The drug war exists through fear
And little sister hysteria
Wrapped up tightly in the hearts of man
Big brother propaganda eternal issue
Lets forth the cornucopia of lies
Flowing like a river from the cartels to the cops
The poor people are so afraid to make it stop
Our fear makes Shorty Guzman a very happy man
These drugs are so dangerous
Yeeehaa, andale, arriba!
-----------------------
DEAN BECKER: Alright, welcome to this edition of the Century of Lies. I wanted to open it up a little differently because I’m feeling a little differently. I’ve got my fangs out. I’m ready to make a difference. I’m ready to do something. It’s time to do something.
You know these politicians, these officials…you know it’s “dumb and dumber”. “Stupid is as stupid does.” We have to call out the “morals” of these people who wage this drug war, who cost our nations treasury billions upon billions of dollars. Over the lifetime of this drug war has given about 11 trillion dollars to cartels and the terrorists and all the gangs prowling our streets.
It’s time to pull the plug on this machine. It’s time to put a bullet in its head. It’s time to end this madness.
Alright, earlier this week I got a chance to speak to some good folks up in Cincinnati. I was up there on Hemprock radio. I had such a great time I wanted to invite the host of that program to join us here on the Drug Truth Network. With that let’s go ahead and welcome Lynne Wilson. How are you doing?
LYNNE WILSON: I’m doing fantastic, Dean. How are you doing?
DEAN BECKER: I’m good. You hear I got my fangs out. It’s time to get a little more bolder. It’s time to expose this fraud for what it is.
LYNNE WILSON: It is a fraud. It is so pathetic to people like yourself and myself that we are just at a loss of words.
You know, we can say disgusted. We can say all sorts of things but are they really the words to say how we feel about this pathetic thing that’s going on called the drug war?! That according to the guy you were in the debate with earlier on the last segment – there is no drug war according to him. It’s like what kind of double-speak is that?!
DEAN BECKER: [chuckling] Truthfully the best he came up with during the whole debate was God didn’t smoke a doobie. And, honest to God, “chicken butt.”
LYNNE WILSON: Well, guess what, Dean? I believe that God, Jesus…whoever – Bhudda…whoever – did smoke cannabis. Cannabis has been around for thousands of years – long before those people lived or allegedly lived. I think they did and, as well, enjoyed a glass of wine.
DEAN BECKER: Well, my engineer would agree with you and so do it. And, you know, the fact of the matter is that we have seen…we have a history. There have been hundreds if not now thousands of positive reports about cannabis, in particular, talking about the benefits and the government closes their eyes and puts their hands over their ears and “na na na na na…Don’t tell me. I don’t want to hear this.”
The fact of the matter is they are going to have to hear it. They are going to have to open their ears and their eyes, aren’t they?
LYNNE WILSON: Well, see, I’m past the point of thinking that they just don’t want to hear. I believe people like that know. They just don’t want to hear it because they know they’re being told the truth already. Those are the corrupt people.
I think we’ve got the cartels, the organized crime…they are the criminals. But, let’s face it, they have put their people in positions of power. They have no longer stayed on the dark side of the law – they are the law now.
Do I pick names out? No. But as somebody who has been watching this going on for so many years I can see through it. I see the double-speak. I see the slight of hand game going on.
You know, I’m not saying that the President is organized crime. My perspective is that he’s either been bought because he’s that corrupt or he’s been threatened and his family’s been threatened and that’s why he back pedaled. I don’t know which. What can you say to that?
I do believe that things such then he, as President, …now I didn’t have the time to go check to see if this person was accepted – you might be able to tell me. But, back in December of 2010 the story, of course, was “Obama nominates for-profit prison consultant for the U.S. Marshals Director.”
I don’t know whether or not this person won but she came from the private prison for-profit industry and was given a cushy government job to help her industry create more prisoners. And their bottom line, of course, is customers and their customers are prisoners. So there’s that corruption.
That, to me, is bigger corruption than what the cartels are doing. That’s from my perspective.
DEAN BECKER: The monetary cost is right up there. I’ll agree with that but secondarily the loss of civil rights, of individual liberties to ensure…I don’t have the facts in front of me but there was one private prison organization that said, “We will build a prison. We will save you money but you’ve got to guarantee us [something like] 90% occupancy.”
LYNNE WILSON: Sure, you know, “build it and they will come.”
DEAN BECKER: Yeah. They will stuff is full.
LYNNE WILSON: They’ll stuff it full and they’ll say, “Uh-oh, we’re running out of prison space. We got to build a new one.”
Meanwhile all these prisoners are used as slave labor. Not to say that people in prison shouldn’t be given an opportunity to work time off and things like that but, boy, this certainly is good for the industry of making cheap products.
Right now prison labor companies are vying for the same business that we’re giving China because they can do it cheaper than China and it’s already in this country.
Now is that good or bad? I’m kind of on the fence with this kind of stuff but it certainly is an element of the corruption. So, what I see that either people that like to go along for the ride because they think they’re the winners.
I had a guy years ago who said he supported the drug war even though he got high because he supported the winner. He thinks that’s the winning side so….you know…why not just go with the winner and sneak behind and smoke.
DEAN BECKER: I think that’s all too true of many people. You always hear the stories every week about a judge getting caught in a hotel room smoking weed or a cop smuggling drugs or whatever. The corruption is so vast, so encompassing that we just kind of…I like to use the phrase, “It’s like leaning into the West Texas wind.”
You don’t know it’s there. You don’t know you’re leaning but, by God, if you didn’t lean you’d be falling over the other way.
