Century of Lies, May 3, 2009

Hello. This is Borat. Please tell your children’s to buy my Kasikstans opium and heroin’s. So my children can live long enough, to grow pubis for harvest. Thank you.
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The failure of Drug War is glaringly obvious to judges, cops, wardens, prosecutors and million’s more now calling for decriminalization, legalization, the end of prohibition. Let us investigate the Century of Lies.
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Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Abolitionists’ Moment. War is over, if you want it. The drug war is over as well, it’s just awaiting your approval. The evidence is overwhelming. The science. The ramifications. The injustice. The lost lives. The families, fractured and forfeited. Judge’s handcuffed to inequity. Politician’s trapped by the ‘bones’ they made. The great wall of blue, corrupted and inbreed.

All await your approval. Your thoughts. Your voice. Before they will stop feeding their evil cornucopia, the lives of their fellow man. Please, do your part to end the madness of drug war.

Visit: endprohibition.org. Do it, for the Children.
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Alright. Welcome to this edition of Century of Lies. I’m so glad you could be with us, here. In just a moment we’re going to have with us, our guest , Sandee Burbank, the Executive Director of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse. Here in just a little bit, we’ll have a report, if you will, from Dr. Robert Melameade, on talking about the Swine Flu and perhaps what we can or shouldn’t do and we’ll hear Ethan Nadelmann’s visit to the Colbert Report and we’ll have more from Borat. But first up, let’s go ahead and bring in our guest, Sandee Burbank. Hello, Sandy.

Sandee Burbank: Well hello, Dean. It’s good to be with you.

Dean Becker: Thank you, so much. I’m looking over your bio, if you will, from Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse and you’re very much involved in your community and your family and in trying to build a better place for us all. Is that a fair assumption?

Sandee Burbank: Well, you could say that I’ve pretty much dedicated my life to drug policy reform, which encompasses all of that, for the last 28 years.

Dean Becker: That’s the thing. You guys have been around for almost three decades, now. You’re not spring chickens to this movement; to this idea, right?

Sandee Burbank: You’re right. I’ll be sixty-five in August.

Dean Becker: Let’s talk about MAMA, the abbreviation for the organization. What are you guys all about?

Sandee Burbank: OK. That stands for Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse and what we’re talking about here is drugs. We’re not anti-prohibition as much as we are Drug Policy reformer’s. We don’t think that prohibition is the way to go but we also need to look at our legal drug policy and look at the serious problems we have there with the legal drugs, especially prescription drugs, and the way pain is treated these days where, we’re looking at more and more people are being prescribed Methadone.

We’ve got a shortage of pain pills coming up. Vicodin, the OxyContin’s are both going to be in short supply, already are in some places. So, more and more people, we’re worried, are going to turn to the street.

We’ve been, as a part of our Drug Policy Reform platform since the early 90’s , we took on the issue of medical marijuana. Marijuana’s always been something we’ve been concerned about and we think that prohibition is very harmful. But, we thought that medical marijuana was just so compelling and so needed. So desperately needed, by patients, that we got really aggressive on promoting medicinal access.

Since then, Oregon, where I live, has Oregon medical marijuana program. It’s been here for ten years now, May 1st. There are now almost twenty-four thousand people legally registered in the program. We’ve seen negligible reports of bad health effects and all we hear about is possible violations of the law. But, we don’t see much real statistics on that.

What we’re seeing is a program that works. It doesn’t work perfectly because people, who can’t grow their own, don’t have access to it. So, there’s a movement in our state to have dispensaries. The Legislature has just been horrible this year. There were thirty-two bills, I believe, in the legislature this year, just having to do with Cannabis.

You know, you’re wondering if there’s no big health effects? If this isn’t about health, what is it about? It’s about a terrible waste of resources and horrible effects on families. Also, some people could make money and have power and it’s really sad. But, we’re seeing changes. We’ve obviously won public opinion. Ethan Nadelmann was absolutely great the other night and Family Guy, last weekend, was incredible.

