CULTURAL BAGGAGE

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

TRANSCRIPT

DEAN BECKER: I am Dean Becker, your host. Our goal with this program is to expose the fraud, misdirection, and the liars whose support for drug war empowers our terrorist enemies, enriches barbarous cartels, and gives reason for existence to tens of thousands of violent US gangs who profit by selling contaminated drugs to our children. This is Cultural Baggage.

Hello friends, this is Dean Becker, I want to thank you for joining us on this edition of Cultural Baggage. We have a great show lined up for you, and let's just get to it.

You know, it seems every day, the truth about this drug war is taking another step forward. A lot of politicians are trying to sidestep that progress, trying not to recognize it. But one of the people who has brought forward the information, one of the people who has insisted on sharing this truth, is my long-term friend, Mister Brian Bennett, and he's with us now. Hello, Brian.

BRIAN BENNETT: Hello, Dean, how are you doing?

DEAN BECKER: I'm good, Brian. I want to, I don't know, just bring forward that thought, that things are changing. Are they not?

BRIAN BENNETT: Well, they are, really really slowly though, and that's, you know, something that's always been driving me crazy.

DEAN BECKER: I talk often about the fact that it's so easy for politicians to get on the right side of this issue, if they're just brave enough to say the truth about the result of this decades or a century of drug war. And Bernie Sanders seems to be at least opening up this can of worms, does he not?

BRIAN BENNETT: He is, indeed. He's at least vocalizing, which should have been done a long time ago, and he's very insistent upon the issues, he knows what he's talking about, so he's definitely bringing out the message that needs to be brought out to folks.

DEAN BECKER: In New Hampshire now, the Republicans and Democrats are trying to convince voters that they're the right one for president. And we have our good friend, Mister Howard Wooldridge, he's one of the founding members from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. He's in New Hampshire, he's getting pummeled by the media up there, everybody from the Washington Post, NBC is wanting his opinions. Howard's the guy walks around with a shirt, says on the front "Cops Say Legalize Drugs. Ask Me Why." And it's an attention getter now, isn't it?

BRIAN BENNETT: It really is. Howard's been doing that for a long, long time, as has some other members of LEAP, but I think Howard's probably done the most in terms of trying to get visibility for the cause, as it were. He's also a rather large guy, so I think that might help a little bit because he draws attention when he walks into a room.

DEAN BECKER: Well, and wearing that big cowboy hat doesn't hurt, I'm sure.

BRIAN BENNETT: Absolutely.

DEAN BECKER: He's the guy, if folks don't know, who is now devoting his life, he patrols the halls of Congress on a regular basis, spreading the LEAP mantra, if you will, it's time to end this drug war. And he's not getting shunned nearly as much.

BRIAN BENNETT: Yeah. It's really incredible, the progress that he has been able to make, when you consider that it wasn't all that long ago when even mentioning drugs anywhere any Congressman would definitely not get you a chance to say much more.

DEAN BECKER: Right. Well, Brian, I mentioned early on that you share information about this drug war, and I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you to clarify that for us. What is the nature of that online work?

BRIAN BENNETT: Oh, well, what I did is, I created a site I call Truth: The Anti-Drug War. It's actually, to get there you can type that into google, or my name, BrianCBennett.com will get you there. And what I had done was, I started working on writing another, yet another book about why we need to end the drug war, and started looking around for the actual data. As you know, I was a career intelligence analyst in my prior life, and I'm not really happy about dealing with people's interpretation of data, I want to see the data itself. So I went and gathered all of the information that I could find, primarily via the National Drug Control Strategy put out annually by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and they would have pages in there, tables of data, and point to the source information, but they never gave you the full set of data. And, neither did the folks who were looking on reform.

So I went and tracked it all down and started turning it into graphics, so that you could visually see that a lot of what we're being told is not necessarily very accurate, blown out of proportion, and being put to further the ends of whoever was describing what they saw about the data rather than actually considering the entire set of data, and seeing what it would reveal to us about what we are missing. So, I put it all out there, and started writing about some of my findings, and writing letters to the editor, etc., trying to advertise for it. And was able to get a lot of people to start paying attention and use the material in their own work.

DEAN BECKER: Including yours truly. Brian, mentioned earlier Howard's in New Hampshire, listening to debates, doing interviews with the media. But another person in New Hampshire is one Donald Trump, and he has an answer to the drug problem. I want to share it with you, when we come back I'll get your opinions about his thought.

