to start I was raised probably the same
way that all of you were – in effect
equate heroin with bad with evil and
with prison and you kind of don’t think
about it that much but we all know that
being addicted any of these substances
is certainly not a good thing and
nothing that I will say will imply in
any fashion that it’s not a serious
thing I can also say that after college
I was in the Peace Corps and so just I
bring that up to show you that I care
about people after the Peace Corps I
went into law school and was immediately
being drafted it was the height of the
Vietnam War about 1968
and so I joined and listed with the Navy
and after law school I became a navy
lawyer a staff judge advocate in the
u.s. naval air station in Guam and
thereafter a criminal defense attorney
at US Naval Air Station in Lemoore
California and in Guam I saw of course
that I was filling out charge sheets
against my shipmates for numbers of
offenses certainly including drug
offenses and then as additional duty I
was a criminal defense attorney
defending people other shipmates from
other commands that were charged with
other things including drug offenses
didn’t think about it very much just
thought that was the normal thing to do
I was in effect a drug warrior looking
back though at the beginning in Guam in
about 1972 they had made big headlines
in the paper saying that they had their
first homicide since the end of the
Second World War and they were all
concerned about that and wondered how it
happened and as time went along it
turned out that lots of people were
starting to bring illegal drugs during
the Vietnam War in military aircraft
from Vietnam from Thailand and this
homicide turned out to be yet another
drug deal that went wrong
and by the time I left the island a
couple of years later unfortunately it
was a fairly common experience to have
homicides that were drug-related after
that and I was discharged from the Navy
I became a federal prosecutor in Los
Angeles and for at least a short time
held the record for the largest drug
prosecution in the Central District of
California 75 kilos of heroin 165 pounds
was and is a whole bunch of heroin but
does anyone have a concept of what the
record prosecution is today in the
Central District of California 17 tons
cane in one place just boggles your mind
as to the amount of drugs that we’re
talking about and if you really think
about it seriously
there’s no Society in the history of
mankind that has not had some form of
mind-altering sometimes addicting
substance to use to misuse to abuse and
even get addicted to except maybe the
Eskimos because they couldn’t grow
anything but now chemistry and
Transportation has changed that as well
so let’s come to the blunt reality here
that these drugs harmful as they can be
are here to stay I’m sorry to be so
blunt but that’s the reality so if
that’s the case they’re going to bring
armed to our society so we should
government as a people come up with
forms of approaches to that that reduce
those harms and that’s where we should
go and prison is not in that list so you
come to other realizations that for
example you can arrest convict
incarcerate a big-time drug user excuse
me a big-time drug seller and that does
not reduce the amount of drugs illegal
drugs in your society yes maybe four six
twelve fourteen hours but then other
people see it as a employment
opportunity and end up replacing that
person and drugs are fully available you
look at the system otherwise if you
arrest and convict a serial rapist rape
goes down in your community you arrest
and convict a burglar car theft those
offenses go down as well but it’s not
true with drugs I was one time giving a
talk in front of a pretty conservative
group and there happened to be three
prison wardens in the audience and I
made the comment look folks we can’t
even keep these drugs bad as they can be
out of our prisons for heaven’s sake how
do you expect to keep them off the
streets of any of our town in cities
that you can get as many drugs as you
want in your prisons depending basically
on price and one of the Gordon’s smiled
and said well you can’t get all you want
but okay so let’s come to that
realization you then look at Governor
Gary Johnson’s comment a friend of mine
who said okay it’s clear that we have
drug problems in our society but about
ten of them are related to the
itself again not minimizing them but 90%
are drug prohibition problems drug money
problems graphic example look at what’s
going on in Mexico all of this violence
crime beheadings has nothing to do with
drugs whatsoever nothing it’s all drug
money that causes those things and it’s
our drug money that does it
so let’s come to that reality look we
cannot repeal the law of supply and
demand and figuratively if you have
somebody holding a 50 dollar bill out on
the on a street corner saying give me
$50 worth of marijuana somebody is going
to meet that demand so we’re either
going to have marijuana for example in
our society regardless marijuana is the
largest cash crop in the state of