We’re definitely ahead of the curve. But, just economics is going to push people over the edge and what we’re seeing Dean is, and I’ve said this for years, once people grasp the problems with the Cannabis law’s, they, kind of, step right over it and look at prohibition as everything. It’s like they don’t just say, ‘Yeah, let’s legalize Cannabis and leave all the rest of the drugs illegal.’ They, kind of, do that extra step, almost immediately. Definitely, the Cannabis laws are the cornerstone of this whole terrible, terrible drug policy we have out there.

Dean Becker: We’re speaking with Sandee Burbank. She’s Executive Director of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse. Sandee, you were talking about medical marijuana and our associate, Mr. Mike Gray, has produced a piece, talking about the needs and the ambitions and the work being done by a group of seniors, in Orange County, seeking medical marijuana. We’ll be right back.
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Recently, the LA Times reported on a group of Orange County senior citizens, who are trying to gain access to medical marijuana. Local authorities are sympathetic, but no landlord will rent them space for a dispensary. Desperate for relief, they’re taking matters into their own hands.

“One night at 3AM, I woke up and I didn’t make it to the washroom and at that point, everything in my body had erupted, out of every orifice, and I’m blind and in on my own, pardon the expression, crap and I thought, ‘I can’t stand this. This isn’t me.’ If I’d had a gun, it would have been over at that point.

But, I went to this meeting and I met Tracey and I saw this booklet that says, ’Multiple Sclerosis - Medical Marijuana’ and I just , verbally poured out of me, that I needed help and anything that they could give and that night, again these waves of nausea, followed by vomiting, that goes to the bottom of my toes and so forth, and I’d… before that happened, I took a puff, for the first time in my life and I sat back and, ’Oh. Well, maybe it’s safe to go to bed.’
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Dean Becker: Alright. Once again, that was part of a production by Mr. Mike Gray. But it, kind of, outlines the reality of that need, by all kinds of folks. But senior’s, in particular, need it more, perhaps, than the youngsters. Right, Sandee?

Sandee Burbank: There are more of them, I would say. We have a Medical Marijuana Clinic and we offer clinics in Portland, Bend, and in The Dalles, Oregon and we direct mail now to over thirty-five hundred people a month. A lot of them are senior citizens and they come to us, very cautious. A lot of them have never dreamed that they would ever be seeking help from Cannabis, you know.

But, when the young ones show up, it’s always so sad. We don’t have psychological conditions that qualify, here in Oregon, or we’d be having even more of them. We have a lot of people returning from the wars, with PTSD, that need help. But just those that are physically injured, it’s just amazing, those that have cancer.

So, it’s not just the older people, although senior citizens definitely have already learned the lie of the relief they can get from pharmaceutical drugs. That’s usually pretty temporary and they end up that nothing will work for them anymore and so, so many of them end up across from me, seeking information and help.

Dean Becker: Now Sandee, it’s, I think, becoming accepted, really, the truth of the matter, especially in regards to marijuana; medical marijuana, but you were kind of talking about the other drugs and how they are actually getting some attention, as well. People are beginning to realize that Methadone kills three times as many people as does heroin.

Sandee Burbank: Well, it’s so sad, too. When the insurance; it all has to do with money. It‘s not any of it, that I can really see, has to do with what’s the best, for the health of our citizens. The insurance companies started shutting down on paying for the OxyContin and when they did that, we saw methadone being prescribed.

Now we’re hearing that three of the different places that make Vicodin and OxyContin and Oxycodone have; two of them have been shut down, there’s just one left open and already, here in our state, people who are going in to fill their prescription for Vicodin are being told, “I’m sorry. We don’t have any. You’re going to have to come back in four or five or six or seven days,” and then we had one fellow called us. He had gone to another pharmacy after four days and then he was labeled a drug seeker. So, pain treatment in America is terrible.

We’ve got all these people thinking that prescription drugs are so safe and they’re not . They kill hundreds of thousands of people every year and those are when they’re taken absolutely the way they’re suppose to. The problem with Methadone, is if you drink with Methadone or you take an extra pill, that can be all that it takes to cause you to overdose and we’ve got the over-the-counter drugs, the aspirin, acetaminophen and Ibuprofen. Besides the terrible damage they can cause to your kidneys, your liver and your gastrointestinal system, they’re killing as many people that’s (in our last statistic’s - I think it was about eighteen thousand) which is as many people as die from all illegal drugs combined.