LYNNE WILSON: I think it is blatant corruption and also those who either just don’t care, want to go along for the ride because they…Back to your letter to the editor this past week. Somebody else had one right around the same page. I guess he was law enforcement and said, “Oh, I’m so disgusted with that guy’s comments that we’re all in it for the money.”
Well, you know, I think there’s an element of it that they are – there’s civil forfeiture and things like that. They are in it for the money. And, if not, and they really think they’re doing a good job – there totally blinding themselves and they’re addicted to the drug war and that rush they get for going and fighting it.
You know you’ve made comments, I think it was with Bill Piper a few minutes ago, about the element of how much is being used in resources towards just marijuana prohibition versus all the other drugs – it’s about 80%.
We all know why. We’re the easy targets. And, as Richard said, “He’s put himself out.” It isn’t like he’s hiding.
DEAN BECKER: No. Listen closely folks, “No shift, Sherlock” is what I say.
And the fact of the matter is that in a way I’m surprised that it took them 15 years or whatever that Richard’s been doing this. God bless him. I don’t know how to say that gracefully or gently but the fact of the matter is he has stood forth for progress, reform, educated more than 15,000 students. I am a graduate. I got the basic and the advanced course. I could open up a cannabis shop right here in Houston if I just had the chance.
LYNNE WILSON: I think the reason why they waited is two-fold. First, the longer they drag it out the more money they make. The more tax dollars they get from us. And the other reason is they know that he’s gearing up for possibly another Prop 19.
As you just pointed out …the stats…we almost won the last time. I think they’re trying to cripple him and all of that support prior to another opportunity for another prop that he would push. I know that there are other ones that are vying for votes to get on the ballot but I don’t know where those funds are. You know, I‘m here in Ohio so I don’t have all that information. I hope that one of them, at least one gets on the ballot.
But the question is, again, will they have the funds? The feds know that Richard has the funds. He’s the main leader in doing that and that’s what they’re going after. They are trying to cripple the next prop with our own tax dollars against us. That in and among itself is corrupt.
DEAN BECKER: True enough. Richard was the one with the money. He’s stepping down from all his positions of power. He can’t meet his payroll anymore. They took his bank accounts.
LYNNE WILSON: As a result they seized it all. The IRS was with them.
Now I just have to talk for a minute about the simultaneous shooting that was going on. I was first under the impression which, bad enough as this sounds, just outraged by the fact that this was supposedly 5 miles from Oaksterdam University. Then I read Neill Franklin’s Huffington Post article – It was actually three-tenths of a mile. There is no way that these guys did not hear gunfire from three-tenths of a mile away. What were they thinking?!
And you’re right, one of those cops was up at Oaksterdam. If they weren’t raiding Oaksterdam could have just been cruising by accidentally, doing rounds, heard gunfire and maybe saved 5 people. Maybe 2. Who knows? Maybe all of them?
DEAN BECKER: The possibility is certainly something that needs to be addressed. We have lost focus on what is important to our communities. The fact of the matter is …Oh, I was going to ask you. You’re in Cincinatti. Is that anywhere near the Hash Bash?
LYNNE WILSON: I’m about 4 hours from Hash Bash.
DEAN BECKER: You didn’t make it?
LYNNE WILSON: I wasn’t able to make it. I’m doing too much prep for the stuff that I got going on. I had one of my cohost up there with her friends so we were represented. I know everybody up there. They had a great time except 13 arrests for marijuana possession. First time in years for that many. They are cracking down there too.
The campus put out, “We’re going to go after you. Don’t even do it.” They got 13 out of the over 5,000 people.
DEAN BECKER: Again, “No shift.”
I was going to ask you. Tell the folks a bit about the shows you do. You started before I did with the Drug Truth Network - dropped out for a little while. There is another station. I’m sorry, dear listeners, in Cincinatti that carries my show at noon, I think, on Thursday. Tell them about your show. Maybe they’ll be able to tune in. How would they be able to find it?
The station that I’m on is WZQC. We’re a low-power station located in the local public access channel. 2 channels , actually, here in Cincinnati..PV Radio Network now.
I’m very pleased to say that we are in the process of moving to the local PBS building for channel 48, WCET which is our local PBS affiliate. We won’t be affiliated with them. They will actually just be our landlord but it’s going to enable us to upgrade our radio and our television studios when we do this move.
Our last day of operations at the old place is 4/20 and we’ll be in the new building by the beginning of May. So a couple of those last weeks we’ll have pre-recorded shows due to that move but I’m so excited because once we do move we’ll be able to not only record for later air on TV but if there’s no program airing on the Public Access channels while any show airs it can be a live, simulcast on local public access as well as on the radio.
As you know, in public radio…one thing I can say that Obama has done nice and correct is he did sign low-power radio bill that allows stations like ours to get more power. So, in the future, that’s what we’re hoping on is to have more than the real low-power that we have now.
So, I’m curious, what station are you on? Who carries you?
DEAN BECKER: I don’t have it in front of me. I think it airs noon on Thursday. I apologize to the listeners there in Cincinnati who regularly listen to me. I just don’t have it in front of me. I’m glad you’re there and part of the change.
Once again, we’re speaking with Lynne Wilson of Hemprock radio there in Cincinnati.
Lynne, we got about one minute left here. I wanted to kind of just boil it down to this. You hear my anger, my direction I’m taking. I want to talk about marijuana and needle exchange…any and all of this stuff. But I more want to talk about the horrors that this drug war is inflicting upon us which is so many times worse than what people are worried about.