California today that implies to me that
somebody’s using it so let’s recognize
that by the way grapes is number two so
if we have that is a major product let’s
take away a whole lot of money from
juvenile street gangs from Mexican drug
cartels and other thugs and use it
control it and use that money to pay our
firefighters pay our teachers and fix
our roads how can the difficult can this
be so you get closer to the situation
and you will understand the truth that
the term Controlled Substances is the
biggest oxymoron in our world today that
means basically in a term that’s in
internally inconsistent controlled
substances no because as soon as you
prohibit a substance you give up all of
your controls to the bad guys you know
anything dealing with quality control a
huge issue demand advertising price age
restrictions you all give those up to
the Mexican drug cartels and the
juvenile street gangs we couldn’t do it
worse if we tried so these are things
that we need to look at we need to allow
ourselves to discuss this because we
have a prohibition on discussion just
because we discuss drug policy just
because we discussed that we have
options or even engage in those options
does not mean we condone drug
we just get that point across to our
fellow citizens I guarantee you we will
change away from drug policy from drug
prohibition so I felt so strongly about
this I became a judge in the end of 1983
and would see in my own courtroom we’re
churning low-level drug offenders
through the system for no good purpose
whatsoever by the way many of them are
mentally ill that are self-medicating in
order to stave off the demons or
whatever and we’re doing untold harm to
these mentally fragile people by putting
them in jail the United States of
America leads the world in the
incarceration of our people both by
sheer numbers as well as per capita
you’ll hear the statistic and it should
really bother you as it bothers me we
have 5% of the Nate of the world’s
population and 25% of its prisoners
we’re either the most preeminent lis
oriented people in the world or we’re
doing something wrong which do you think
it is so I did something very unusual
for a sitting trial court judge in
Orange County California back in April
of 1992 and I held a press conference
very unusual thing to do and told anyone
that would listen
hey we’re not doing it right we could do
it better drug prohibition isn’t working
and since that time I’ve been speaking
publicly as often as I can to people
that would hear me and now when I talked
to Rotary Clubs religious organizations
chambers of commerce whatever I tell
them the stark truth which is drug
prohibition is the biggest failed policy
in the history of the United States of
America second only to slavery and if
you’ll listen regardless of what your
interests are I will tell you that
regardless of what that is it can be
with education or health care or
criminal or or terrorism environment I
will show you to your satisfaction how
it is made worse because of our nation’s
policy of drug prohibition we couldn’t
do it worse if we tried so these are
things that we’re facing most people
realize that drug prohibition is not
working and that word is getting out so
why do we perpetuate this failed system
and the answer they’re basically two
answers and the first answer it comes in
TOR
and the answer is our children we want
to protect our children so we will
continue with this failed policy for all
of its defects unquote because we want
to keep our children away from a
lifestyle of drug usage and drug selling
but I’m here to tell you and I was in
juvenile court you see this time and
again that we are putting our children
in harm’s way for two extremely
important reasons and the first is don’t
take my word for it ask the next ten
teenagers you find what is easier for
you to get if you want to marijuana or
alcohol and every last one of them if
they care would know where to go it
would be easier for them to get
marijuana or any other illicit substance
then it would be alcohol why because
drug dealers don’t ask for ID you know
the least concern of an illegal drug
dealer is age restrictions they don’t
care somebody might say oh no one wants
to get my 12 year old daughter hooked on
cocaine and the answer is sure they do
because they’ll make money on them a
disgusting situation we couldn’t do it
worse if we try it and number two
putting our children in harm’s way is
look most people understand oh I want to
be in the NBA I want to be professional
football in the NFL most of our kids
understand that there really aren’t very
many Michael Jordan’s coke Kobe Bryant
so Stephon Curry’s so the odds of that
are not good so we otherwise might as
well take out billboards in the inner
cities or anywhere else saying if you
want to make some money the most money
you can ever make is selling drugs
Juvenal street gangs are using this as a
recruiting tool hey you want to make
some money join our gang and be part of
the action
not a good thing so let’s take the money
