CULTURAL BAGGAGE

DECEMBER 26, 2018

TRANSCRIPT

[music]

All right, I am Dean Becker, the Reverend Most High, this is Cultural Baggage, and it's our New Year's show. It will be early in Houston, but later up into Canada and the west coast, I suppose. And I want to do this differently today. I want to share some music with you, music that I wrote, that I played drums on, or some would say I attempted.

And, give you my editorial perspective on where we are at now, on where I hope you are, or want to go, and where we all need to go.

Because we own the moral high ground. There is not one of these high echelon officials, no way to put it, experts, the powers that be, the top dogs, the ones in DC, the US attorney, the head of the FDA, DEA, ONDCP, the big dogs. They don't want to come on this show.

Because the drug war is over. They just don't want you to know it yet. So that's what I do. I can't scream about gay frogs or whatever it is on InfoWars. I'm restricted. I have to tell the truth. I cannot put forward any ideas, any constructs, for which, you know, I can be accused of demeaning somebody or ruining our youth or something.

So, I stick to the truth. It's not that exciting, I guess, to too many folks, you know. I know there are millions of you who have heard this truth, who know this truth, but do nothing with it, because you're afraid. You're afraid at work, you're afraid at school, you're afraid at the store or the neighborhood or maybe even in your own home.

Because you don't want to be demeaned, or, you know, cast aside, or, you know, people wonder, what's wrong with her? She likes drugs, you know, you made -- nobody really likes drugs, I guess. Eh, it's more of an occasional, you know, embrace, I think, for most people.

Some people get distracted, but I think most of that distraction, most of that distancing, comes from the prohibition itself. It's one thing to have a drunk dad, you know. You put up with it, you try to help him, get him to AA, but it's not a total reputation destroyer in the neighborhood, because everybody knows alcohol's around and it is a problem.

But when it's drugs, oh my god, my lord, put the children in, you know, under the bed, hide every -- the dishes, I don't know.

Drug users, they've been demonized, they're put in movies like, you know, they are automatic killers, give them a ten dollar bill, they'll use it to buy heroin, it will -- dopers. Not to be trusted. You know? Easily, what's the word, damn it? Unconditionally exterminable.

You know, hell, if he died he died, he's a druggie. It's all right.

But, to further elaborate on the show, that was Shotgun Lobotomy, the band, for which I played drums. That's John Campbell doing the singing, I'm sorry I can't find the other people's names, you know, went through a lot of changes, wound up with a band called Cultural Baggage. Imagine that. And that's where the website came from, when I got the radio show, and that's where many of you listening found us out there on the web.

You know, seventeen years we've been at this. I wouldn't say I'm buddies with, but I think there's some respect between me and the district attorney. Some of her high echelon folks, the sheriff, you know, we don't talk every day or nothing, but, and the police chief, who comes on this show on a more regular basis.

But the point being, you know, it hasn't hurt me. I made, you know, my million, it's all gone, don't get me wrong, but, you know, doing audit work for Chevron and Texaco and Transco, back when they were there. I was a contact auditor, and the good thing was, they didn't give a dang what my pee contained, so I was able to work for them, and I was considered to be a miracle worker many times.

I led teams of CPAs though I've never had one hour of accounting. And, I like to think it's because of a blessing given to me. You know? A proper perspective in life, that I am able to attain, a means by which, you know, I have an okeh life. I'm no millionaire. But the point I'm getting at is this. I feel it is a blessing that I derive from the use of cannabis.

I think it is attainable through other drugs, as well, but for me, I have tried all the drugs. I have ascertained that for me, cannabis provides me with a sense of focus, a means to reexamine my life, to give a perspective that has led me to this progress, and I believe it is my god given American right.

I have shared that thought with these same politicians, with every politician I meet. I am not afraid to say so, and I guess what I'm leading to, folks, is that you -- you could do the same. You could talk to your neighbor, try it out on, you know, folks at the grocery store.

You know, I wear shirts that say "legalize heroin, ask me why". You know, years ago, people would always ask, oh, what are you talking about? Nowadays, people look at you and just, you know, scratch their head a little bit, or give you that wink like, not a wink, just a look, of okeh, I'll think about it.