LYNNE WILSON: Yeah. It’s just ridiculous. I feel the same outrage, the same anger that you and everybody else is feeling. I kind of feel at a loss being here in Cincinnati. I can’t be a foot soldier in California but that’s one of the reasons I’m focusing on it.
So, definitely, if anyone can…tomorrow’s show with Hemprock will be Chris Conrad and Mikki Norris discussing their foot soldier part in the raid last week. They were on the street with the signs and the protestors and I want to get that angle.
DEAN BECKER: Mikki and Chris are also publishers of the West Coast Leaf – a very powerful newspaper that brings forward the truth about the cannabis plant.
Lynne, this has been quite a pleasure having you here on Century of Lies. I hope we can continue this again during the year. And, as I said on your show, cross-pollinate things a bit.
LYNNE WILSON: You got it. It’s been a pleasure and an honor being on your show, Dean. Congratulations with all the affiliates. It’s wonderful. Great to see that there are …What that says real quick is that there are people out there that support this issue that we’re fighting so strongly about. So that’s good.
DEAN BECKER: The following segment features Trish Reagan and Adam Johnson on Bloomberg Television, “Street Smart.” Their guest, Drug Policy Alliance’s Ethan Nadelmann.
-----------------------
TRISH REAGAN: Alright, school is no longer in session in one location in Oakland, California. Federal agents have targeted on of the country’s leading pot advocates last night raiding a medical marijuana training school. The doors to Oaksterdam University in the Bay Area were cordoned off by yellow tape and blocked by U.S. Marshals. It was an unexpected move by federal agents who have, for the most part, left medical marijuana enforcement to state authorities. The question we’re asking here is does this raid mark a change in the federal government’s approach to pro-pot operations.
Ethan Nadelmann is the director of the Drug Policy Alliance – a group that advocates for decriminalization of marijuana. Thanks for being on the program, Ethan.
I did a documentary on marijuana and this enormous business that it’s become all over the country in part because of the myriad of different laws in different states. I spent a lot of time at Oaksterdam University. They are training people there. They are growing pot there and sure enough the feds eventually did raid them.
What do you think? I mean is this perhaps a change in the policy that we’ve seen thus far? Eric Holder came out and said, “We’re going to let states deal with this on a state level. The feds, we’re going to sort of stay immune to this if it’s for medical purposes.”
ETHAN NADELMANN: Well, Trish, first I’ll tell you. When Obama came in for the first 18 months he made good on his campaign commitment which was that medical marijuana and the states that legalized it was not going to be a federal priority. But over the last 6 to 9, 12 months what you’ve seen is more and more of the federal attorneys around the country, more and more federal law enforcement agencies beginning to pick off one or the other.
And what’s notable both about the Richard Lee case, Oaksterdam case and some others is they’re not saying why they’re doing it. They’re not saying why they picked out one or the other. I think what this is really about is federal authorities creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the burgeoning medical industry.
TRISH REAGAN: Why would they do that?
ADAM JOHNSON: I mean pot’s illegal on a federal level. So they’re doing what they have to do.
ETHAN NADELMANN: No. The feds have the ability and the discretion as they exercised in the first 18 months of the Obama administration to say that if the states and localities are effectively and responsibly regulating this stuff, “We don’t need to get involved.”
TRISH REAGAN: They did say that. They did say that but, you know, to Adam’s point it is illegal. When I was doing one of my documentaries on this subject I spoke to the DEA and I asked them about Oaksterdam University because Oaksterdam University is right there on Main Street in Oakland. And it is sort of, you know, obviously doing something that’s against federal law.
ADAM JOHNSON: This is why it’s…it’s weird for Wall Street because isn’t it kind of weird that there’s a university out there that actually teaches people how to be productive in the marijuana business. That’s kind of weird.
ETHAN NADELMANN: Adam, listen. The fact of the matter is Richard and others are paying tens of millions in state and local taxes. They are one of the growing, legal industries under state law in Oakland and in that whole area. They are employing dozens if not hundreds of people legally. They are taking an industry that was in the underground - even though half of all Americans have used marijuana – and bringing it above ground where it can be effectively regulated and taxed by state and local authorities.
If the federal authorities gave a damn about public safety or public health they would give their blessing to effective state and local regulation. Instead they’re pushing the whole thing underground.
TRISH REAGAN: So why do you think they want to push it into the underground? Why not say, “Look, enough states are doing this…helping people out from the medical level. Let people be.” Why do they…
ETHAN NADELMANN: Two reasons. I think the old sort of ideology of the drug war dies hard. Every time you see the public saying, “Let’s get rational about drugs.” you have the old drug war ideologues that are entrenched in the federal bureaucracies. That’s first.
The second thing is you have federal authorities who are saying, “Hey…” (This is what Adam is saying) “It’s against federal law. We don’t care about the taxes. We don’t care about public health and safety. We’re going after it because it violates federal law and to the Hell with the fact that it’s legal under state and local law and all of this.”
TRISH REAGAN: I quickly just want to point out some of the economics of this. You’re driving prices up, right. The federal government is effectively driving the prices of marijuana up thereby making it more profitable for criminals and drug cartels coming in from Mexico and selling it here. They get 60% profit…
ADAM JOHNSON: They’re working against themselves, in other words.
TRISH REAGAN: from the marijuana trade. So, in other words, are the feds actually inadvertently (it goes back to unintended consequences) creating a market for marijuana where there might not quite otherwise be one?