DONALD TRUMP: New Hampshire has a tremendous drug epidemic. Every time I go there, people come up to me and they say, Mister Trump, what are we going to do? Drugs are pouring in. I'm going to create borders. No drugs are coming in. We're going to build a wall. You know what I'm talking about. You have confidence in me. Believe me, I will solve the problem. They will stop coming to New Hampshire, they'll stop coming to our country, and the people that are in trouble, the people that are addicted, we're going to work with them and try and make them better, and we will make them better.

DEAN BECKER: All right, Brian, you got a chance to hear Mister Trump's thoughts, what do you think?

BRIAN BENNETT: Well, I would have to call it vacuous hyperbole. That's the best way I can think of describing it. As usual, Mister Trump is not exactly explaining a whole lot, claiming that he's going to build a wall to stop drugs is just as absurd as building a wall to stop anybody from coming here from another country. The biggest problem of course is that he's describing what's going on in New Hampshire as an epidemic of some kind of drug problem. I don't know how he defines epidemic, but I guarantee you that it's a word that is way overused when it comes to looking at the issues of drug use and drug abuse. So, I don't know what to say.

DEAN BECKER: I hear you, man, no, I mean, there's not really much of an intelligent response you can make to it. He's putting forward the same fairy tale that's been presented for decade after decade that just a little tweaking and we'll get 'er done. You know, I wanted to bring forward something here. I know you're aware of it, and there's a forthcoming event going to happen in Houston at Rice University, the James A. Baker III Institute. On March 9, they're going to have a panel, if you will, featuring the District Attorney, Devon Anderson, our friend Howard Wooldridge we were just talking about, he'll be one of the panelists. We'll hear from Texas Representative Gene Wu, and other representatives will talk about the impact of drug prohibition, the workings of drug prohibition, and that's just right up your alley, isn't it?

BRIAN BENNETT: It really is, I'm jealous that I didn't get invited, and I understand you're actually moderating the discussion, so I'm excited to finally get a chance to hear that when it comes out.

DEAN BECKER: Yeah, and you know, you and I have been offended maybe by the coverage of the major media, or should I say the lack of specific coverage, the lack of appropriate questions towards the mechanism and the unfolding of this drug war. Correct?

BRIAN BENNETT: Oh absolutely, and it's one of those unfortunate things. I've tried to dissect it over time, to truly understand why it is that journalism really does not measure up to the standards that were set for journalism a long, long time ago, where they were actually beholden to getting at the truth and revealing that to folks. Not sure what point in time that started changing, but anymore, they're basically just part -- towing the party line, and parroting whatever it is that other people are saying without taking the time to get indepth on and figure out whether or not they're being told a bunch of lies. So I'm very disappointed about the lack of journalistic integrity, and lack of shedding light on the truth, that really would make this a whole lot easier.

DEAN BECKER: Well, and you know, there, I don't have the answer, but I think if we reach back to the 1920s, when we had the vivisection, if you will, of the logic around these drugs, much of it put forward by William Randolph Hearst and his bevy of newspapers around the country, that convinced people that the cannabis plant, the cannabis medicines that were in their grocers' shelves, were now dangerous because of that association with the scary word, marijuana. What's your thought there, Brian.

BRIAN BENNETT: Yes, that was basically the starting point, as it were, for journalistic lying about what was going on with drugs and drug users, as you know it's primarily xenophobic stuff, hatred against people that were not white people. And the problem though is that, you know, my expectation would be that over time, especially that people who were involved in journalism would take the time to investigate such, you know, bizarre claims, they're extraordinary claims, you know, the kinds of things that he was publishing and claiming that would happen to people that did the various drugs was clearly not true, but no one took the time to go out and debate about it. I don't understand that.

DEAN BECKER: Well, and again, though, it was part of the bigotry, to be honest, you kind of touched on it, that the "darkies" needed watching over and controlled, and needed to be, you know, corralled, and prevented from their own proclivities. What's your thought there, Brian?

BRIAN BENNETT: Yeah, that's true, and you know, no matter what we would love to believe about equality in America, we're still not there. And I guess that, you know, I'm kind of disappointed, being a person who grew up in the 70s, that, when we were having our basic cultural revolution, that we were not able to do a better job of holding people to the truth, you know, especially those in the journalism field. And, I honestly don't understand how and why it's taking as long as it is for people to start paying attention to what's really going on. I guess it's because there weren't that many people that were digging into it enough.

DEAN BECKER: Yeah, and you're kind of touching upon one of my hot buttons of late. I want to bring back the attitude, the feeling, the focus, the effort of flower power, of bringing us old folks, us old hippies, dying off, to get out of our couches, get in the streets, get in the wheelchair, and show these young kids how it's done. I think back to it, it was a summer of love, it was wonderful, but then we had the focus of the press, and law enforcement, just down upon us, and people kind of ran for security, ran for solitude, and safety. Did they not?

