Transcript

Century of Lies / February 3, 2013

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DEAN BECKER: 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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DEAN BECKER: You know when I first started doing these shows I was a paranoid SOB – truthfully. I didn’t know if it was going to be the cartels or the cops kicking in the front door but I think those days of paranoid hysteria on my part are gone. In fact, I think this drug war is nearing its end. It’s just waiting on you.

Last week our interviewee was Mr. Michael Krawitz of Veterans for Medical Marijuana, Patients Out of Time. This week the Washington Post came out with a story that underscores the need to reconsider how we’re treating our veterans.

I’m not saying smoking weed is the answer to these deaths which outpaced those that are killed in actual warfare but if it makes a small difference what’s the problem?

As I’ve said since about a month after 9/11 the war of terror (because certainly there’s terror inflicted on both sides) but the war of terror is the war on drugs with afterburners.

From the Washington Post:

REPORTER: In movie theaters across the country Friday the new film ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ will dramatize the most celebrated moment of the history of the Navy Seals – the killing of Osama bin Laden 20 months ago.

Part of the allure of the Seals is secrecy surrounding them. We rarely learn their names or see their faces but today we will as we focus our entire show on just one Seal and the secret he kept.

He wasn’t part of the team that hunted bin Laden but his story may say even more about the wars we fought in the years since 9/11.

Jenna May Trussel is the spitting image of the dad she won’t remember. Robert Guzo, Jr. was a Navy Seal who served in Iraq’s triangle of death. He was a goofball, a football star and hammed for the camera. She’ll know him mainly as a photo slideshow.

How’s she doing?

MS TRUSSEL: She’s asking for him a lot, you know? I keep saying that he’s with the angels. Yesterday she said, “I want to go with the angels to be with my daddy.”

REPORTER: This is the story of Jenna May’s dad – one of 2.5 million men and women who have fought America’s two wars these last 11 years.

ROBIN GUZO: He was born into a military family. I did 30 years and his dad did 26.

REPORTER: (talking with Rob’s mother) What was he like as a kid?

ROBIN GUZO: Very independent and head strong…always funny, always silly and I don’t think he ever really saw any limitations. He was one to jump off the couch. He’d do all the crazy things that you would think a little kid would be afraid to do.

There was a sign up list on the gym door to play hockey and he said, “I signed up.” I said, “Rob, you don’t know how to ice skate.”

He said, “Well, is that going to be a problem?”

REPORTER: I went to high school with Rob Guzo and even then he was a giant personality, a force of will you didn’t want to be on the wrong side of. Or, maybe more to the point, he just convinced you that you wanted to be on his team. You knew his team would probably win.

Rob’s dad was a Navy Seal and later a Seal trainer and after Rob went to dad’s alma mater of Suny Cortland and rushed for dad’s fraternity he graduated in the wake of 9/11 and followed him into the Seals.

(talking to Rob’s father) He could have really looked up to you to follow in your footsteps in so many different ways.

BOB GUZO: He did look up to me and I looked up to him as well. I think it was more like a challenge thing – he going to want to outdo his dad. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

REPORTER: When Rob graduated the grueling Seal training program Rob, Sr. had his own Seal trident - that symbol of being a Seal – inscribed with both their names.

FRIEND: He wore it like a badge of honor. He was a rock star about it. I used to make fun of him. He’s like, “Listen, you know, being a Seal I don’t like to talk about it too much.” Then about 5 minutes into a bar he’d have about 30 people around him telling them Seal stories.

REPORTER: Guzo was assigned to Seal Team 5 but by the time he deployed to Iraq in 2006 the realities of war had already reached him at home. One of his best friends, Mark Lee, deployed a rotation ahead of Rob and was the first Seal killed in Iraq.

ROBIN GUZO: Two days before Rob got deployed we went to the funeral of Mark Lee. Reality was setting in that this was serious stuff. On the outside Rob was really funny and big and bold but on the inside I think he was sensitive as well. I think some of the tragedy he saw over there was just not what they anticipated.

REPORTER: Guzo finished his tour in April 2007 and landed back home in San Diego.

ROBIN GUZO: I could tell immediately that he was changed. He just didn’t have …the look on his face was a distance away. I remember the first night after everybody had gone to bed and I heard his bedroom door open and him walk out. I got up and went downstairs. We were talking. He was sitting on the couch and telling me things that a mother doesn’t want to hear that a son has gone through.

He was upset and kind of crying. I was rubbing his back and I said, “You know, Rob, it’s going to be OK.”