ETHAN NADELMANN: More and more…there’s now 16 states and Washington, D.C. that have legalized medical marijuana. In some of the states they say you have to grow it locally. The Mexicans are now saying Americans should stop buying but if you’re going to use it – buy American. That’ll cut the violence.
TRISH REAGAN: [chuckling] “Buy American!”
Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance. Thank you so much.
-----------------------
DEAN BECKER: Opening up a can of worms and going fishing for truth – this is the Drug Truth Network – DrugTruth.net
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DEAN BECKER: Well here in just a few weeks people around the country are going to get a chance to learn more about this cannabis plant that causing so much problems, if you will, out on the west coast. Here to talk about that conference and to fill us in on the details is Al Byrne.
AL BYRNE: I’m here to talk about a Patients Out of Time conference that will be held on April 26th through the 28th – just three weeks or so from now. It will be held in Tucson, Arizona. The conference is about the endocannabinoid system and what that means clinically for health care in the United States and, actually, in the world for the future.
The conference is going to be held at a beautiful venue – a Loews Hotel place called Loews Ventana Canyon Resort outside of Tucson. It’s just gorgeous. Our accreditations come from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine for doctors who attend the conference to CMEs and the University of Arizona College of Nursing is taking care of the sponsorship of CEUs for RNs and other health care professionals like social workers and folks like that.
We’re also heavily involved in this conference with Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse (MAMA) out of Oregon and we’re very much working with Dr. Andrew Weil who is the founder of the Arizona Center for Integrated Medicine which is part of the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona.
The background and the structure of this conference is designed to be at the highest level of academic research. We feature folks like Dr. Donald Abrams from San Francisco who’s the Chief of Oncology/Hematology at San Francisco General Hospital and a professor at the University of California.
We’re going to have Dr. William Courtney come from California as well. Mark Ware is a doctor from Canada, works for Health Canada, does a lot of studies up there with cannabis and pain.
We have Cristina Sanchez who’s a PhD researcher from the Department of Biochemistry in Molecular Biology in Madrid, Spain’s Complutense University.
We have Vincenzo DiMarzo. He comes from Italy.
So, worldwide in research, worldwide in science and this is a method that we have to overcome the United States government’s statements that there is no cannabis research that shows that it has medical value.
What they’re trying to say with they’re parsing their words and saying is that there’s no real U.S. research but around the world there is multiple, multiple studies – hundreds and thousands of studies all showing that cannabis is a good medicine.
We bring that to light. That is a job, a mission that we have with Patients Out of Time.
He’s the Drug Czar. Wages an eternal war on free will.
He knows all - the Drug Czar knows all.
He’s in charge of the truth so he tells nothing but lies.
He professes such great sorrow for the thousands of his minions who die.
He’s the Drug Czar waging his eternal war on our free will
-----------------------
DOUG McVAY: Throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
The federal government continues its assault on medical cannabis with
recent DEA raids in Oakland, threatening letters sent to landlords in
Oregon, and indictments in Montana. A candidate for state Attorney
General in Oregon makes criticism of the state's medical marijuana
program part of his campaign rhetoric, calling it a quote “train
wreck” end quote, because so many patients in the program have only
chronic serious pain as their qualifying condition.
On another front, the federal government is warning of an epidemic of
painkiller addiction, threatening doctors for prescribing adequate
medication for their patients and pushing some pain sufferers into
illicit drug use, treatment, or prison.
These drug control policy stories aren't only about drug policies.
Ultimately this is about pain, and the question of whether pain is
real. Pain is regarded by many as a legitimate treatable condition, by
others as a subjective and difficult to measure symptom, yet it is
viewed by some as an illusory complaint used by the weak and the lazy
to excuse their lack of will.
Most of us would regard that latter opinion as unthinking and cruel,
though inhuman and barbaric are clean enough for radio and probably
cleave closer to the mark.
Yet, the fact is that some people do malinger. Research on how many
people try to fake illness, injury, pain or disability has yielded
mixed results. Estimates of malingering range from as low as 1-10% to
as high as 20-40%. As with so many tough questions, reality may lie
somewhere inbetween.
But if you think those sound like big numbers, check these out:
According to the federal Institute of Medicine, quote “chronic pain
affects about 100 million American adults – more than the total
affected by heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. Pain also
costs the nation up to $635 billion each year in medical treatment and
lost productivity.” End quote. That 100 million estimate leaves out
those who suffer short-term serious acute pain for example because of
injury or a sudden serious illness such as cancer.
A few cases may be exaggerated, some go untreated, and yet all of them
are targeted by federal and corporate bureaucracies which view pain as
a moral failing and a sin against business. It's time for change.
For the Drug Truth Network, this is Doug McVay with Common Sense for
Drug Policy.
-----------------------
DEAN BECKER: Alright, the website for Common Sense for Drug Policy, by the way, is http://csdp.org.
I got an email a moment ago from Richard Lee reminding me to tell you to visit http://change.org and then search for “stop medical marijuana raids” It will give you a chance to sign a petition put together by Mr. Richard Lee.
I want to remind folks that we produce nine shows per week about the harms of the drug war. This is Century of Lies. We also do Cultural Baggage on the same evening. You can check out hundreds of our programs by visiting our website which is http://drugtruth.net.
As always, there is no reason for this drug war to exist. We have been duped. It’s possible that the drug lords run both sides of this equation. Visit our website, http://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 the Pacifica Studios of KPFT Houston.