And we all have thought about it, and I think if you make that -- open that discussion with your neighbor, with your, maybe your boss, someday, they'll say, well, you know, most folks are afraid to talk about that, but yeah, you're right, the drug war is stupid, what in the heck are we doing?

You'll be a hero, rather than a goat. That's my promise to you, more times than not, and the more we do that, the more we allow the truth to unfold, for politicians to stop their incremental changes to the law, to finally respect the truth that the drug war has failed, it will forever fail, and that we must end it forthwith.

Tax, regulate, control these supposedly controlled drugs.

VOICE 1: Get out of here, Dewey.

VOICE 2: What are y'all doing in here?

VOICE 1: We're smoking reefer, and you don't want no part of this s***.

VOICE 2: You're smoking reefers?

VOICE 1: Yeah, of course we are, can't you smell it?

VOICE 2: No, Sam. I can't.

VOICE 3: Come on, Dewey. Join the party.

VOICE 1: No, Dewey. You don't want this. Get out of here.

VOICE 2: No, but I don't want no hangover, I can't get no hangover

VOICE 1: It doesn't give you a hangover.

VOICE 2: Well, would I get addicted to it or something?

VOICE 1: It's not habit forming.

VOICE 2: Okeh, well ... I don't know. I don't want to overdose on it.

VOICE 1: You can't OD on it.

VOICE 2: It's not going to make me want to have sex, is it?

VOICE 1: It makes sex even better.

VOICE 2: Sounds kind of expensive.

VOICE 1: It's the cheapest drug there is.

VOICE 2: Huh.

VOICE 1: You don't want it.

VOICE 2: I think I kind of want it.

VOICE 1: Okeh, but just this once. Come on in.

DEAN BECKER: As we end the year 2018, start up 2019, the people of America are taking a new look at their criminal justice system.

Over this past century, began to persecute drug users, considering them in need of control, putting together a means to supposedly control substances when the actual goal was to control people who use substances, and to try every way to punish, to redirect, to distract, and to punish.

To bend the will of people, mostly youth, who are looking for a thrill, who mostly never hurt anybody, not even themselves. People who are punished because of fears put forward that hundred years ago by charlatans posing as moralists who convinced ignorant and susceptible politicians to prohibit these drugs.

And in so doing, they managed to create means of opportunity, of commerce, means where they could profit from escalating the methodology, the punishment, the intrusion into the rights of America's citizens.

And these politicians have gone that hundred years, and finally we're compelled to look over the edge of the abyss where they were throwing the lives of tens of millions of Americans.

The futures they were destroying, the families they were destroying, the progress they were denying these victims of drug war, and having stepped up to the edge, and having seen this, and having realized that history will show them to be in alignment, in perspective, in comparison, somewhat similar to other leaders with grandiose plans of success that actually led to abuse, to misery, and death.

Pol Pot. Stalin. Hitler. It becomes compulsory to want soul to do something once you have looked over that abyss and seen that misery decreed to last for eternity, and to realize that you may have something within you, the means or the mechanisms or the knowhow to do something as well.

And that is what has begun, this process, whereby we have the first step judicial endeavor, to begin to undo the mandatory minimums and the three strikes laws, and to end the perspective, the treatment, that drug users are just unconditionally exterminable.

Outcasts, to be denied respect and rights and freedoms, like normal folks, like us.

Twenty years ago, I began closing one of my radio shows with the phrase "still tap dancing on the edge of an abyss." That still holds true, the thought, the reality, the misery. Take a good look into that pit, and see if maybe there's something you can do in 2019.

On the day the new farm bill was signed, a lot of folks were wondering why no politicians were stepping forward and proclaiming they were the savior, they were the ones bringing hemp back, they were the ones that were changing things.

For the most part, politicians didn't even mention that the hemp bill was included. And so folks were asking me what that might mean. I told them that with the signing of this bill, I told them it's not hard to understand these politicians' silence at all.

Reversing the hemp bill just begins to unwind the quote "logic" of drug prohibition, more than eighty years of stupid laws. Nearly fifty million arrests. Our eternal support of terrorist cartels and gangs, we've given them fifteen trillion dollars. My lord, domestic spending has been about three trillion for criminal justice and demonization and pretense and postulation and pontification.