BRIAN BENNETT: Well, they did, and then it got worse. After the end of the 70s, I mean, really late 60s and throughout the 1970s, there was an explosion of both the use of various drugs and, you know, visibility about it. And then along comes Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan and just say no, and that really put a damper on everything, it caused people to run and hide, instead of going out and waving their freak flags like we were back in the 70s. Yeah, so there is an entire decade, maybe almost a decade and a half, during which you'd rarely even see anybody wearing a pot themed t-shirt.

So, that had a huge impact on the ability of people to come out of the closet, as it were, and admit out loud that, hey, you know what, I do this stuff, it's not that bad, and what we're being told is a bunch of nonsense. You know, so, you know, fearing losing your job, all the stuff that Reagan introduced with drug testing, it really created an atmosphere of fear, and, you know, a lot of people can find very, very simple reasons why they don't want to risk losing everything that they have, and, you know, I think that's changing again finally, because we're getting people to come out of the closet on it, obviously with the baby boomer generation getting older and retiring and not having to worry about having a job anymore, they're in a great position to come out and talk about it truthfully.

DEAN BECKER: Yeah. Well let's hope they do. Well friends, once again we've been speaking with Mister Brian C. Bennett. Brian, before we go, please share your website location.

BRIAN BENNETT: All right, thank you. It's www.briancbennett.com. It's really easier just finding with google by typing in antidrugwar as all one word.

DEAN BECKER: It's time to play Name That Drug By Its Side Effects! Abnormal dreams, confusion, coughing up blood, decreased sensitivity to stimulation, decreased sex drive, difficulty concentrating, difficulty speaking, hepatitis, impotence, memory loss, and sensitivity to light. Time's up! The answer: Claritin. Another FDA-approved product.

DEAN BECKER: Well, just a few moments ago we were talking to Brian Bennett about our friend Howard Wooldridge, one of the founding members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, who's now in New Hampshire, who's now shadowing and appearing at the conferences and debates in New Hampshire. Hello, Howard.

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: Hey, Dean.

DEAN BECKER: Howard, what's going on in New Hampshire, man?

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: Well, it's basically one presidential rally after another. I'm with Don Murphy of MPP, he's one of their federal advocates on the Hill. We work closely together, and he and I teamed up to do this one week in New Hampshire to see if we can, most importantly, lock down the candidates on their issue, on the issue of marijuana prohibition and see if we can have them say out loud they would apply the Tenth Amendment and not interfere with Colorado.

DEAN BECKER: Howard, I caught a clip of Mister Trump talking about what he would do for New Hampshire, insofar as the drug problem. He said he would build a wall. Well, what's your thought, sir?

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: Well, yeah, he's talking about the wall, and he is much more of a showman as opposed to a knowledgeable individual. They've tripled the size of the border patrol, built half the fence, and a tsunami of heroin and other drugs pour across it every day. I think your listeners know that all efforts to stop this, be it some magical wall or more troops on the border, it's nonsense, whether it's immigration or illegal drugs.

DEAN BECKER: You know, I caught a quote from, I think his name is Zambada. He's now the new official head of the Sinaloa cartel. And he was quoted as saying, you know, taking out the top capo is never going to make a difference, because there's always many people lurking, waiting to take that position. Right?

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: Oh, I mean, we've known this now for 44 years of drug war, that every drug dealer arrested, shot, or killed, is replaced within a few hours or a few days. There's always someone desperate enough or greedy enough to become a drug dealer, whether a street level or the capos at the heads of these cartels down in Mexico. Our profession, my profession, law enforcement, will always hit the trumpets and say, well we arrested a really big guy this time, and they also know now that this is just an exercise in getting politicians to continue to fund the drug war efforts, it has nothing to do with being efficient and effective. We all know that's silly.

DEAN BECKER: Yeah. There's always another cornfarmer willing to step down from his tractor and try to make a billion bucks, right?

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: That's correct.

DEAN BECKER: Howard, I know you're --

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: And the fact is that law enforcement know it, it's just all about the money.

DEAN BECKER: Yeah. Howard, I know you're in New Hampshire, you're a busy fellow needing to get back in action here quickly, but still early on, but who are some of the reporteres that have been quizzing you?

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: Oh, I went to the Sanders rally today, got an interview with CNN, and also Washington Post. I've been interviewed by Die Welt, which is the German Time magazine. I've had 8 in-camera interviews. It's been a gold mine of publicity. The "Cops Say Legalize Pot" t-shirt and jacket have been extremely effective in gathering media support and expanding the LEAP message to end the drug war and legalize, regulate marijuana and the other drugs. Give yourself credit and also Don Murphy, talked to me about two, three weeks ago about this, and Don Murphy's an exceptionally talented, naturally gifted advocate for our position, and as soon as he suggested it, I saw the wisdom of it, and I immediately signed up and bought some plane tickets and rented a rental car here in New Hampshire, and it has paid off.