Transcript
Transcript
Century of Lies / April 8, 2012
-----------------------
[music]
The drug war exists through fear
And little sister hysteria
Wrapped up tightly in the hearts of man
Big brother propaganda eternal issue
Lets forth the cornucopia of lies
Flowing like a river from the cartels to the cops
The poor people are so afraid to make it stop
Our fear makes Shorty Guzman a very happy man
These drugs are so dangerous
Yeeehaa, andale, arriba!
-----------------------
DEAN BECKER: Alright, welcome to this edition of the Century of Lies. I wanted to open it up a little differently because I’m feeling a little differently. I’ve got my fangs out. I’m ready to make a difference. I’m ready to do something. It’s time to do something.
You know these politicians, these officials…you know it’s “dumb and dumber”. “Stupid is as stupid does.” We have to call out the “morals” of these people who wage this drug war, who cost our nations treasury billions upon billions of dollars. Over the lifetime of this drug war has given about 11 trillion dollars to cartels and the terrorists and all the gangs prowling our streets.
It’s time to pull the plug on this machine. It’s time to put a bullet in its head. It’s time to end this madness.
Alright, earlier this week I got a chance to speak to some good folks up in Cincinnati. I was up there on Hemprock radio. I had such a great time I wanted to invite the host of that program to join us here on the Drug Truth Network. With that let’s go ahead and welcome Lynne Wilson. How are you doing?
LYNNE WILSON: I’m doing fantastic, Dean. How are you doing?
DEAN BECKER: I’m good. You hear I got my fangs out. It’s time to get a little more bolder. It’s time to expose this fraud for what it is.
LYNNE WILSON: It is a fraud. It is so pathetic to people like yourself and myself that we are just at a loss of words.
You know, we can say disgusted. We can say all sorts of things but are they really the words to say how we feel about this pathetic thing that’s going on called the drug war?! That according to the guy you were in the debate with earlier on the last segment – there is no drug war according to him. It’s like what kind of double-speak is that?!
DEAN BECKER: [chuckling] Truthfully the best he came up with during the whole debate was God didn’t smoke a doobie. And, honest to God, “chicken butt.”
LYNNE WILSON: Well, guess what, Dean? I believe that God, Jesus…whoever – Bhudda…whoever – did smoke cannabis. Cannabis has been around for thousands of years – long before those people lived or allegedly lived. I think they did and, as well, enjoyed a glass of wine.
DEAN BECKER: Well, my engineer would agree with you and so do it. And, you know, the fact of the matter is that we have seen…we have a history. There have been hundreds if not now thousands of positive reports about cannabis, in particular, talking about the benefits and the government closes their eyes and puts their hands over their ears and “na na na na na…Don’t tell me. I don’t want to hear this.”
The fact of the matter is they are going to have to hear it. They are going to have to open their ears and their eyes, aren’t they?
LYNNE WILSON: Well, see, I’m past the point of thinking that they just don’t want to hear. I believe people like that know. They just don’t want to hear it because they know they’re being told the truth already. Those are the corrupt people.
I think we’ve got the cartels, the organized crime…they are the criminals. But, let’s face it, they have put their people in positions of power. They have no longer stayed on the dark side of the law – they are the law now.
Do I pick names out? No. But as somebody who has been watching this going on for so many years I can see through it. I see the double-speak. I see the slight of hand game going on.
You know, I’m not saying that the President is organized crime. My perspective is that he’s either been bought because he’s that corrupt or he’s been threatened and his family’s been threatened and that’s why he back pedaled. I don’t know which. What can you say to that?
I do believe that things such then he, as President, …now I didn’t have the time to go check to see if this person was accepted – you might be able to tell me. But, back in December of 2010 the story, of course, was “Obama nominates for-profit prison consultant for the U.S. Marshals Director.”
I don’t know whether or not this person won but she came from the private prison for-profit industry and was given a cushy government job to help her industry create more prisoners. And their bottom line, of course, is customers and their customers are prisoners. So there’s that corruption.
That, to me, is bigger corruption than what the cartels are doing. That’s from my perspective.
DEAN BECKER: The monetary cost is right up there. I’ll agree with that but secondarily the loss of civil rights, of individual liberties to ensure…I don’t have the facts in front of me but there was one private prison organization that said, “We will build a prison. We will save you money but you’ve got to guarantee us [something like] 90% occupancy.”
LYNNE WILSON: Sure, you know, “build it and they will come.”
DEAN BECKER: Yeah. They will stuff is full.
LYNNE WILSON: They’ll stuff it full and they’ll say, “Uh-oh, we’re running out of prison space. We got to build a new one.”
Meanwhile all these prisoners are used as slave labor. Not to say that people in prison shouldn’t be given an opportunity to work time off and things like that but, boy, this certainly is good for the industry of making cheap products.
Right now prison labor companies are vying for the same business that we’re giving China because they can do it cheaper than China and it’s already in this country.
Now is that good or bad? I’m kind of on the fence with this kind of stuff but it certainly is an element of the corruption. So, what I see that either people that like to go along for the ride because they think they’re the winners.
I had a guy years ago who said he supported the drug war even though he got high because he supported the winner. He thinks that’s the winning side so….you know…why not just go with the winner and sneak behind and smoke.
DEAN BECKER: I think that’s all too true of many people. You always hear the stories every week about a judge getting caught in a hotel room smoking weed or a cop smuggling drugs or whatever. The corruption is so vast, so encompassing that we just kind of…I like to use the phrase, “It’s like leaning into the West Texas wind.”
You don’t know it’s there. You don’t know you’re leaning but, by God, if you didn’t lean you’d be falling over the other way.
