feature interviews with Betty Aldworth, Executive Director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and Vanessa Caldwell, a member of the New Zealand delegation at the annual meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna and co-chair of New Zealand's National Committee of Addiction Treatment.

This week in preparation for the upcoming UNGASS on the world drug problem, we listen to a debate on whether nations should have alternatives to incarceration for simple possession of drugs, featuring legislators from Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, and Sudan.

This week on Century Of Lies, we hear part of a roundtable on Drugs, Human Rights, Community, and Development: Creating synergies between Member States and civil society to empower communities, featuring commentary from Daria Mogucheva of the Eurasian Network of People Who Use Drugs, Lithuania; Tripti Tandon of the Lawyers Collective, India; and Vicki Hanson of the St. Catherine Ganja Growers & Producers Association, Jamaica.

This week we talk medical marijuana with Mike Liszewski, Government Affairs Director for American for Safe Access, plus we talk with Chip Lazenby and James Morris about diversity in the cannabis industry.

This week: at the Cannabis Collaborative Conference in Portland, Oregon, we interview former NBA star Clifford "Uncle Spliffy" Robinson, Aaron Smith and Bethany Moore from National Cannabis Industry Association, David Rheins and Morgan from the Marijuana Business Association, Sam Chapman from New Economy Consulting.

Thu - Doug McVay reports on UN drug war re-think 3/3

Tue- Doug McVay reports on UN drug war re-think 1/3

This week: we discuss new data on youth drug use, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin's support for marijuana legalization, and Maine Governor Paul LePage's racist comments about the drug war.

This week: President Obama commutes the sentences of 95 people serving time for federal drug offenses, and we speak with drug policy researcher and human rights activist Damon Barrett.

Mon - Doug McVay reports M-F: GAO's David Mauer re ONDCP failure in drug war in reports to US Congress

Doug McVay reports: This week we continue our coverage of the Drug Policy Alliance's International Reform Conference, with audio from Deborah Small from Break The Chains, and interviews with author and activist Kemba Smith, and with Jonathan Perri of Change.org.

This week we look forward to UNGASS 2016 and learn about a new policy report by UN University, "What Comes After The War On Drugs?"

This week we talk with Kirk Tousaw, an attorney and civil rights advocate in British Columbia, about the recent Canadian general election and prospects for drug policy reform under the new Trudeau government.

The drug czar's office failed to release its annual drug control strategy for fiscal year 2015. On this week's Century Of Lies we talk about that, plus the upcoming 2016 election, with Sanho Tree, director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Fri - Doug McVay reports on first day of legal cannabis in Oregon 1/2

This week we hear from John Walsh of the Washington Office on Latin America and Professor Mark Kleiman from UCLA as they address a meeting of the UN University on preparations for the 2016 UNGASS.

This week we hear more of that interview with Johann Hari, author of Chasing The Scream, and also from Molly Gill, Government Affairs Counsel for Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

This week in part two of our coverage of Seattle Hempfest, we talk with Bill Panzer, a criminal defense attorney from Oakland, CA; Kari Boiter, a criminal justice reform activist from Washington state; and John Conroy, an attorney from British Columbia, Canada.

Cyd Maurer, a journalist who was recently fired from her job as a TV news anchor in Oregon for testing positive for marijuana, and with Kathleen Kane-Willis of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy about their new report on heroin in Illinois.

This week coverage of the Cannabis Creative Conference featuring interviews with Aaron Smith of the National Cannabis Industry Association, Morgan and Twice Baked In Washington from the Marijuana Business Association, and some words from Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

This week Doug McVay talks with Seattle attorney and NORML board member Jeff Steinborn about Washington's marijuana laws, plus President Obama speaks about sentencing reform at El Reno federal prison in Oklahoma.

This week: we talk with Sanho Tree of the Institute for Policy Studies about World Drug Day, and we hear from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime about its new World Drug Report, drug legalization, and the drug war.