He said, “Mom, it’s never going to be OK.”

REPORTER: But Rob didn’t seek help for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder because, his parents say, he was told that doing so would result in losing his security clearance and ending his career as a Seal.

BOB GUZO: They told him not to report it. They specifically told him, “Do not say yes and any worksheet that you’re having PTSD or any of these issues because they’ll take your bird, they’ll take your trident.”

To a Seal to lose your trident is to lose your life.

ROBIN GUZO: I did an internet search in San Diego and found a civilian PTSD specialist and Bob flew out to San Diego and took Rob there. He started seeing him about twice per week and we were paying cash. Some of the other young Seals would come to us and go to the same specialist because they didn’t want the Navy to know.

REPORTER: Remember unlike most military personnel Guzo had help navigating the system with parents with 56 years combined service in the Navy. Robin and Bob pulled strings to get Rob discharged before 2 nd deployment.

But racked by nightmares and tormented by memories Guzo increasingly gravitated to the San Diego bars.

FRIEND: If he was in a good mood you could drink and have a good time, laugh, tell jokes and then there’s the other times where he could literally at the drop of a hat get into tears. I used to tell a lot of people, “Don’t feed the beast.”

Because you’d see Rob and he’d start drinking more and see his face snarl up.

REPORTER: His parents would fly out to be with him on the toughest days – Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, the anniversary of Mark Lee’s death. He went back to school for a Masters. He learned he had a daughter. On the Friday before this past Veteran’s Day was in high spirits.

ROBIN GUZO: As I understand it on Veteran’s Day a lot of veterans get together. Typically there’s a lot of drinking. There was a couple of young coreman who had recently got back from Afghanistan. They were sharing with Rob what they had experienced and, you know, crying and a lot of sadness.

FRIEND: And they fed the beast, fed the beast, fed the beast. The more they fed each other the deeper and more depressed they got. He wasn’t with close friends. It was Veteran’s Day.

ROBIN GUZO: Rob’s not the first Seal who died in this matter. His buddy did but nobody heard about that. What you hear about is Seal Team 6 …all the great things. But you didn’t hear about this other Seal who killed himself. Those aren’t the ones you see on TV.

I’m not going to hide how he died because people need to know that this is what happened and it could happen to other veterans and is going to happen to other veterans. I know years and years ago suicide was something you didn’t talk about but people who know Rob…I don’t think there’s a picture or a video around where he’s not smiling and having a great time. He can make the best of any situation and, yet, at the end of the day …he’s gone.

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DEAN BECKER: Again, I’m not saying weed is the only answer. I am saying that our eternal wars – drug war and war of terror – are a main factor in this horrible situation.

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TERRY NELSON: This is Terry Nelson of LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The buzz this week was all about gun control with both sides claiming gloom and doom is something drastic does not happen. The drastic thing that usually happens when the knee jerking starts is that we lose more of our rights.

One argument I heard is that there is no reason that ATF could not sit up booths at the gun shows and run background checks on anyone buying guns there. Allegedly the ATF does not want to do this because it would be too expensive. Yet, they have enough Agents to assign them to drug task forces and some even work drugs by allegedly saying that it is part of a ATF investigation. Well we know all about ATF investigations that get out of hand when trying to work drugs along with guns. I’m referring to the infamous “Fast and Furious” case. They actually let guns be sold to cartel front guys so that they could do investigation on “Mister Big” in Mexico.

All of this is a waste of our tax dollars because they are not working what they need to be working which is preventing people that are not eligible from buying guns. One way they could do their job is to work a booth at the gun shows and do on the spot background checks to insure that the buyer is legitimate. They are also supposed to insure that guns are not sold to foreign governments without the proper licenses being issued.

The point is that the drug war takes our sworn officers away from doing their intended jobs to chase around after low hanging fruit and keep up their arrest statistics. No real criminals but many non-violent, low level offenders get caught up in the dragnet. Another life is ruined, family broken up and tax payer dollars wasted on people that are doing no harm to others.

Just look at the number of murders that have been in the news the past few days alone and you see that our police need to be busy chasing bad guys instead of participating in the failed war on drugs.

The Economist reports that the probable loss to the drug cartels by legalizing cannabis in Colorado and Washington State and other states is estimated to be approximately 1.4 billion dollars. Let’s take away even more money from these murdering thugs and legalize all drugs. Then we can begin to get a handle on our drug problems. We can save our tax payers approximately 80 billion for dollars that is wasted on the procedural cost of running the drug war. We can educate our way out of these issues but we will never arrest our way out. For those that become addicted or abuse these substances to the point where they are sick we can offer treatment instead of incarceration.

