Transcript

Century of Lies / November 07, 2010

The failure of Drug war is glaringly obvious to judges, cops, wardens, prosecutors and millions more. Now calling for decriminalization, legalization, the end of prohibition. Let us investigate the Century of Lies.

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Hello, welcome to this edition of Century of Lies. Today we are going to hear a press conference, following the failure of Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana in the state of California. Across the country several other ballot measures to further enhance the status of marijuana also failed but it should be noted that several resolutions to tax marijuana passed resoundingly.

We’ll see how much time we have for this press conference and some other things I’d like to share with you but first we hear from the spokesperson for Prop 19, Dale Jones.

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Dale Jones: You know I’m very excited about the results that we have seen from Proposition 19, not just the polling results, to show that we do have a tremendous electorate behind us but what we’ve achieved in the meantime. We have a debate that was just heard around the world and the conversation has only begun. It seems that we are now fully in not a matter of if but a matter of when.

We look forward to working with state and local officials to craft new language. We have started a serious policy discussion and we plan to continue this conversation. It’s very important to note that the California electorate overall did not reject our argument in the least, in fact, quite to the contrary. There was evidenced by the ten cities that passed “control, tax and regulate” measures and overwhelmingly defeated the two bans that were purposed on medical cannabis control, regulation and taxation.

We’ve realized that you know, frankly the scare tactics at the last minute worked and we have to continue our education campaign. Fortunately, that’s what we do. We have energized our base. We do agree that the current approach is unacceptable and we look forward, hopefully, to working with Kamala Harris who brings reason to regulation. The opposition has agreed with so many of our positions.

We are excited to announce next steps and have seats at the table available, not only for the remarkable coalition that is about to address us today, just a few of the representatives of that coalition. We also want to make sure that we bring our opposition to the table as they’ve noted specific arguments with our most recent discussion. We are looking for their plan and looking forward to holding them accountable for the words and the thoughts that they’ve shared with us over this debate.

I’d like to next turn this conversation over to someone who’s been on the front lines of this failed Drug War and Judge Jim Gray comes to us with over a quarter of a century of experience from the bench, Superior Court Judge Jim Gray.

Superior Court Judge Jim Gray: Honestly in regard to Proposition 19, we won. We simply did win. The implementation of 19 or whatever comes following will be delayed but the ultimate outcome simply is not in doubt.

Major attention was paid to this really important issue all around California and really all around the nation and the world because now we have legitimized the discussion and marijuana prohibition simply can not stand the light of day. In my debates and discussions the numbers of Chiefs of Police acknowledged publicly and openly that the regulation of marijuana is appropriate. They just had some problems with Proposition 19. Well, I didn’t have those problems and I believe it should have been passed, but we will, as Dale says, gather these people together at a place at he table.

But really, between now and probably 2012, the voters in California and around the country will see the violence going on in Mexico in a different light. They will see these vicious juvenile gangs that are being funded by the sale of illegal marijuana. They’ll see that in a different light.

They will see that children are not selling Jim Beam bourbon to one another in their high school campuses but they are selling marijuana all the time. So these are what happens with regard to Proposition 19.

They will also, by the way, see what will happen when this money that is now going to Mexican drug cartels and juvenile gangs starts going to governmental agencies instead to pay for firefighters, teachers and to fix potholes. And also I think, we are going to fix the issue that is the hypocrisy that is so pervasive in this issue now.

You know, basically the last three Presidents that we have had in this country have acknowledged that they’ve use drugs. We would ask, would it have helped their careers to have spent time in jail or suffered that conviction?

And most importantly, we’re going to show that the strictly regulated and controlled marijuana, like alcohol for adults, will not send that social message that society condones using marijuana anymore than we condone smoking cigarettes or chewing tobacco because the harms will actually be reduced by adding regulations and control.

So, we haven’t even talked about the hemp issue, which is another thing that we really should focus on. Canada is very proud that we didn’t pass Prop 19 because this will bring an additional billion dollars or so, per year, for that export.

So, I have been speaking publicly about how this has happened from my own courtroom for the last eighteen years. It’s taken a lot of time but I really think that the end is in sight. In another two years after we regulate and control marijuana, like alcohol for adults, really everybody around the country will look back in astonishment that we could have perpetuated this failed and hopeless policy of marijuana prohibition for so long. I’m encouraged. The end is in site, let’s get at it.