away from those folks and on the macro
level let’s look at Mexico like we said
with all of the beheadings hey let’s
look at something else drug prohibition
is the Golden Goose of terrorism if our
country really cared our government
really cared about fighting terrorism
understand that the largest source of
funds for terrorist organizations around
the world is drugs illegal drugs and if
our government care
puts tears in my eyes to say this but I
believe it they would do the thing that
would give the most results in fighting
terrorism which is take away their money
take away their funding and our
government doesn’t even discuss that
issue which is really a stupid result we
must change away from this fail system
but it’s not all doom and gloom I’m here
to tell you that there are real options
that we do have how many of you are
aware for example of what has happened
in Portugal since 2001 not very many and
I fault the media for this there should
be headlines in every newspaper saying
hey we have hope there’s a better way
Portugal in the year 2000 recognized
that they had the largest drug problem
of any country in the European Union so
they did something really intelligent
they actually put up a neutral
Commission non-political Commission and
tasked them to go out into the country
figure out what our problems are and
give us recommendations for what to do
about it
and the Commission took about nine
twelve months and came back and said we
have two problems in our country number
one is if you are a problem drug user
you’re afraid of your own government
you’re not going to bring your problem
to the government because they’ll punish
you so they take it underground and
number two is we’re spending so much
money on the investigation prosecution
and incarceration of nonviolent drug
offenders we don’t have any money left
for drug treatment so they did something
really intelligent in Portugal in the
year 2001 they decriminalized all drugs
now let me to find some terms for a
minute
because I don’t want to legalize
marijuana I don’t even know anybody that
wants to legalize any of these drugs if
you’re gonna think about legalization of
drugs think aspirin you know your 12
year old daughter could go to any local
pharmacy could buy generic could buy
name brands could buy a case of this
stuff it’s advertised by the free market
no age restrictions no-one I know wants
to do that what we want to do is have
strict regulations and controls in
effect like alcohol far different
situation
decriminalization means
almost literally it is still illegal in
Portugal or in Holland by the way to buy
you sell possess any of these drugs but
as long as you keep within very
well-known general guidelines the police
are instructed frequently in writing to
look the other way and not and to leave
these people alone now look I’m a judge
I believe in having reasonable laws and
I believe in enforcing those laws and to
instruct your police not to follow the
law conceptually causes me some problems
nevertheless what happened in Portugal
they decriminalized all drugs in 2001
and thereafter they had the Cato
Institute about ten years after that
took the information digested it and
reported to the country and the world
not in our newspapers much but to the
world and they said you know drug use in
Portugal pretty much remains the same
which gives the lie to pretty much every
drug czar we’ve ever had in our country
who says oh we were to have a different
option we’ve become a nation of drug
Sambas or something like that not only
is that silly I think it’s insulting but
I wouldn’t you could give away cocaine
on the street corner I’m not gonna Jam
cocaine up my nose and I don’t think
most other people aren’t either but that
happened in Portugal drug usage pretty
much remained the same but problem drug
usage went down by 50% by half why
because now if a police officer someone
encounters somebody that’s under the
influence these various drugs or is
injecting or whatever yes they’re given
a citation but not to come to judges
like me but to go to medical
professionals that can help them they’ll
come in hey Charlie what are you using
what your lifestyle what can we do to
help you help you get a job help you
have medical issues etc problem drug
usage has gone down by 50% same thing
basically in Holland who decriminalized
all of these drugs basically back in the
1970s the Minister of Health held a
press conference in Holland numbers of
years ago and said we only have half the
marijuana consumption in our country per
capita as you do in the United States
listen to this both for adults and for
teenagers why he went on to say ah we
have succeeded in making pot boring
that’s a
good thing we glamorize it by making it
illegal by having an obscene profit
motive to get you and other people
hooked on it
look people could sell alcohol and their
high school campuses they could sell gen
beam before all that matters they don’t
they could why not
because there’s no money in it let’s
make the same thing with regard to these
other drugs as well we have hope