So, our drug policy makes no sense and a lot of people just want to go from it, against ‘Let’s End Prohibition’ and I totally agree with that because prohibition just breeds crime and violence and corruption and it’s filling our prison’s. But, it’s never going to work.

We’re never going to be in a better place with drugs, in general, if we don’t do some serious soul searching. Judge all drugs by the same standards and then figure out a way you can make those drugs available to people where they’re regulated. So they’re not going to the black market where they don’t even know what they’re getting. So that if people have problems, they can go to the hospital and get help, instead of dying in somebody’s living-room because they’re afraid to take you there.

We’ve got a long way to go. But, at least, we can say that medical marijuana, the lie is being revealed through that and maybe, this is going to be enough to make people start thinking in broader terms.

Dean Becker: You know, your thought about the aspirin and acetaminophen and other pain relievers; the over-the-counter stuff, being as deadly or perhaps more so than the “recreational drugs” and we don’t even consider into that equation, the fact that these drugs are made by un-trained chemists. They’re shipped North. They’re then cut with all kinds of household products. You don’t get a label on the bag, when you buy it on the black market.

Sandee Burbank: No. That is the perfect example of that, what we call meth these days. Methamphetamines have been around as long as I can remember. I graduated from High School in 1962. People used drugs, to go fast. People that had to do odd work; weird shift work, that kind of thing. But they got those drugs from the Doctor. Those drugs didn’t make your teeth fall out and didn’t make you be crazy and didn’t make you so desperate that you’d steal and commit crimes to get them.

What we have now is, what I call, ‘the bathtub gin of meth.’ It’s the same thing that we had with prohibition of alcohol. All those people who died from bathtub gin, it’s the same thing with what we got out there. Here in Eastern Oregon they’re stealing; the farmers have to watch their fertilizer really close, because people are just driving up and stealing their fertilizer, to make meth.

Dean Becker: Yeah, and the list is pretty endless. Everything from match strikers to Drain-O to, you know… little wonder that stuff’s causing a problem. Yes. Friends, we’re speaking with Sandee Burbank, Director of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse.

Sandee, I’m looking at some more data I gathered from y’all website which, by the way, is mamas.org and you are just as likely to wind up at a City Council Meeting, as a reform convention or something, right?

Sandee Burbank: Oh, definitely. Yeah. One of the things I talk to the Governor’s Council, on the alcohol and drug programs here, constantly, for twenty-five years. We’re finally making a few end roads there. They’re starting to look at things a little bigger.

There’s the Governor’s Council on Pain Management. There’s so many meetings. We talk to everybody we can. I chaired the Oregon Medical Marijuana Advisory Board for two and a half years and that’s just been an interesting experience, getting people to take us seriously. Even thought we’re mandated and we’re appointed by the head of the department of Human Resources. In the meantime, we’ll have another agency in the department of Human Resources putting our misinformation about medical marijuana.

People know though. We’re winning, here in Oregon. People definitely can see it and I think that it’s not going to be the compassion for patients, or even the yearning for truth and all that, or for better health. It’s going to be the almighty dollar that’s going to drive this. Our prison’s are totally full. We can’t afford to spend another dime on keeping adults away from Cannabis. It doesn’t make any sense at all.

We just had a really bad bill, House Bill 37, I believe it was. Anyhow, what it did was mandate more mandatory minimums and that kind of thing and you know. Already, we don’t have schools, we don’t have roads and our prison’s are terribly overcrowded. So, the almighty dollar is driving this to discussion, now. I think that that’s what it’s going to take. It’s going to have to become so economically damaging that people can see, it makes no sense anymore.

Dean Becker: Well, I think that’s it. You and I have been; you for decades, me for nearly a decade have been preaching this gospel, of examining this policy. But it is the economy that’s finally going to force them to listen to us, right?

Sandee Burbank: Yep. That’s what I think.

Dean Becker: OK. We’ve got just about a minute left. I want to kind of turn it over to you. Look, you inspire me. I love your attitude and your continuity in this. So, tell the folks how they can get involved with MAMA and how they can do their part, to end this madness.