Dale Jones: Our next speaker started his career in a patrol car and Mister Steven Downing ended his career as Deputy Police Chief for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Steven Downing: I have to start off by quoting our leader, Neil Franklin who heads up the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, this morning he said, “The ‘L’ word, ‘legalization’ has become acceptable. You saw and heard a public debate, the likes of which has never occurred in California or in the nation. It became respectable and normal to discuss legalization.”

I just so much agree with that comment. Change requires both compassion and enlightened self-interest and I think that the campaign has provided a good measure of both. A very significant conversation has been started and that conversation will continue.

We’ve made a good case that cannabis prohibition is an unjust law. We have shown that it does more harm than good and we have finally debunked the prohibitionist scare tactics to the point that all they had left was to attack the mechanics of the initiative itself.

For my part, during the next two years, I intend to personally educate as many police organizations, law enforcement unions and special law enforcement interest groups as I possibly can.

So, that the next time more and more of our working law enforcement professionals will come onboard out of compassion for their fellow man and enlightened self interest about how ending prohibition. It will make them more effective in fighting in safer communities for the people that they’ve sworn to protect and serve.

This time the Black Officer’s Association and the Latino Officer’s Association saw what we were doing. They saw the harm that marijuana has imposed upon our society. They came on board. Well, they were the first to see it and many more professionals will see it as time passes and I look forward to participating and educating as part of this conversation as we continue. Thank you, Dale.

Dale Jones: Next, I’d like to introduce Doctor Norm Stamper. Now Norm has spent twenty-eight years in the San Diego Police Department. Thirty-four total after winding up spending time as the Chief in the San Diego Police Department and became the Chief of Police for Seattle for several more years. That’s thirty-four years that Doctor Norm Stamper has spent dealing with this issue head on, as well as his PhD. So. please do bring us your perspective, Doctor Norm Stamper.

Doctor Norm Stamper: Thank you, Dale. It just occurred to me, I think at least four of us are members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. One of the things that I’ll be doing in the next two years in recognition of the fact that the police are on the front lines of the war on cannabis and as a consequence they paying a large price for that in terms of strained community relations and the like.

I was talking to more police officers as well as other criminal justice practitioners and politicians for that matter to encourage them to say out loud what they have been whispering. Not just during this campaign but for a number of years and that is their knowledge that the drug war has failed, that prohibition against cannabis in particular is an absurdity, an extremely costly absurdity.

What I’ll be doing basically is to encouraging them to move from a whispered support to full throated support for an end to this prohibition and I’ll yield the rest of my time to my esteemed co-panelists here.

Dale Jones: I appreciate your thoughts. Thank you, Norm. I’d like to introduce Diane Goldstein, a retired Lieutenant with the Redondo Beach Police Department. Twenty-two years active with law enforcement, Diane.

Diane Goldstein: Thank you, Dale. I wanted to touch on just a few brief things. The one thing that you mentioned was fear. What I wanted to acknowledge was that the Redondo Beach Police Department is probably one of the most innovative small police departments in Southern California and when they taught me was to speak forthrightly and honestly about issues, not only impacting our communities but law enforcement and although some law enforcement officers may disagree with me, I don’t have the fear to sit in silence anymore. So, I would like to thank LEAP and all it’s supporters and the Yes on 19 for allowing me that voice.

What I want to acknowledge is that I challenge both the Democrats and the Republicans and all the Independents out there to look past their emotion of fear or how our society would be with legalization and to embrace the public discourse.

Several notable conservatives including Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Doctor Ron Paul, Rand Paul and others have the guts and the courage to speak out about this issue. If we can have the conservatives willing to discuss this in public, it’s time for the Democrats and other Republicans to stand up and realize that we can’t continue to beat our head against the wall. We are hurting the communities that we service and we are hurting our youth and the future of our country. Thank you.

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Alright, you are listening to the Century of Lies program on the Drug Truth Network, on Pacifica Radio and on ninety-five independent radio stations around the US and Canada. We are tuning in to a recent press conference following the recent failure of Prop 19 to pass in California.

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Dale Jones: Next, we would like to discuss briefly, the impact on jobs and labor. Next, I would like to introduce Dan Rush with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Dan?