LYNNE WILSON: I think it is blatant corruption and also those who either just don’t care, want to go along for the ride because they…Back to your letter to the editor this past week. Somebody else had one right around the same page. I guess he was law enforcement and said, “Oh, I’m so disgusted with that guy’s comments that we’re all in it for the money.”
Well, you know, I think there’s an element of it that they are – there’s civil forfeiture and things like that. They are in it for the money. And, if not, and they really think they’re doing a good job – there totally blinding themselves and they’re addicted to the drug war and that rush they get for going and fighting it.
You know you’ve made comments, I think it was with Bill Piper a few minutes ago, about the element of how much is being used in resources towards just marijuana prohibition versus all the other drugs – it’s about 80%.
We all know why. We’re the easy targets. And, as Richard said, “He’s put himself out.” It isn’t like he’s hiding.
DEAN BECKER: No. Listen closely folks, “No shift, Sherlock” is what I say.
And the fact of the matter is that in a way I’m surprised that it took them 15 years or whatever that Richard’s been doing this. God bless him. I don’t know how to say that gracefully or gently but the fact of the matter is he has stood forth for progress, reform, educated more than 15,000 students. I am a graduate. I got the basic and the advanced course. I could open up a cannabis shop right here in Houston if I just had the chance.
LYNNE WILSON: I think the reason why they waited is two-fold. First, the longer they drag it out the more money they make. The more tax dollars they get from us. And the other reason is they know that he’s gearing up for possibly another Prop 19.
As you just pointed out …the stats…we almost won the last time. I think they’re trying to cripple him and all of that support prior to another opportunity for another prop that he would push. I know that there are other ones that are vying for votes to get on the ballot but I don’t know where those funds are. You know, I‘m here in Ohio so I don’t have all that information. I hope that one of them, at least one gets on the ballot.
But the question is, again, will they have the funds? The feds know that Richard has the funds. He’s the main leader in doing that and that’s what they’re going after. They are trying to cripple the next prop with our own tax dollars against us. That in and among itself is corrupt.
DEAN BECKER: True enough. Richard was the one with the money. He’s stepping down from all his positions of power. He can’t meet his payroll anymore. They took his bank accounts.
LYNNE WILSON: As a result they seized it all. The IRS was with them.
Now I just have to talk for a minute about the simultaneous shooting that was going on. I was first under the impression which, bad enough as this sounds, just outraged by the fact that this was supposedly 5 miles from Oaksterdam University. Then I read Neill Franklin’s Huffington Post article – It was actually three-tenths of a mile. There is no way that these guys did not hear gunfire from three-tenths of a mile away. What were they thinking?!
And you’re right, one of those cops was up at Oaksterdam. If they weren’t raiding Oaksterdam could have just been cruising by accidentally, doing rounds, heard gunfire and maybe saved 5 people. Maybe 2. Who knows? Maybe all of them?
DEAN BECKER: The possibility is certainly something that needs to be addressed. We have lost focus on what is important to our communities. The fact of the matter is …Oh, I was going to ask you. You’re in Cincinatti. Is that anywhere near the Hash Bash?
LYNNE WILSON: I’m about 4 hours from Hash Bash.
DEAN BECKER: You didn’t make it?
LYNNE WILSON: I wasn’t able to make it. I’m doing too much prep for the stuff that I got going on. I had one of my cohost up there with her friends so we were represented. I know everybody up there. They had a great time except 13 arrests for marijuana possession. First time in years for that many. They are cracking down there too.
The campus put out, “We’re going to go after you. Don’t even do it.” They got 13 out of the over 5,000 people.
DEAN BECKER: Again, “No shift.”
I was going to ask you. Tell the folks a bit about the shows you do. You started before I did with the Drug Truth Network - dropped out for a little while. There is another station. I’m sorry, dear listeners, in Cincinatti that carries my show at noon, I think, on Thursday. Tell them about your show. Maybe they’ll be able to tune in. How would they be able to find it?
LYNNE WILSON: You can, of course, go to http://hemprock.com and find links there. You can also go to http://www.weedradionetwork.com/ and find links there.
The station that I’m on is WZQC. We’re a low-power station located in the local public access channel. 2 channels , actually, here in Cincinnati..PV Radio Network now.
I’m very pleased to say that we are in the process of moving to the local PBS building for channel 48, WCET which is our local PBS affiliate. We won’t be affiliated with them. They will actually just be our landlord but it’s going to enable us to upgrade our radio and our television studios when we do this move.
Our last day of operations at the old place is 4/20 and we’ll be in the new building by the beginning of May. So a couple of those last weeks we’ll have pre-recorded shows due to that move but I’m so excited because once we do move we’ll be able to not only record for later air on TV but if there’s no program airing on the Public Access channels while any show airs it can be a live, simulcast on local public access as well as on the radio.
As you know, in public radio…one thing I can say that Obama has done nice and correct is he did sign low-power radio bill that allows stations like ours to get more power. So, in the future, that’s what we’re hoping on is to have more than the real low-power that we have now.
So, I’m curious, what station are you on? Who carries you?
DEAN BECKER: I don’t have it in front of me. I think it airs noon on Thursday. I apologize to the listeners there in Cincinnati who regularly listen to me. I just don’t have it in front of me. I’m glad you’re there and part of the change.
Once again, we’re speaking with Lynne Wilson of Hemprock radio there in Cincinnati.
Lynne, we got about one minute left here. I wanted to kind of just boil it down to this. You hear my anger, my direction I’m taking. I want to talk about marijuana and needle exchange…any and all of this stuff. But I more want to talk about the horrors that this drug war is inflicting upon us which is so many times worse than what people are worried about.