As you know, or you may not know, the first day, the first rally we went to, our picture appeared in the New York Times, with the "Cops Say Legalize Pot" t-shirt prominent, so, this is something which makes it very photogenic, and the message is compelling, and reporters love that kind of stuff.

DEAN BECKER: Yeah. My hat's off to you, sir. Howard, you're at least as committed if not more so than I, it's just something we've got to do, isn't it?

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: Yeah. I'm at my 19th year of activism since I retired as a detective. I made a decision, in cooperation and conjunction with my wife. I'm going to head down to South Carolina for at least a week to do the same thing. More reporters, more press, more everything, and I'm sure there will be another warm reception there in terms of just busy, busy, busy, and keep my speaking voice up, and my t-shirt clean

DEAN BECKER: There you go. All right, friends, once again we've been speaking with Mister Howard Wooldridge, one of the founding members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. You can check out that website at LEAP.cc. Thank you, Howard.

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: You're welcome, any time, Dean.

DEAN BECKER: All right, buddy.

A great event will happen on March 9th. The Baker Institute Drug Policy Program will present a panel on law enforcement perspectives on drug prohibition. Panelists will include Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson; Gary Hale, non-resident fellow in drug policy, former chief of intelligence, at the Houston office of the DEA; Howard Wooldridge, drug policy specialist, Citizens Opposing Prohibition, founding member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition; Texas State Representative Gene Wu; the moderator will be yours truly, Dean Becker, contributing expert at the Baker Institute, producer and host of the Drug Truth Network and a LEAP speaker. This event is on March 9 at the James A. Baker Hall at Rice University from 6:30-8:30pm. To RSVP and to learn more, please visit BakerInstitute.org.

Folks, it's true, things are happening all around the country in regards to drug reform, but especially in regards to marijuana. Should be quite an event, should be quite an eye opener, an awakening, at that James A. Baker III event. I hope to see you there. It's free. They'd like for you to RSVP so they'll know how big a room, how many chairs to set up. But we're well over a hundred now, and hell, let's go for a thousand.

Well, today we're going to talk about a forthcoming event with one of the spokespersons who's going to be at this event. Glad to welcome Ms. Debby Goldsberry. Debby, this event's coming up fairly soon out in San Francisco.

DEBBY GOLDSBERRY: Well, this is our second annual event in San Francisco, the International Cannabis Business Conference. It's on February 13th and 14th, Valentine's Day. One of our taglines: Spend Valentine's Day With Who You Really Love - Marijuana. And, we're expecting people from all over the globe. We have an excellent panel of experts coming, we have Jocelyn Elders, former Surgeon General, coming, Tommy Chong, we have Andrew Sullivan, a conservative blogger. Two seated US members of the House of Representatives, federal representatives, one of our state representatives is coming also, and a whole host of amazing cannabis advocates speaking.

DEAN BECKER: Debby, I was able to attend this last year, it was a wonderful event, I had so many interviews with so many great people, I had weeks and weeks of radio programs. But this is a chance to get down in the heart of it, to learn the truth about the cannabis plant, right?

DEBBY GOLDSBERRY: Well, what we're really trying to do with the International Cannabis Business Conference, there's a lot of conferences people can choose to go to, but what we're focused on is this nexus that we think's really important, and that's social responsibility and social entrepreneurship. So, our goal really is two-fold. One, there's a lot of people coming in from the outside, from big business, or, you know, just business people in general who want to get into the cannabis industry, which is good. Now let's make sure that we can educate those people about the harms of prohibition, about what we face, about what it's going to take to legalize cannabis, about how we're going to stop people from being arrested, free people out of jail, get this medicine to people. We have to teach this to entrepreneurs who are coming in from the outside. Teach them how to be advocates for the cause, and how we're going to change, you know, America, by legalizing marijuana.

Now, on the flipside, our own people, the people who've been in this for a while, cannabis cultivators from northern California, people who are cannabis users wanting to get into the dispensary industry, people who are already selling cannabis in the illicit marketplace. We have to teach business skills to these people. People already share our same values, they already want to end prohibition. Now we have to make sure that we stand a chance to get the permits. We're teaching business to our people, and we're teaching advocacy to entrepreneurs who are coming in from the outside world, so it's kind of a meeting of the minds and finding the spot inbetween where we're really going to end prohibition and get people out of jail.