Dan Rush: Just speaking as the medical cannabis industry union, in California and actually in the world. We are the only union that has collective barraging agreements with cannabis workers.

We’ve taken the time to see and evaluate the potential for jobs and tax revenues in a legalized, and I use that word cautiously, legalized cannabis industry. I think, well, what I’m going to do is prepare the report that my union has asked my to prepare and submit it not only locally but nationally and give a report on how we see this coalition that’s been formed, this very effective collation that has brought this debate to the surface.

And as we could see yesterday, I think we lost by about 3.6 votes – 3.6%, which is a miniscule number and especially for such a controversial issue. The other thing that we see that other people aren’t thinking about, aside from the agriculture, retail, food processing, security industry and transportation industry jobs is we also see the jobs that are emerging from the hemp industry.

Much of the world uses hemp paper, hemp plastics, wears hemp fiber clothing and the number of jobs here is overwhelming and we can’t ignore it anymore. So we’re going to look at this and we’re certainly going to look at 2012 and it’s been a real pleasure to work with all of the organizations that we have been with. Thank you.

Dale Jones: I would like to round out this conversation with a gentlemen who represents on organization that has been a key partner with the Yes on Prop 19 campaign. His doctorate is only one of the things, in addition to his experience, that helps us frame this issue as well as the path forward, Mister Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of Drug Policy Alliance. Ethan?

Dale Jones: Dale, thanks very much. You know, I was among those would initially tried to discourage Richard Lee, the key champion of this initiative, back a year and a half ago from going forward in 2010. We said wait until 2012. There will be more young people at the polls and there will be a chance of winning, etc, etc.

I have to say that I called Richard a couple of weeks ago and I said, “you know something, win or lose, you were right, because even if this thing does not prevail on election day, the transformation in the public dialog, not just in California but nationally and even internationally has been nothing short of stupendous.”

There is a sense that the debate around marijuana legalization, the argument for it has been elevated and legitimized.

You look at what happened in Colombia just a week or two ago where president Santo was at a summit with four other Latin American presidents made this the number one issue on the agenda. You look at the ways in which it provides the opportunity for leaders in Latin America to say that we need a broader discussion.

Look at the way that it’s no longer just Ron Paul or Barney Frank saying that they support legalizing marijuana but it’s members of the delegation of California and politicians popping out and saying this.

It’s members of the state legislature. It’s the labor unions. It’s the civil rights organizations. It’s the California NAACP. It’s the Latino and Black Police Officer’s Association.

There’s been a transformation in the public dialog and media coverage unlike anything that has ever before happened on the marijuana issue. So, in all of these respects, even though Prop 19 lost by a few points yesterday, it was a major, major victory.

I also want to say this, if you look at the percent that voted. Prop 19 got more votes than Meg Whitman or Carly Fiorina. Each of whom spent vast fortunes to try and get themselves elected.

So, this was a very, very significant showing. Getting forty-six point something percent was way better than many of us expected. It was really an enormous success. One can also say that there was actually one hard victory that came out of this.

Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a whole bunch of very sensible drug policy reform bills on issues like needle exchange and overdose prevention but he did sign one bill, that was the one introduced by the liberal state Senator Martin Landau, that would reduce the penalty for marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to down to an infraction, more or less like a traffic fine, making it a non-arrestable offense. That’s very significant in California where 61,000 people were arrested last year for marijuana possession, triple the number that were arrested twenty years ago.

Schwarzenegger almost certainly have not signed that bill if but for the fact that Prop 19 was on the ballot and but for the fact that he wanted to undermine Prop 19’s momentum by signing that. But that turns out to be a very, very hard victory.

Now when it comes to where we are going for the future as Dale and the others have said, California looks good for 2012 and so do a range of other states. People in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado are all talking about the possibility of ballot initiatives there.

I’m determined that we will go forward where we are determined and the majority of the public favoring the notion of marijuana legalization. If more than 50% of the public support it and if the legislature and government are unwilling to move forward, then those are the places where resources need to be devoted.

So, Prop 19, as Jim Gray started off in saying, has been an enormous victory. The defeat that happened at the poll yesterday was a mere bump in the road compared to the positive monumental transformation of the debate around marijuana. Thank you.