And now, they want to slowly, ever so slowly, maybe another eighty years, unwind the rationale of drug war with this hemp bill and the First Step bill they took.

Drug prohibition, it's a ludicrous concept that pretended we can rid the world of certain plant products, undo the law of supply and demand, protect the children and just say no. So yeah, there is a reason they don't want to mention hemp, just as there's no politician on planet earth who wants to come on this radio show to defend the drug war. It cannot be done.

And what they did to hemp was way past irrational, and wrongheaded. It was stupid, and they know it. Same holds true for every aspect of the drug war. There never was, there is not now, and there never will be any benefit to it whatsoever.

Undoing a century of lies will be tough for these poor, ignorant, bassackward politicians, but I say tough. Time's up on your devious, demented, god damned evil ways. End this drug war.

Quit pussyfooting. Quit stalling. Just pull the plug and end this god damned drug war. History will not be kind, you bastards.

All right, here's another song from twenty years ago, the band I was with, Shotgun Lobotomy, the song a product of our age.

[music]

DEAN BECKER: So upbeat, so easy to dance to. Here's more editorial.

Carry this wonderful perspective with you. There's nobody on the other side that has any credence, that has any nexus with reality, who can stand the truth of this matter.

So, be bold. You know, I feel able to say this, and to share this with you, that's why I do this, is so you can understand. Hell, I traveled between the walls, kind of like a tunnel, in a prison in Cochabamba, Bolivia, to talk to prisoners, to find out what was up with them, they're living in cells that are eight feet by eight feet by four feet tall. There's no room to even stand.

Be not afraid. You can help end this madness, just with a few words, especially if you talk to one of these politicians, now that the session is starting there in Austin. They know the truth. They know much of it. They kind of walk over it and avoid it, because it's taboo, afraid to lose votes, nah, steer clear.

Don't let them steer clear any more. That's what we've got to do is tell them that we know the truth, you know the truth. Let's deal with this truth. Let's end this madness. Let's stop funding terrorist cartels and gangs. Let's drop that number of overdose deaths by a hundred to one.

Let's take away this enticement to our children to join gangs selling drugs to one another. There's a hundred other reasons I could throw in there, but any one of them should sway the opinion of that politician. And you can do it with a smile on your face, and a heart that shows love, rather than fear.

Because that's what we have to do, is to stop trying to control the people by pretending to go after the substances. It's a diminution of our American and god given rights. It's something that we must protect. It's part of who and what we are, and what we're supposed to be.

These drugs are not that bad. They don't jump up and bite you. We have to actually control the controlled substances.

We don't need to listen to these ignorant, and I say that because these politicians don't read the medical studies, they've got no idea of what they're talking about. Educate yourself. Go in there, own the conversation, and change the direction of this. We, the citizens, own this.

We don't need controlled, we do need to control the substances so we are safe, and then let us decide for ourselves what the hell we want to do with them.

[music]

Every improvement, every retrenchment, in the drug war, every step backwards, every incremental little thing, is wonderful. It's good, it will save lives, it will save futures, save money. And I'm all for it.

But more than that, I'm all for ending the madness. I'm all for recognizing, looking at, examining, making a fresh and scientific and intelligent observation, redetermination, you know, where do we need to go?

I feel blessed. I've spent the last twenty years looking at this one subject. Talking to scientists and doctors and politicians and authors and cops and prosecutors and, oh, coroners, prisoners, patients, a lot of folks. Growers, I think, nah, I left that out.

And I have a very -- and a few drug czars, come to think of it, along the way, you know, some foreign leaders. I think that's worth noting. Some designers of drug programs. The chairman of GW Pharma, selling that Epidiolex, I think it is, now.

And, oh, I've been around. I have a well rounded education, perspective, and for twenty years, I've basically been challenging, the head of the FDA, the DEA, the US Attorney General, the state attorneys general, any and everybody whose opinion, whose authority, is taken as, you know, worthy of respect and endorsement, and I've challenged each and every one of these people to a debate, to stand tall, to show that I'm wrong, that I shouldn't be on the airwaves, I shouldn't have a book, I shouldn't have traveled with leaders from other countries trying to share that knowledge within the United States, a seven thousand mile journey.