there are ways Switzerland I don’t know
how many of you are familiar with what’s
happened in Switzerland since the late
1990s they put in clinics in various
heroin using cities and towns in
Switzerland clinics made up of social
workers medical doctors registered
nurses they would bring these people in
to the clinic and then what would they
do pretty much the same thing you or I
would do they try to help them get drug
treatment get off their heroin but if
they didn’t want to they say look as
long as you satisfy three criteria we
have a program for you the criteria are
you’re at least 22 years of age and a
failed traditional drug treatment at
least twice that you are addicted to
heroin not that hard to prove and number
three that you’ll remain crime free in
the future if you do that you’re on the
program what did that mean they are
given a prescription for heroin they can
have it filled at pharmaceutical prices
and then they can inject their heroin
under medically controlled circumstances
at the clinic now stop for a minute none
of these drugs we’re talking about is
expensive the only reason they’re
expensive is because they’re illegal you
know marijuana is not called a weed for
nothing it’ll grow anywhere and heroines
the opium poppy by the way for years the
National Park Service was growing it in
Monticello until the DEA found out about
it it’s a beautiful flower
DEA made them take it out but I assure
you if it’ll grow in Virginia it will
grow anywhere so the only reason these
things are expensive is because they’re
illegal so if you’re gonna get a
prescription for a maximum amount of
about ten dollars a day under
pharmaceutical controlled prices you can
afford that drug number two this is not
an orgy so-called
of heroin usage because remember there’s
a medical doctor on this team and the
medical doctor will give you a blood
test and figure out the strength of your
fiction and then will prescribe you
enough heroin to maintain you at that
level not enough to give you that
euphoria or whatever it is not enough
too much to go through a withdrawal but
will maintain you at your current level
hence by the way the program is called a
heroin maintenance program back to the
story soon they found out that of course
no one there had overdosed
because overdosing is a quality control
problem it’s unknown strength it’s
unknown purity on the streets you can
use the same amount of heroin today that
you used yesterday unbeknownst to you
it’s three times stronger you use it and
you die that’s a drug drug prohibition
problem nobody’s overdosed in
Switzerland nobody’s gotten AIDS
nobody has caused gotten any of these
other blood-borne diseases employment
has gone up by 50%
they’re basically able to get off the
dole treat their families like they like
they want to these things work and by
the way this is also very consistent
with my libertarian philosophy that you
all know who Robert Downey jr. is the
very successful actor but it’s pretty
much had a life of a very long heroin
problem and I’m proud of him he’s making
good movies but he should be careful he
will always have that craving but it
makes as much sense to me to put this
gifted actor Robert Downey jr. in jail
for his heroin problem as it would have
Betty Ford in jail for her alcohol
problem and as you all know Betty Ford
was the wife of President Gerald Ford
and of what Anna self acknowledged
alcoholic so it’s a medical issue you
want to bring them closer to medical
professionals that can help them instead
of rendering them automatic criminals
and pushing them farther away but if
Robert Downey jr. Betty Ford you or I
drive a motor vehicle impaired by you
name it methamphetamines alcohol which
is my drug of choice marijuana heroin
whatever that’s a crime what’s the
difference
hear ye hear ye I love that statement
hear ye hear ye
the criminal justice system is designed
for and quite good at holding people
accountable for their actions protecting
us from each other
so if you drive a motor vehicle impaired
by any of these you’re putting our
safety at risk legitimate criminal
justice issue but if all you’re doing is
harming yourself the criminal justice
system is not designed to protect us
from ourselves and that makes perfect
sense philosophically because as far as
I’m concerned the government has as much
right to control me as an adult as to
what I put into my body as the does
whatever I put into my mind it’s none of
their business
so these are things you look at it any
of us were over 21 could go home tonight
and drink 10 martinis if we wanted to
certainly not a smart thing to do
certainly not a medically healthy thing
to do but it’s not a violation of law
and you look further into this entire
area the most successful program that we
have had with regard to any form of
mind-altering sometimes addicting
substances it’s what we’ve done in the
last 10 or 20 years with regard to
cigarettes you know we can look at that
and see that we have reduced consumption
of cigarettes not by making it illegal
and it just bring Al Capone and Mexican