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Dean Becker: Alright, once again, you are listening to the Century of Lies show on the Drug Truth Network. We’re tuning in to a recent press conference following the failure of Prop 19 to pass in California.

After these speakers did their opening statements, they took questions from members of the press. I’m going to share a couple of those with you now.

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Dale Jones: Our electorate has an impact now of 3.4 million strong in the state of California and that will only continue to grow in size and strength as we approach this new year. At the end of January, we look forward to a summit meeting with state officials as well as future meetings with local leaders on next implementation steps.

We look forward to sitting down with our opposition to discuss the finer points on how to change this failed status quo and I encourage all of you to hold our leaders accountable, especially when the light had been shone brightly on the misinformation and disinformation around our drug war.

If the numbers that have been touted by the ONDCP that have been largely fueling the war on marijuana consumers are false, well then it’s time to root out that government waste, that government spending and I look forward to all of us holding those folks accountable and coming to the table. Educate yourself. We do have a fast-forward on how to make this happen.

We will continue this coalition. In fact, I would like to thank the NAACP, the Latino Voters League, LULAC, countless union workers who beat the streets, our strategic policy advisors and the elected officials that were forward thinking enough to take on a smart drug policy reform, rather than just trying to be tough on drugs but being smart on drugs.

I would also like to thank all of those mothers that came out to share their personal stories of their children getting caught in the criminal system. Our law enforcement officers, judges, attorneys, professors, silicone valley, doctors, nurses, our medical cannabis community activists and advocates and our friends that we found on social networking.

We have the power to make this happen in 2012. We fully intend to do so with the combination of the voters and our elected officials. We need to continue this election campaign and frankly, this is what we do and we will continue to do it. I would like to open up questions.

Our first question comes from Marcus Wilson of the Associated Press.

Marcus Wilson: I’ve been watching the exit polls and seeing that even voters who said they were most worried about the economy, still came down against the measure. I’m wondering what your thoughts are on why your message of tax, regulation and job creation didn’t quite get though and what might change about that message going forward?

Dean Becker: To respond, this is Superior Court Judge James P. Gray.

Superior Court Judge James P. Gray: I think that the message is still out there, that Prop 19 would condone the use of marijuana by anybody instead of trying regulate control. Also, I think that the Chamber of Commerce, the California Chamber, was successful in spreading a lot of fear and really untruths about the damage that it might have done in the workforce. I think that that concerned a lot of people too but those are easily remedied, I think, with time.

Dale Jones: Our next question comes from Chris Palmeri from Bloomberg News. Hi, Chris.

Chris Palmeri: Hi, just a quick question. Why do you think the measure failed in Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino counties, widely seen as the center of the production of marijuana?

Dean Becker: To respond, LEAP speaker, Steven Downing.

Steven Downing: They’re making a lot of money up there and legalization would be competitive to their black market and I don’t think they want to see the change. That’s my personal opinion.

Diane Goldstein: Dale! Yeah, this is Diane Goldstein, in validation of what Steve Downing said, is there was a lot of press where the marijuana cultivators and the Chamber of Commerce up in what we call the “Emerald Triangle” from a law enforcement perspective, actually got together and actually realized that if it were legalized that it was going to have a huge fiscal impact on their personal communities and they just did it on self interest.

Dean Becker: Once again, Superior Court Judge James P. Gray.

Superior Court Judge James P. Gray: The answer was from a friend of my wife’s that was on her second marriage, “She said you know something? If my two sons – stepsons who are now making their living selling illegal marijuana and if Prop 19 were to pass they would come home and live with me and I don’t want them to.” So, I think she voted against it –

(Audience laughs)

But it’s pretty much the some idea though in Mendocino and Humboldt.

Dale Jones: Not to put too fine a point on it, Judge. I think that we can also do a much better job in this next coalition communicating with our own base. We really needed to overturn the fear tactics that were created. There was a lot of misinformation that this would affect medical in a negative way and it’s an unfortunate untruth that we believe really affected the support on this.

Also, you know there’s a certain fear of change and when someone who is paying their mortgage just barely by the process that they are currently enjoying, it’s very hard to see a future in a changed economy. So, it was to a certain degree, a simple fear of change in not seeing your future in that economy.

We now have a little bit of time to not only educate but to also engage this most important base because had we carried these areas, we would have carried this election.