We at LEAP do not condone no encourage drug use of any kind but we do know that the drugs are not as harmful as the arrest record. You can get over an addiction but you will never get over a conviction. This is Terry Nelson of LEAP, www.leap.cc signing off.

Stay safe.

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DEAN BECKER: The following segment from ABC, New York.

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ANCHOR: New at 6 o’clock – it’s something right out of a SciFi movie except it’s real. The NYPD now with a high tech device that can scan a crowd and actually tell if someone has a gun. So is this good law enforcement or a violation of civil liberties? Here’s our investigative reporter, Jim Hoffer.

JIM HOFFER: This is the new tool in the NYPD’s battle against illegal guns. It operates on the same technology as body scanners used at airports. When deployed in the streets the weapon scanner will use radiation to detect concealed guns.

RAY KELLY: If something is obstructing the flow of that radiation (for example – a weapon) the device will highlight that object.

JIM HOFFER: Commissioner Ray Kelly in his State of the NYPD address today said they began testing the new technology days after it arrived last week.

RAY KELLY: These images are from a recent test that we conducted with an officer carrying a hidden handgun. You get a sense of why we’re so hopeful about this tool.

DARIUS CHARNEY: There's a lot of unknowns here a lot of unanswered questions

JIM HOFFER: Critics of the NYPD's best-known gun-fighting tool, Stop and Frisk, are holding their fire until they know more about the weapon scanner.

DARIUS CHARNEY: Is it going to be a better alternative to aggressive Stop and Frisk or is it going to turn into another civil rights or civil liberties disaster.

JIM HOFFER: The concern is that the scanner will be used in a discriminatory way like Stop and Frisk, targeting minority neighborhoods or that the virtual pat-down will detect keys and cell phones as suspicious items.

DARIUS CHARNEY: I can't say I'm dead set against it, but me and others in the police accountability business are concerned.

JIM HOFFER: Commissioner Kelly says they are working with the city's legal staff to ensure proper use of the device which has been under development for a year.

Police in London are already using the weapons scanner. They have worked closely with the NYPD to develop the system for use in the streets of New York. Kelly says more trial runs will be conducted before it is put into full-time use.

In Manhattan, Jim Hoffer, Channel 7 Eyewitness News.

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ANCHOR: Two women tonight are suing state troopers over a traffic stop on their way to Winstar Casino. A trooper stopped them for throwing a cigarette from the car and then administered a body cavity search right there on the side of the road.

The search was so invasive we have to blur out that part of the video. The trooper was looking for drugs that did not exist. NBC 5’s Ken Kalthoff is live where it happened at the George Bush Turnpike Luna Road exit.

So, Ken, these women say they want changes.

KEN KALTHOFF: Indeed. They say they don’t want anyone else to go through what happened to them right here in July.

The women say they were removed from their car, told to stay here in this field and then, one by one, searched in front of the bright squad car lights right there in the left turn lane of the roadway.

We have blurred parts of that video that may be offensive.

Dash cam video shows female trooper Kelley Helleson’s gloved hands plunging into the pants of Angel Dobbs right in front of other cars passing on the highway exit ramp.

She and her niece, Ashley, say they are going public with their story about what happened on this roadside and suing the troopers to save other women from what happened to them.

ANGEL DOBBS: I’ve never been so humiliated or so violated or felt so molested in my entire life.

SCOTT PALMER: This is outside the constitutional grounds by a mile. It's not even close.

KEN KALTHOFF: They say trooper David Farrell stopped them for a cigarette falling from their car then claimed to smell marijuana that was never found.

ANGEL DOBBS: What are you going to say? What’s going to happen to you if you challenge that authority and say, “Hey, uh-uh, don’t.”

KEN KALTHOFF: So Angel watched the cavity search happen next to her 24-year-old niece. They say the female trooper wore the same gloves as she probed around in Ashley’s pants too.

ASHLEY DOBBS: I don’t think anybody should have to go through what we had to go through.

KEN KALTHOFF: Angel Dobbs says a bottle of prescription pain pills was missing from her purse afterward. The father of one of their lawyers was a trooper himself.

CHARLES SOECHTING JR.: But in this instance they have completely failed the citizens of Texas.

KEN KALTHOFF: The lawyers say DPS Texas Rangers investigated the July incident but did nothing.