drug cartels into the cigarette
distribution business but by putting out
honest information in the marketplace
for people honest medical information
social mores regulations
you can’t smoke cigarettes in this
building hooray for that and that’s why
we need to go and I look back into my
experience and and I can tell you a
couple of things there’s one time in
which I was sentencing to young men at
various times for being under the
influence of methamphetamines and in
California and pretty much all
jurisdictions before you’re going to
plead guilty you have to put give us a
factual basis which means basically you
put into your own words why you’re
guilty of the offense and I heard from
them your honor pretty much the same
story my drug of choice was marijuana
and for years I would buy my marijuana
from the same supplier but one fine day
unbeknownst to me he sold me some
marijuana laced with methamphetamines I
ended up getting myself addicted and I
seemed thinking to myself wait a minute
you know we all know smoking cigarettes
is harmful to your health but at least
if you go to your local mini-mart and
buy a pack of Marlboros you’re going to
know it’s not laced with
methamphetamines those are drug
prohibition problems so let’s all get
together
I make you a guaranteed as soon as we
come to our senses and repeal drug
prohibition all of us within a year
maybe two will join hands look back the
aghast and we could have perpetuated
such a failed system for so long that is
a guarantee it’s for the sake of our
children it’s for the sake of our
country it’s really for the sake of the
world
so that is my view from my judges
perspective use your own insights and
I’m sure you will come to the same
conclusion thank you
[Applause]
you
way that all of you were – in effect
equate heroin with bad with evil and
with prison and you kind of don’t think
about it that much but we all know that
being addicted any of these substances
is certainly not a good thing and
nothing that I will say will imply in
any fashion that it’s not a serious
thing I can also say that after college
I was in the Peace Corps and so just I
bring that up to show you that I care
about people after the Peace Corps I
went into law school and was immediately
being drafted it was the height of the
Vietnam War about 1968
and so I joined and listed with the Navy
and after law school I became a navy
lawyer a staff judge advocate in the
u.s. naval air station in Guam and
thereafter a criminal defense attorney
at US Naval Air Station in Lemoore
California and in Guam I saw of course
that I was filling out charge sheets
against my shipmates for numbers of
offenses certainly including drug
offenses and then as additional duty I
was a criminal defense attorney
defending people other shipmates from
other commands that were charged with
other things including drug offenses
didn’t think about it very much just
thought that was the normal thing to do
I was in effect a drug warrior looking
back though at the beginning in Guam in
about 1972 they had made big headlines
in the paper saying that they had their
first homicide since the end of the
Second World War and they were all
concerned about that and wondered how it
happened and as time went along it
turned out that lots of people were
starting to bring illegal drugs during
the Vietnam War in military aircraft
from Vietnam from Thailand and this
homicide turned out to be yet another
drug deal that went wrong
and by the time I left the island a
couple of years later unfortunately it
was a fairly common experience to have
homicides that were drug-related after
that and I was discharged from the Navy
I became a federal prosecutor in Los
Angeles and for at least a short time
held the record for the largest drug
prosecution in the Central District of
California 75 kilos of heroin 165 pounds
was and is a whole bunch of heroin but
does anyone have a concept of what the
record prosecution is today in the
Central District of California 17 tons
cane in one place just boggles your mind
as to the amount of drugs that we’re
talking about and if you really think
about it seriously
there’s no Society in the history of
mankind that has not had some form of
mind-altering sometimes addicting
substance to use to misuse to abuse and
even get addicted to except maybe the
Eskimos because they couldn’t grow
anything but now chemistry and
Transportation has changed that as well
so let’s come to the blunt reality here
that these drugs harmful as they can be
are here to stay I’m sorry to be so
blunt but that’s the reality so if
that’s the case they’re going to bring
armed to our society so we should
government as a people come up with
forms of approaches to that that reduce
those harms and that’s where we should
go and prison is not in that list so you
come to other realizations that for
example you can arrest convict
incarcerate a big-time drug user excuse
me a big-time drug seller and that does
not reduce the amount of drugs illegal
drugs in your society yes maybe four six
twelve fourteen hours but then other