So, it is up to us to reach out to our opposition, both the mainstream opposition trying to maintain the status quo for budget reasons, as far as our law enforcement lobbyists, not our officers but the lobbyists but also our medical base.

Our next question comes from Lisa Richardson, LA Times.

Lisa Richardson: I’d like to know, is there any thought to switching gears in pursuing a legislative route?

Dale Jones: Yes and in fact, not so much in switching gears because we’ve worked quite successfully, not only with our current legislature to write companion language through what is now know as ABX6-9, Assembly Bill X. This is Tom Ammiano’s bill.

We’ve also developed some amazing back room coalitions, folks that can not necessarily come out and about, especially in a general election cycle but they’re excited about the “How” and want tot talk about it and this goes across the political spectrum.

We’ve had a little bit more support out loud from our Democratic Party friends. However this is one thing that across the board our Libertarians, Tea Party, Republican and Democrat alike seem to agree on. I’d like to also turn this over to Ethan Nadelmann, if you had something else you’d like add. Ethan?

Ethan Nadelmann: Yeah totally, Lisa. I should say that my team in California both assisted Richard and his team with the drafting of this initiative as well as assisting Tom Ammiano with the drafting of his legislature bill. So, they really are going to proceed very much on parallel tracks and on cooperative tracks.

There was very good coordination and collaboration between the initiative and Tom Ammiano’s team as well. It’s also worth pointing out that Ammiano’s bill to legalize and regulate marijuana on a statewide basis was to my knowledge the first marijuana legalization bill to ever be approved by a legislative committee. Ammiano’s Judiciary Committee did approve that earlier this year.

So, I think that that will continue the debate and that will continue the discussion. I don’t think anybody believes that a legislative bill like this can move all that rapidly in Sacramento.

Sacramento had been notorious for not being all that constructive on some bills like this but they will move forward in process. I should also say, just looking outside California, as I mentioned before, there’s a range of other states with public support where legalizing marijuana is approaching or topping 50%, mostly in the West.

One can anticipate that in those will be states where one can expect to see marijuana legalization initiatives over the next two, four and six years. At the same time, half the states do not have the ballot initiative process. So, one can anticipate state legislators and activists in various states beginning to introduce similar bills like Ammiano’s bill or maybe bills similar to the model of Prop 19 to get the conversation going on in state capitols around the country.

Dale Jones: I’d point out that we have the opportunity to break out specific pieces of Prop 19, such as hemp production, especially for jobs here in California manufacturing, production, as well as equipment manufacturing, agriculture, retail, as well as decriminalization issues now that we have a governor that is willing to take an intelligent look at controlling decriminalization.

Jerry Brown has a history of really agreeing with the control, tax and regulate. He has been very successful doing so in Oakland. So, it could be a little bit piecemeal. Some if it goes through voter initiative and the rest of it works through the legislature.

I think that our elected officials have heard loud and clear though. It’s been interesting to note that they did not aggressively campaign against Prop 19 because it was their votes to loose if they did.

Ethan Nadelmann: Keep in mind that 1/3 of the people who voted for Meg Whitman also voted for Prop 19. So, there was some partisan split on this but there was a reason why Whitman did not campaign against Prop 19 because I think she did not want to risk alienating young voters whose political allegiances are yet to be determined and many of whom may lean Republican but feel strongly about legalizing marijuana.

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Dean Becker: Well, that’s about all we have time for. I urge you to check out this week’s Cultural Baggage program. Our guest is Mister Jerry Epstein. He’s President of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, a real expert on the comparison of the harms of the various drugs.

We’re going to be talking about the recent report in The Lancet, the British medical journal, talking about the fact that alcohol is by far the most dangerous of all drugs and yet the Drug War continues to wage its bloody mayhem.

Next week, our guest will also be on this program, Mister Brendan Kiley, talking about a major report he’s done on the harms of prohibition. As always, I remind you that there is no truth, justice, logic, no reason for this Drug War to exist. We have been duped.

Please, visit our website: endprohibition.org

Prohibido istac evilesco!

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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 Pacifica Studios at KPFT, Houston.

Drug Truth Network programs, archived at the James A. Baker III Institute for Policy Studies.

Transcript provided by: Ayn Morgan of www.eigengraupress.com