CHARLES SOECHTING JR.: What we're dealing with is a Class C misdemeanor. It does not justify any type of pat-down, let alone an invasive search of cavities of women.

SCOTT PALMER: These two need to be stopped. There's no telling how many other people they've done this to and we hope that others come forward.

KEN KALTHOFF: We made several calls to the DPS today trying to get the troopers’ side of this story but our calls have not been returned.

ANCHOR: So, Ken, does the state Department of Public Safety or any other police agency have policies that support these types of searches?

KEN KALTHOFF: These lawyers say that they made a records request asking for that kind of information from the DPS and they found no policy that authorizes this sort of thing on a roadway right out in the public. They also say they checked with some other police agencies and found that none of the others do this sort of thing out on a roadway especially without very clear evidence of a serious major crime.

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DEAN BECKER: And this is, of course, former President Jimmy Carter.

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JIMMY CARTER: When I was president in 1979 I made my definitive speech about drugs and I called for the decriminalization of marijuana. This was in 1979. Not for the legalization but for the decriminalization to keep people from being put in prison just because they were smoking a marijuana cigarette.

I pointed out that nobody should be punished worse for smoking a cigarette than the cigarette would be to them if they smoked it.

Now we have for every person that was in prison when I went out of office in 1981 there are 8 Americans now in prison. Most of those Americans that are in prison and most of those Americans that are executed with the death penalty are African-American or Hispanic or other minorities and also people who have a mental problem.

You cannot imagine a white male who has money being executed. So the death penalty in America and putting everybody in prison because they have marijuana is a very major step backward and it ought to be reversed not only in America but around the world.

HOST: What do you make of the legalization of marijuana and the states that have legalized?

JIMMY CARTER: I’m in favor of it. I think it’s OK. I don’t think it’s going to happen in Georgia yet but I think we can watch and see what happens in the state of Washington and let the American government and the American people see if it causes a serious problem or not.

All drugs were decriminalized in Portugal about 10 years ago and the use of drugs has gone down dramatically and nobody’s been put in prison. I think a few places around the world is good to experiment with and also just a few states in America are good to take the initiative and try something out.

That’s the way our country has developed over the past 200 years is by a few states being experiments. On that basis I’m in favor of it.

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DEAN BECKER: Next up the battle between marijuana and methamphetamine hydrochloride.

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METH CHARACTER: Oh, God, my tooth fell out.

ANNOUNCER: SymphaNews Master Debaters. Tonight marijuana and crystal meth will master debate about drugs…3…2…1 – master debate!

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: I guess I’ll start by saying there are good drugs and bad drugs and it’s time we start differentiating between the two.

METH CHARACTER: Exactly. We’re good drugs, man. So let’s stop the insanity and finally legalize crystal meth.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: That’s a horrible idea.

METH CHARACTER: Well, no, but…for medical reasons of course.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: Medical meth?

METH CHARACTER: Yeah, man. If the doctors say it helps cure gout then why not let grandma gak out on some tweek, you know?

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: OK. No doctor has ever said that.

METH CHARACTER: shhhh…did you hear that? Do you hear that right now?! Oh my God – what is that?! What is that?! Oh, wait, that’s my heart. That’s my heart.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: You’re made out of battery acid and drain cleaner.

METH CHARACTER: Hey, man, can I trust you because I think the government is against me.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: They should be.

METH CHARACTER: The CIA has an army of spies watching me 24-7 and that’s why I hide in the bushes in front of house every night with a steak knife.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: Folks this is exactly what I’m talking about. Meth makes you paranoid and crazy unlike pot which is totally safe.

METH CHARACTER: Safe?! That stuff takes away your motivation. I mean – do you even have a job like me – breaking down boxes at the Safeway 17, 18 hours a day. No you don’t.

Come on, bro. Don’t you want to have sex with strangers in truck stop bathrooms for money? How great does that sound?

Oh, God, my tooth fell out.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: Don’t you want to go to a Phish concert?

METH CHARACTER: No. Nobody wants to go to a Phish concert.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: Nobody wants to suck trucker dicks for money.

METH CHARACTER: And I thought you were cool. You are the gateway drug.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: Come on. I’m still illegal on a federal level. The states made me legal but the federal government and EPA were, like…wait, no … the DEA…

METH CHARACTER: The CIA…CIA is behind everything and the Masons and it’s all connected, bro, and they’re always watching us so there ain’t nothing we can do because they know everything – get what I’m saying?

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: What were we talking about?