DEAN BECKER: Well, I think we're making progress. Friends, once again, we've been speaking with Debby Goldsberry, one of the many speakers that will be at the International Cannabis Business Conference in San Francisco at the Hyatt Regency February 13 and 14. If you want to learn more, please go to InternationalCBC.com.

IRIKA SARGENT: Medical marijuana may now be legal in Illinois, but many people say the state hasn't gone far enough, and tonight, the fight is on to add 8 more conditions to the list of legalized pot. CBS2's Roseanne Tellez takes a look at who's blocking the move in this original report.

LON HODGE: A lot of anxiety, a lot of pain, and a lot of dread.

ROSEANNE TELLEZ: Post traumatic stress disorder. This vet says he was prescribed so many narcotics to fight it, he didn't know which end was up.

LON HODGE: Take me to the brink of suicide several times.

ROSEANNE TELLEZ: You think this is a much safer alternative?

LON HODGE: Absolutely. The only drug that I've ever done, and done it legally when I was in Colorado, that has allowed me to sleep through the night without any side effects.

ROSEANNE TELLEZ: He's talking about medical marijuana, now for sale in Illinois to help people suffering from about 40 different ailments. But the governor declined to add PTSD.

LON HODGE: Yeah, I think it's an insult to every veteran in the state.

ROSEANNE TELLEZ: It's also contrary to the recommendation of a state advisory board.

LESLIE MENDOZA TEMPLE, MD: The safety data on medical cannabis is very good.

ROSEANNE TELLEZ: And, says Mendoza, states with medical cannabis laws saw fewer overdoses from prescription drugs.

LESLIE MENDOZA TEMPLE, MD: And they experienced a 24.8 percent drop in their mortaliity, or death, from overdosages from prescription narcotic medications. That's huge.

ROSEANNE TELLEZ: Still, the state wants more proof that the medical marijuana works for certain conditions.

JIM CHAMPION: It's very upsetting to me that I can't do more for the patients and the veterans.

ROSEANNE TELLEZ: Despite the studies and red tape ahead, this board member encourages people to stay optimistic, although businesses that sell medical marijuana say sales are off to a slow start in the state.

JEFF GOLDMAN: We are hearing a lot of chatter about that they're having trouble getting enough patients in their stores in order to sustain the business. There will be some stores that probably will shutter.

ROSEANNE TELLEZ: Irritable bowel syndrom, osteoarthritis, and autism are among other conditions rejected Friday. Goldman says without adding to that list of conditions, the business won't grow fast enough to offset costs. And just moments ago I did get a response from the state, which says it is premature to expand the pilot program.

DEAN BECKER: The following segment courtesy NBC, it features an interview with my friend Aaron Justis.

LESTER HOLT: More and more states permit the use of marijuana, sales of the drug are exploding. New figures out this week show that legal pot sales grew by almost a billion dollars over the last year to $5.4 billion. 23 states plus Washington, DC, now permit medical or recreational use. Harry Smith has more for us tonight.

HARRY SMITH: If you've been around someone smoking marijuana, you know it has a distinct aroma. But more and more, that scent is the smell of money. Four years from now, sales are expected to exceed $20 billion.

TROY DAYTON: We're looking at a 30 percent compound annual growth rate.

HARRY SMITH: Attitudes about marijuana use in America have changed drastically over the last 20 years. Support for legalization was 36 percent in 2005. It's 58 percent now. The appetite for marijuana is hardy. Aaron Justis runs a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles called Buds & Roses.

AARON JUSTIS: We raised sales, to last year, we did over $3 million in sales.

HARRY SMITH: Out of this little place right here.

AARON JUSTIS: Out of this little place, yeah.

HARRY SMITH: And legalization has brought a windfall in tax revenue. Colorado's 2015 total: more than a hundred million. Legalization initiatives will likely appear on the ballot this year in at least a half dozen states. Medical marijuana, in several more.

TROY DAYTON: If these ballot initiatives do well in 2016, it could really spell the end of marijuana prohibition in very short order.

HARRY SMITH: The same ballot box, though, may prove problematic for ending prohibition. What presidential candidate, after all, wants to be seen as high on marijuana? Harry Smith, NBC News.

DEAN BECKER: We just basically recreated the insanity of the drug war right here in this half hour program. I want to remind you once again that because of prohibition you don't know what's in that bag. Please be careful.

To the Drug Truth Network listeners around the world, this is Dean Becker for Cultural Baggage and the unvarnished truth. Cultural Baggage is a production of the Pacifica Radio Network. Archives are permanently stored at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. And we are all still tapdancing on the edge of an abyss.