Sandee Burbank: Well, the first thing they can do, is to educate themselves so they can represent themselves articulately and so that they can set a good example for their children. The only way we’re going to change things is to set good examples for our children and teach them the truth. Make sure they know how to make good decisions.

You can get a hold of us, at our website. It’s mamas.org and we’re around five days a week. Monday thru Friday at any of our offices. Just give us a call if you’ve got questions. Thank you so much Dean, for having me on this show.

Dean Becker: Thank you, Sandee Burbank. We’ll be in touch.

Sandee Burbank: OK. Bye.

Dean Becker: Alright. Bye.
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Because of his enormous intake of drugs
The DEA keeps him on the payroll.
He once purchased the worlds supply of crack
And turned it back into cocaine.
The air he exhales is psychedelic
He is the most interesting man in the world.

I don’t always do drugs
But when I do
I prefer marijuana.
Stay informed, my friends. drugtruth.net
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Dr. Robert Melameade is a professor and research scientist at the University of Colorado and I asked him to clarify some of the rumors about the Swine Flu.

Dean Becker: Some people say it’s deadly, some say it’s more mild.

Dr. Robert Melameade: Well first of all, it’s actually both. It is deadly and it is mild. It seems to be a function of who’s getting it and where. It’s killing people in Mexico, but it’s not killing very many people in the United States. I’ve not been able to find any hard core, scientific supported, reason as to why that is. I’m sure there are a lot of people trying to figure that out, right now.

Almost everything in our body is regulated by the Endocannabinoids, marijuana from within, that we make. Evert time we get hungry, a little part of our brain make some pot, basically; the equivalent of pot and we give ourselves the munchies. The reason marijuana has so many medical values and effects in general, is that it influences that Endocannabinoid system that’s regulating everything. Alright?

One of the basic things that needs to be regulated in living systems, is how much free radicals we make, how many free radicals we make and when we make them, and that is essentially the same as saying, inflammation. Not quite, but it’s very much connected, ok? Inflammation always has a free radical phenomena associated with it.

So, we have to make enough free radicals, but we can’t make too much. If you don’t make enough, than you can’t control certain kinds of infections and if you make too much, you wind up damaging your own tissue. Which is why, the longer you live, the more you damage yourself, with free radicals. Which is why, it’s so tied in with aging.

They’re not dying directly from the flu infection. They’re not dying directly from the viruses that they’re producing from the infection. They’re dying from the way their immune system responds to it. They’re producing extremely high levels of chemical messenger’s, known as cytokines, that regulate inflammation in turning it off.

They’re turning on really high levels of the inflammatory cytokines. It’s called a cytokine storm, alright? That is causing the lung cells to die. The way your body turns down those pro-inflammatory cytokines, is with your Endocannabinoid system. So, what could possibly be a more natural way to turn down inflammation? Cannabis!

When you smoke it, you’re taking hot gasses and particulate matter, both of which are irritants, and when things are irritants, that’s against (?)(20:54.6 to 20:55.6), they turn on inflammation and if you’re a medical user, try eating instead of smoking. Because it could be the difference between life and death, based on science.
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Hello. This is Borat. Please tell your children’s to buy my Kasikstans opium and heroin’s. So my children can live long enough, to grow pubis for harvest. Thank you.
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Kneel down and pray for the new inquisition
Pray for success of the new ‘Dark Age’
All this in the name of God
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Extract from Colbert Report, with Ethan Nadelmann of Drug Policy Alliance

My guest tonight says we should reduce border violence, if we legalize drugs. Why don’t we just legalize border violence? {audience laughter} Please welcome Ethan Nadelmann. {10 seconds of audience applause}

Stephen Colbert: Ethan, nice to see you again.

Ethan Nadelmann: Thank you. Good to see you, too.

Stephen Colbert: You have been a guest on my show before.

Ethan Nadelmann: Yes.

Stephen Colbert: May I ask something? Are you actually here or are we having a flash back? {audience chuckling}

Ethan Nadelmann: I’m here.

Stephen Colbert: You’re here?

Ethan Nadelmann: I’m here.