I shouldn't have been invited to speak to the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Abuse for my perspective, for my understanding of this drug war. I shouldn't have been invited to speak with the drug czar of Portugal.

But I am respected. Just not in the USA.

The point I'm getting at is, these politicians, these people in positions of authority, these so-called leaders and knowledgeable experts, need to have the plug pulled on this drug war. I need to embarrass them. I need to show they are shills, in essence servants of the cartels and the cops.

They are frauds, and it will be easily proven, and that's why they hide from me. I don't have the bluster of InfoWars. I have my soul, I have my intelligence, and I am damned ready for that debate, and I'm hoping that you, listening, will find ways to show your support for what I want to do.

I hope you have trust in me that I'll get it done, because I've certainly been working for that day. I promise, I won't stop until it's over.

All these incremental adjustments? The drug lords' dream fulfilled.

It's time to play Name That Drug By Its Side Effects! Nausea, stomach pain, indigestion, vomiting, constipation, gas, weakness, tired feeling, increased appetite, unpleasant taste, headache, insomnia, unusual dreams, deranged behavior. Time's up! The answer, from Pfizer Laboraties: Chantix, to quit smoking cigarettes.

Fact is, after seventeen years of broadcasting, four years after writing the book that could have swung the cat, progress is at best slower than molasses in December. With a new, recycled Bush type attorney general on the horizon, we may soon be going in reverse.

I am seventy years old, maybe got a decade or two left to go, but fact is, I could croak tomorrow and folks would say I made a nice stab at changing things, that in truth he was good at pointing out the problem, but so inept at changing things.

Online, at the studio, protests, any damn event I go to, folks pat me on the back and thank me for the work I do, and I appreciate that. What eats at me is that most of these same folks are afraid to utilize my advice, to openly proclaim themselves to be drug users, to open the discussion at home, at work, in their churches, in schools.

I understand that with the modern situation, it means a reputation can be destroyed in an instant. And so I hold no grudge. My biggest dream is that someday I win the lottery. Millions of dollars. And then I assemble a dream team comprised of those I consider to be knowledgeable proponents of ending this eternal drug war.

Folks I have met over the years who have dedicated their lives to exposing the fraud and misdirection of this second prohibition.

Folks like Neill Franklin, who heads up LEAP, originally named Law Enforcement Against Prohibition; Ethan Nadelmann, the founder of the Drug Policy Alliance; Paul Armentano, the Deputy Director of NORML, who focuses on weed but knows fully the history and hysteria of the drug war; and importantly I would like to use the services of my ally, Doug McVay, the editor of Drug War Facts.

Next step is to buy a full page in newspapers around the country, challenging the US Attorney General, the leaders of the US Senate and House, along with the head of the ONDCP and DEA, to a national debate. The topic of discussion: the benefits of drug war.

Likely we'd do some warm up debates, challenges in major cities, before the showdown in DC. We can challenge governors, state attorneys general, and major players to a debate in Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, and elsewhere, to defend the policy as well.

Just before the debate in DC, we buy airtime on all the major networks for broadcast around the USA, indicating that if the US Attorney General and the heads of the chosen agencies show for the debate, that we will donate one hundred thousand dollars each to the charities of their choice, and if they all show for the debate, we will double those donations to two hundred thousand dollars each.

Rough guess: The total potential cost would be less than five million dollars, but I expect there will be nobody showing up for the debate, so the cost would be lower by half to a million dollars.

The good part, if they show up, would be that we blast their logic, their whole evil construct, to smithereens, and likely a better solution, they fail to show up. That would expose their whole rotten scheme as evil as the Third Reich.

My dream team will provide powerful, gentlemanly, respectful presentations while I stand ready to rip the heart from any drug war proponent brave enough to defend this eternal misery and death.

It's umpty-million to one that I win the lottery, but George Soros, Elon Musk, or some other billionaire with a conscience could easily make my dream come true and end this eternal war on logic.

That's today's final editorial. Merry Christmas, happy new year. I hope you'll join us on a regular basis in 2019. We're going to be getting back with the cops and the scientists and the authors, and showing you just how easy it is to undo the quote "logic" of these drug warriors, the servants of the cartels and the cops.

Now more than ever, there are drugs that might be in that bag you're purchasing that can kill you in an instant, so I urge you to please, be careful, in 2019.