LYNNE WILSON: Yeah. It’s just ridiculous. I feel the same outrage, the same anger that you and everybody else is feeling. I kind of feel at a loss being here in Cincinnati. I can’t be a foot soldier in California but that’s one of the reasons I’m focusing on it.
So, definitely, if anyone can…tomorrow’s show with Hemprock will be Chris Conrad and Mikki Norris discussing their foot soldier part in the raid last week. They were on the street with the signs and the protestors and I want to get that angle.
DEAN BECKER: Mikki and Chris are also publishers of the West Coast Leaf – a very powerful newspaper that brings forward the truth about the cannabis plant.
Lynne, this has been quite a pleasure having you here on Century of Lies. I hope we can continue this again during the year. And, as I said on your show, cross-pollinate things a bit.
LYNNE WILSON: You got it. It’s been a pleasure and an honor being on your show, Dean. Congratulations with all the affiliates. It’s wonderful. Great to see that there are …What that says real quick is that there are people out there that support this issue that we’re fighting so strongly about. So that’s good.
DEAN BECKER: Real quick – your website…
LYNNE WILSON: http://hemprock.com
DEAN BECKER: Thank you, Lynne.
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DEAN BECKER: The following segment features Trish Reagan and Adam Johnson on Bloomberg Television, “Street Smart.” Their guest, Drug Policy Alliance’s Ethan Nadelmann.
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TRISH REAGAN: Alright, school is no longer in session in one location in Oakland, California. Federal agents have targeted on of the country’s leading pot advocates last night raiding a medical marijuana training school. The doors to Oaksterdam University in the Bay Area were cordoned off by yellow tape and blocked by U.S. Marshals. It was an unexpected move by federal agents who have, for the most part, left medical marijuana enforcement to state authorities. The question we’re asking here is does this raid mark a change in the federal government’s approach to pro-pot operations.
Ethan Nadelmann is the director of the Drug Policy Alliance – a group that advocates for decriminalization of marijuana. Thanks for being on the program, Ethan.
I did a documentary on marijuana and this enormous business that it’s become all over the country in part because of the myriad of different laws in different states. I spent a lot of time at Oaksterdam University. They are training people there. They are growing pot there and sure enough the feds eventually did raid them.
What do you think? I mean is this perhaps a change in the policy that we’ve seen thus far? Eric Holder came out and said, “We’re going to let states deal with this on a state level. The feds, we’re going to sort of stay immune to this if it’s for medical purposes.”
ETHAN NADELMANN: Well, Trish, first I’ll tell you. When Obama came in for the first 18 months he made good on his campaign commitment which was that medical marijuana and the states that legalized it was not going to be a federal priority. But over the last 6 to 9, 12 months what you’ve seen is more and more of the federal attorneys around the country, more and more federal law enforcement agencies beginning to pick off one or the other.
And what’s notable both about the Richard Lee case, Oaksterdam case and some others is they’re not saying why they’re doing it. They’re not saying why they picked out one or the other. I think what this is really about is federal authorities creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the burgeoning medical industry.
TRISH REAGAN: Why would they do that?
ADAM JOHNSON: I mean pot’s illegal on a federal level. So they’re doing what they have to do.
ETHAN NADELMANN: No. The feds have the ability and the discretion as they exercised in the first 18 months of the Obama administration to say that if the states and localities are effectively and responsibly regulating this stuff, “We don’t need to get involved.”
TRISH REAGAN: They did say that. They did say that but, you know, to Adam’s point it is illegal. When I was doing one of my documentaries on this subject I spoke to the DEA and I asked them about Oaksterdam University because Oaksterdam University is right there on Main Street in Oakland. And it is sort of, you know, obviously doing something that’s against federal law.
ADAM JOHNSON: This is why it’s…it’s weird for Wall Street because isn’t it kind of weird that there’s a university out there that actually teaches people how to be productive in the marijuana business. That’s kind of weird.
ETHAN NADELMANN: Adam, listen. The fact of the matter is Richard and others are paying tens of millions in state and local taxes. They are one of the growing, legal industries under state law in Oakland and in that whole area. They are employing dozens if not hundreds of people legally. They are taking an industry that was in the underground - even though half of all Americans have used marijuana – and bringing it above ground where it can be effectively regulated and taxed by state and local authorities.
If the federal authorities gave a damn about public safety or public health they would give their blessing to effective state and local regulation. Instead they’re pushing the whole thing underground.
TRISH REAGAN: So why do you think they want to push it into the underground? Why not say, “Look, enough states are doing this…helping people out from the medical level. Let people be.” Why do they…
ETHAN NADELMANN: Two reasons. I think the old sort of ideology of the drug war dies hard. Every time you see the public saying, “Let’s get rational about drugs.” you have the old drug war ideologues that are entrenched in the federal bureaucracies. That’s first.
The second thing is you have federal authorities who are saying, “Hey…” (This is what Adam is saying) “It’s against federal law. We don’t care about the taxes. We don’t care about public health and safety. We’re going after it because it violates federal law and to the Hell with the fact that it’s legal under state and local law and all of this.”
TRISH REAGAN: I quickly just want to point out some of the economics of this. You’re driving prices up, right. The federal government is effectively driving the prices of marijuana up thereby making it more profitable for criminals and drug cartels coming in from Mexico and selling it here. They get 60% profit…
ADAM JOHNSON: They’re working against themselves, in other words.
TRISH REAGAN: from the marijuana trade. So, in other words, are the feds actually inadvertently (it goes back to unintended consequences) creating a market for marijuana where there might not quite otherwise be one?