Stephen Colbert: OK. I just wanted to make sure.

Ethan Nadelmann: Yeah, yeah.

Steve Colbert: Now, I just want to tell the viewers who might be watching this show “High” right now, ‘Start dark side of the moon, now!’ {laughter} OK. Ethan, you say we should legalize drugs and that will solve all of our problems. Go on. Sell me the idea of giving weed to my kids.

Ethan Nadelmann: Well. Steve, I don’t want to give anything to your kids. But the fact of the matter is, we’re arresting almost two million Americans a year.

Steve Colbert: Two million criminals.

Ethan Nadelmann: We have a half million…

Steve Colbert: Two million criminals, sir!

Ethan Nadelmann: …well, a half million people… …behind bars.

Stephen Colbert: Criminals!

Ethan Nadelmann: Well, you know, people who have done just what this President and the past President and the President before that and a hundred million other people have done.

Stephen Colbert: He didn’t get caught, Sir!

Ethan Nadelmann: No, that’s true and that’s the problem. You see too many people are getting caught and punished who should not be behind bars in the first place.

Stephen Colbert: Well, what’s the answer then? Soft on crime, I hear that part.

Ethan Nadelmann: It’s not about…

Stephen Colbert: But, what does it do for us?

Ethan Nadelmann: You know, it’s about getting ‘smart’ on crime. It’s about focusing Law Enforcement resources at the people who are violent and predatory and stealing and ’not’ focusing on those people who just smoked a joint or whatever. Alright? It’s also about ta…

Stephan Colbert: Or whatever?

Ethan Nadelmann: Well, it’s also…

Stephan Colbert: Or smoke a joint or whatever? That’s a huge… that’s a huge loophole, my friend. Or whatever. Or… free base money brain. What do you mean?

Ethan Nadelmann: My view on this thing, you get behind the wheel of a car, you deserve to be punished, if you’re under the influence. But if you’re not bothering anybody, the Government should NOT be bothering you.

Stephan Colbert: …if people are going to be smoking pot, there’re going to be more people ‘high’ driving.

Ethan Nadelmann: See and people area already…

Stephan Colbert: High kids driving cars.

Ethan Nadelmann: People are already smoking pot. They’re already smoking pot. The point is, they should not be going to prison.

Stephan Colbert: So, we give up? We give up?

Ethan Nadelmann: You know, at this point, when forty percent of Americans are saying, “Treat it like alcohol,” fifty percent are probably… democrats in there… probably ninety-five percent of your audience is supporting legalizing ’high’.

{cheering/clapping in the audience}

Stephen Colbert: You cannot… You cannot treat it. If you’re right, than that clapping means nothing.

Ethan Nadelmann: Ha, ha, ha.

Stephen Colbert: They just saw some flashing lights and they and they went, “Pretty!” {clapping hands}

Ethan Nadelmann: No, no, no. Steve, you know you have a very smart audience.

Stephan Colbert: Ethan. Ethan. Ethan. Ethan. Now listen. Listen. You’re comparing, what you said, people are already drinking. You can’t compare alcohol to drugs. Alcohol’s not a drug, it’s a delicious liquid, that makes you exciting and courageous.

Ethan Nadelmann: …and we can agree on it and Stephen… But, you can compare alcohol prohibition to marijuana prohibition.

Stephen Colbert: How so? Go on.

Ethan Nadelmann: What’s going on in Mexico right now, it’s like Chicago during prohibition under Al Capone, times fifty. When you look at the gangsters, the violence, the border violence, the best way to deal with this is to tax and regulate marijuana. Take it out of the criminal justice system.

Stephen Colbert: Tax? Tax, tax?

Ethan Nadelmann: Tax. Tax and regulate it.

Stephen Colbert: Tax and regulate?

Ethan Nadelmann: Tax and regulate. That is the answer.

Stephen Colbert: That is just Liberals, all over. Tax and toke liberals.

Ethan Nadelmann: Oh, no, no, no.

Stephen Colbert: Man, I can’t believe this is all about taxes for you, now. You use to be about the weed. You have sold out.

{audience applause and laughter}

Ethan Nadelmann: No, no. This is about sensible, smart regulation. That’s what we need.