METH CHARACTER: I need to borrow $25,000 from you or someone you know…can you make that happen?

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: No, absolutely not.

METH CHARACTER: I need to burn down my sister-in-law’s house tonight and it’s gotta be tonight.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: Why does it have to be tonight?

METH CHARACTER: I can’t explain anything else to you.

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: OK, I should just let you talk because you’re sort of digging your own grave.

METH CHARACTER: Well, are you going to help me or not?

MARIJUANA CHARACTER: I think I won.

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[music]

FEMALE SINGER: Just gonna sit here and watch you burn one.
That’s alright because I love the way it smells.

Just gonna sit here and watch you get high.
That’s alright because it should be legalized…should be legalized.

MALE SINGER: I can’t tell you what it really is
I can only tell you when it feels right
Come back from working wanna take a break
In real life my dreams didn’t work out

Stuck here in the rat race going nowhere from 9 to 6
Should it be a disgrace but not in this place – the United States
Where we look up to Brittany Spears instead of Bill Gates
What a disgrace

How did we get to this place?
How did our culture develop really horrible taste
Who do we blame?

I can give you plenty of names
I point my finger right at them
I don’t really care what they say
Look at the magazines, people

All the celebrities but we don’t even know who they are
That’s because most of us are living lives as normal as hell
That’s why like to smoke and listen to the stories they tell
And if there’s something wrong with that then I don’t want to be right.
So puff and pass and hand me a light

FEMALE SINGER: Just gonna sit here and watch you get high
That’s alright I think it should be legalized…should be legalized…should be legalized.

MALE SINGER: Hey congress we need to get something straight.
Don’t pretend like you got way too many things on your plate
Our country’s broke – you need to fix it today

The people voted for you –
start representing your state and regulate it
so we can end the debate
no one should be so irate
because the money we make from taxes would be great

Hey congress start using your heads
Not everyone who smokes weed is lazy
Sarah Palin, Clinton even Obama
Have admitted to smoking so enough with the drama

Like prohibition in the 20s this law is outdated
Weed is safer than booze
It’s time to regulate

and if you don’t pay attention to me I’ll tell you what I’ll do
I’ll start a revolution and blow out your whole crew.

FEMALE SINGER: Just gonna stand here and watch you smoke
That’s alright I think I’ll also have a toke.

That’s alright I think it should be legalized.
It should be legalized. Should be legalized.

MALE SINGER: Adam Sandler – one of my biggest role models
If I’m gonna do a song on weed I’ll do it for throttle
Let’s name some names just like the Hanukkah song
But instead of Jewish people these one’s hit the bong:

Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg – those are obvious ones
Martha Stewart and Oprah…let’s start naming the big guns
Kimmel, Jon Stewart even Steven Cobert
Woody Harrelson smoked so much that he lost all his hair.

Matt Damon, Clooney, most of Ocean’s Eleven
If Angelina smoked me out I’d think I would be in heaven
Bill Maher, Jack Black, Tina Fey, Charlie Sheen
All 4 smoked weed.

So there’s the media queen Paris Hilton
We all know you smoked joints
I don’t judge you for that
You get extra points

Halle Berry and John Kerry, Al Gore
I’m not nearly done yet.
I’m gonna name some more
Do you see how this risk is ridiculous
My research is meticulous

They’ve all smoked and are supporters of weed
The list goes on and on
Like Michael Phelps’s capacity

Sasha Bear and Cohen and Justin Timberlake
What they both have in common is they liked to get really baked.

FEMALE SINGER: Not gonna waste time and just stand by
I’m gonna send this to my congressman tonight

Weed is American as apple pie
And now it’s time for us to make it legalized.

Make it legalized. Make it legalized.

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DEAN BECKER: That song was written by Steve Berke and it features the astoundingly beautiful Charlotte Bruyn out of Amsterdam. You should see the YouTube video.

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DEAN BECKER: Hi. This is Dean Becker inviting you to join us on the Unvarnished Truth Television program. It airs locally on HMS TV. Check your local cable listings for when. You can check it out online at unvarnishedtruth.org.

We interview people from around the world and provide segments from major broadcasters underscoring the need to end this eternal drug war. Unvarnishedtruth.org

We’re about out of time but I hope the information we have provided with motivate you, will make you realize the drug war is a scam, sham, flim-flam, no basis in reality whatsoever and that you’ll visit our website so you can get involved, http://endprohibition.org. Do it for the children. 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.

Transcript provided by: Jo-D Harrison of www.DrugSense.org