ETHAN NADELMANN: More and more…there’s now 16 states and Washington, D.C. that have legalized medical marijuana. In some of the states they say you have to grow it locally. The Mexicans are now saying Americans should stop buying but if you’re going to use it – buy American. That’ll cut the violence.
TRISH REAGAN: [chuckling] “Buy American!”
Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance. Thank you so much.
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DEAN BECKER: Opening up a can of worms and going fishing for truth – this is the Drug Truth Network – DrugTruth.net
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DEAN BECKER: Well here in just a few weeks people around the country are going to get a chance to learn more about this cannabis plant that causing so much problems, if you will, out on the west coast. Here to talk about that conference and to fill us in on the details is Al Byrne.
AL BYRNE: I’m here to talk about a Patients Out of Time conference that will be held on April 26th through the 28th – just three weeks or so from now. It will be held in Tucson, Arizona. The conference is about the endocannabinoid system and what that means clinically for health care in the United States and, actually, in the world for the future.
The conference is going to be held at a beautiful venue – a Loews Hotel place called Loews Ventana Canyon Resort outside of Tucson. It’s just gorgeous. Our accreditations come from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine for doctors who attend the conference to CMEs and the University of Arizona College of Nursing is taking care of the sponsorship of CEUs for RNs and other health care professionals like social workers and folks like that.
We’re also heavily involved in this conference with Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse (MAMA) out of Oregon and we’re very much working with Dr. Andrew Weil who is the founder of the Arizona Center for Integrated Medicine which is part of the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona.
The background and the structure of this conference is designed to be at the highest level of academic research. We feature folks like Dr. Donald Abrams from San Francisco who’s the Chief of Oncology/Hematology at San Francisco General Hospital and a professor at the University of California.
We’re going to have Dr. William Courtney come from California as well. Mark Ware is a doctor from Canada, works for Health Canada, does a lot of studies up there with cannabis and pain.
We have Cristina Sanchez who’s a PhD researcher from the Department of Biochemistry in Molecular Biology in Madrid, Spain’s Complutense University.
We have Vincenzo DiMarzo. He comes from Italy.
So, worldwide in research, worldwide in science and this is a method that we have to overcome the United States government’s statements that there is no cannabis research that shows that it has medical value.
What they’re trying to say with they’re parsing their words and saying is that there’s no real U.S. research but around the world there is multiple, multiple studies – hundreds and thousands of studies all showing that cannabis is a good medicine.
We bring that to light. That is a job, a mission that we have with Patients Out of Time.
The website is http://www.medicalcannabis.com
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[music]
He’s the Drug Czar. Wages an eternal war on free will.
He knows all - the Drug Czar knows all.
He’s in charge of the truth so he tells nothing but lies.
He professes such great sorrow for the thousands of his minions who die.
He’s the Drug Czar waging his eternal war on our free will
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DOUG McVAY: Throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
The federal government continues its assault on medical cannabis with
recent DEA raids in Oakland, threatening letters sent to landlords in
Oregon, and indictments in Montana. A candidate for state Attorney
General in Oregon makes criticism of the state's medical marijuana
program part of his campaign rhetoric, calling it a quote “train
wreck” end quote, because so many patients in the program have only
chronic serious pain as their qualifying condition.
On another front, the federal government is warning of an epidemic of
painkiller addiction, threatening doctors for prescribing adequate
medication for their patients and pushing some pain sufferers into
illicit drug use, treatment, or prison.
These drug control policy stories aren't only about drug policies.
Ultimately this is about pain, and the question of whether pain is
real. Pain is regarded by many as a legitimate treatable condition, by
others as a subjective and difficult to measure symptom, yet it is
viewed by some as an illusory complaint used by the weak and the lazy
to excuse their lack of will.
Most of us would regard that latter opinion as unthinking and cruel,
though inhuman and barbaric are clean enough for radio and probably
cleave closer to the mark.
Yet, the fact is that some people do malinger. Research on how many
people try to fake illness, injury, pain or disability has yielded
mixed results. Estimates of malingering range from as low as 1-10% to
as high as 20-40%. As with so many tough questions, reality may lie
somewhere inbetween.
But if you think those sound like big numbers, check these out:
According to the federal Institute of Medicine, quote “chronic pain
affects about 100 million American adults – more than the total
affected by heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. Pain also
costs the nation up to $635 billion each year in medical treatment and
lost productivity.” End quote. That 100 million estimate leaves out
those who suffer short-term serious acute pain for example because of
injury or a sudden serious illness such as cancer.
A few cases may be exaggerated, some go untreated, and yet all of them
are targeted by federal and corporate bureaucracies which view pain as
a moral failing and a sin against business. It's time for change.
For the Drug Truth Network, this is Doug McVay with Common Sense for
Drug Policy.
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DEAN BECKER: Alright, the website for Common Sense for Drug Policy, by the way, is http://csdp.org.
I got an email a moment ago from Richard Lee reminding me to tell you to visit http://change.org and then search for “stop medical marijuana raids” It will give you a chance to sign a petition put together by Mr. Richard Lee.
I want to remind folks that we produce nine shows per week about the harms of the drug war. This is Century of Lies. We also do Cultural Baggage on the same evening. You can check out hundreds of our programs by visiting our website which is http://drugtruth.net.
As always, there is no reason for this drug war to exist. We have been duped. It’s possible that the drug lords run both sides of this equation. Visit our website, http://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 the Pacifica Studios of KPFT Houston.
Transcript provided by: Jo-D Harrison of www.DrugSense.org