Stephan Colbert: Sensible, smart regulation? OK.

Ethan Nadelmann: We need to… Look, half a million people…

Stephen Colbert: We don’t need America’s burgeoning dope industry burdened with regulation. The free market should decide what constitutes primo mud.

Ethan Nadelmann: Some good people would agree with you on that, but when you’re arresting eight hundred thousand people a year for smoking a joint, that wrong! That’s wrong! We should not be doing that!

{audience support via clapping}

Stephen Colbert: Have you ever… Have you ever, done drugs?

Ethan Nadelmann: Well, Steven, I had smoked the occasional joint when I’m…

Stephen Colbert: So now, you are a criminal and no other arguments have validity now.

Ethan Nadelmann: I have smoked the occasional joint when I’m watching you, but never when I’m on you.

{cheers in the audience along with clapping} {Stephen at a loss for words} {Ethan grinning} {laughter}

Stephen Colbert: You say… You mean, on my show. Right?

Ethan Nadelmann: Yeah! That’s what I meant!

Stephen Colbert: OK.

Ethan Nadelmann: Yeah.

Stephen Colbert: Just want to make sure.

Ethan Nadelmann: Yeah.

Stephen Colbert: So…

Ethan Nadelmann: Have you?

Stephen Colbert: … Mexico’s drug violence goes down, if we legalize pot here?

Ethan Nadelmann: Yeah. You have the Attorney General of Arizona, he says, “I don’t want to legalize marijuana, but we should have a debate about this.” You have the City Council of El Paso, Texas saying, “Let’s have a debate.” You have Senator Webb from Virginia saying, “Let’s have a debate.” You’ve got a very prestigious Commission of former Presidents from (26:24.4 to 26:25.2) “Let’s have a debate.” Even if people don’t agree it’s the answer, let’s open up this debate.

Congress should stop being afraid of talking about this. State Legislatures should put this on the table. When forty percent of American’s want this, let’s have a debate.

Stephen Colbert: OK. … you sold me, you sold me. I will agree that we should have an open, public debate, in Congress and in our public square…

Ethan Nadelmann: Thank you.

Stephen Colbert: …as long as we don’t talk about torture.

Ethan Nadelmann: OK.

Stephen Colbert: Alright.

Ethan Nadelmann: OK.

Stephen Colbert: Thank you, so much.

Ethan Nadelmann: Thank you.

Stephen Colbert: Ethan Nadelmann. We’ll be right back. {clapping}
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Dean Becker: OK. Obviously that was Ethan Nadelmann on the Colbert Report. Web site for Drug Policy is drugpolicy.org. I don’t care if you contact drugpolicy.org or if you contact Sandee Burbank’s organization, mamas.org or my group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, leap.cc. It’s important that you do get involved and I hope you’ll work in support of the “Blue Ribbon Commission”. It’s being put forward; the idea is being put forward by US Senator Jim Webb. I want to read a little bit about what he has to say on this subject.

“ Why are so many Americans currently in prison, compared with other countries and our own history?” “What is the policy costing our Nation? Both in tax dollars and in lost opportunities?” “How can we reshape our Nation’s drug policies?” “How can we better diagnose and treat mental illness?” “How can we end violence within prison’s and increase the quality of prison administrator’s?” “How can we build workable re-entry program’s, so that our communities can assimilate former offender’s and encourage them to become productive citizens?” “How can we defend ourselves against the growing scourge of violent, internationally based gang activity?”

If you’ve been listening to this show, even just this one time, you know the answer is to, ‘End Drug Prohibition.’ I remind you, once again, there is no truth, justice, logic, scientific fact, medical data. In fact no reason, for this drug war to exist. We’ve been duped. Please visit our website, endprohibition.org

Prohibido istac evilesco.

For the Drug Truth Network this is Dean Becker, asking you to examine our policy of Drug Prohibition.

The Century of Lies.

This show produced at the Pacifica studios of KPFT, Houston

Prohibition, the drug trafficker’s dream. Enjoy it everywhere.

Transcript provided by: C. Assenberg of www.marijuanafactorfiction.org