Keri Blakinger covers breaking news, prisons and the death penalty. She was hired at the Houston Chronicle through the Hearst Fellows program. After three years at the Chronicle, she moved to The Marshall Project. PLUS: Debby Goldsberry, cannabis dispensary owner, author of Starting & Running a Marijuana Business (Idiot's Guides) She is a partner in Bridgetown Solutions, providing cannabis operators with real-world business intelligence.

Sanho Tree is a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and has been Director of its Drug Policy Project since 1998. A former military and diplomatic historian, his current work encompasses the reform of both international and domestic drug policies by promoting alternatives to the failed prohibitionist model. In recent years the project has focused on ending the damage caused by the drug wars in Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico, Afghanistan, and the Philippines. Establishing humane and sustainable alternatives to the drug war fits into the IPS mandate as one of the major contemporary social justice issues at home and abroad.

Eric Sterling who worked with the US congress to craft many of our nations drug laws Plus Dr. Richard Andrews a Houston doctor working with patients praciticing harm reduction of opiates.

Major Neill Franklin has more than 30 years experience wearing the badge of law enforcement. Today Neill is the Executive Director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership which has thousands of experienced police, prosecutors and legislators calling for an end to drug prohibition. Neill is one of the stars of our September 11 Premiere of our video Production: SEEEKING THE MORAL HIGH GROUND (On Drugs). To learn more please visit www.LEAP.cc

Colombia’s new leftist leader is proposing steps to legalize elements of his country’s flourishing narcotics industry, signaling a potential break with a past hard-line strategy on drugs and a test of Bogotá’s ties with its most powerful ally, the United States. President Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla whose election this summer marked an end to decades of conservative rule in Colombia, described plans that would permit small-scale farmers to legally grow coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine, and address deforestation and climate change by paying farmers not to plant the crop — or anything else — in Colombia’s rainforest.

Zachary Siegel is a writer based in Chicago. A recent piece in Harpers was titled: A Hole In The Head, a procedure to implant electrodes into the brain to stop addiction. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, and WIRED, among others.

Roger Goodman is a state Representative based in Seattle Washington. Roger is a strong proponent of harm reduction and even legalization of all drugs. Roger ranks as one of the most effective and prolific legislators in the United States. Roger is the main guest on Cultural Baggage

Greg Denham is a retired senior sergeant of Victoria police and the Australian representative for the US-based agency Law Enforcement Action Partnership. Greg had a major article in the Guardian last week: "The rising appetite for powerful drugs like fentanyl is a direct result of Australia’s failing prohibition policies Tough questions must be asked about laws that perpetuate the myth that the war on drugs is winnable through prohibition Given our failure to learn the lessons of the past, the policy response to the fentanyl crisis is predictable. We will no doubt hear from politicians and law enforcement demanding more police, more invasive powers, tougher laws and longer jail sentences. The problem is, we’ve been taking this approach for more than 50 years and yet we know that drug seizures have little impact on drug availability. Despite what police and politicians tell us, drug prohibition, like alcohol prohibition, has failed." +++ DTN Editorial: Prohibition is Evil

Howard Wooldridge of Frederick, MD: retired police detective is our guest. Howard is a co-founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc), He is a full-time advocate since 2006 in Washington, DC as the police voice in opposition to drug prohibition. Topics incllude drug war violence, overdose, international progress and slow advance of decrim and legalization.

John Walsh ,new report for the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) . Mr. Walsh has testified before Congress and published extensively on the need to reassess drug policy goals, strategies, and indicators. His analyses have underscored the limits of supply-oriented drug policies and the extensive damage they cause. PT II