people see it as a employment
opportunity and end up replacing that
person and drugs are fully available you
look at the system otherwise if you
arrest and convict a serial rapist rape
goes down in your community you arrest
and convict a burglar car theft those
offenses go down as well but it’s not
true with drugs I was one time giving a
talk in front of a pretty conservative
group and there happened to be three
prison wardens in the audience and I
made the comment look folks we can’t
even keep these drugs bad as they can be
out of our prisons for heaven’s sake how
do you expect to keep them off the
streets of any of our town in cities
that you can get as many drugs as you
want in your prisons depending basically
on price and one of the Gordon’s smiled
and said well you can’t get all you want
but okay so let’s come to that
realization you then look at Governor
Gary Johnson’s comment a friend of mine
who said okay it’s clear that we have
drug problems in our society but about
ten of them are related to the
itself again not minimizing them but 90%
are drug prohibition problems drug money
problems graphic example look at what’s
going on in Mexico all of this violence
crime beheadings has nothing to do with
drugs whatsoever nothing it’s all drug
money that causes those things and it’s
our drug money that does it
so let’s come to that reality look we
cannot repeal the law of supply and
demand and figuratively if you have
somebody holding a 50 dollar bill out on
the on a street corner saying give me
$50 worth of marijuana somebody is going
to meet that demand so we’re either
going to have marijuana for example in
our society regardless marijuana is the
largest cash crop in the state of
California today that implies to me that
somebody’s using it so let’s recognize
that by the way grapes is number two so
if we have that is a major product let’s
take away a whole lot of money from
juvenile street gangs from Mexican drug
cartels and other thugs and use it
control it and use that money to pay our
firefighters pay our teachers and fix
our roads how can the difficult can this
be so you get closer to the situation
and you will understand the truth that
the term Controlled Substances is the
biggest oxymoron in our world today that
means basically in a term that’s in
internally inconsistent controlled
substances no because as soon as you
prohibit a substance you give up all of
your controls to the bad guys you know
anything dealing with quality control a
huge issue demand advertising price age
restrictions you all give those up to
the Mexican drug cartels and the
juvenile street gangs we couldn’t do it
worse if we tried so these are things
that we need to look at we need to allow
ourselves to discuss this because we
have a prohibition on discussion just
because we discuss drug policy just
because we discussed that we have
options or even engage in those options
does not mean we condone drug
we just get that point across to our
fellow citizens I guarantee you we will
change away from drug policy from drug
prohibition so I felt so strongly about
this I became a judge in the end of 1983
and would see in my own courtroom we’re
churning low-level drug offenders
through the system for no good purpose
whatsoever by the way many of them are
mentally ill that are self-medicating in
order to stave off the demons or
whatever and we’re doing untold harm to
these mentally fragile people by putting
them in jail the United States of
America leads the world in the
incarceration of our people both by
sheer numbers as well as per capita
you’ll hear the statistic and it should
really bother you as it bothers me we
have 5% of the Nate of the world’s
population and 25% of its prisoners
we’re either the most preeminent lis
oriented people in the world or we’re
doing something wrong which do you think
it is so I did something very unusual
for a sitting trial court judge in
Orange County California back in April
of 1992 and I held a press conference
very unusual thing to do and told anyone
that would listen
hey we’re not doing it right we could do
it better drug prohibition isn’t working
and since that time I’ve been speaking
publicly as often as I can to people
that would hear me and now when I talked
to Rotary Clubs religious organizations
chambers of commerce whatever I tell
them the stark truth which is drug
prohibition is the biggest failed policy
in the history of the United States of
America second only to slavery and if
you’ll listen regardless of what your
interests are I will tell you that
regardless of what that is it can be
with education or health care or
criminal or or terrorism environment I
will show you to your satisfaction how
it is made worse because of our nation’s
policy of drug prohibition we couldn’t
do it worse if we tried so these are
things that we’re facing most people
realize that drug prohibition is not
working and that word is getting out so
why do we perpetuate this failed system
and the answer they’re basically two
answers and the first answer it comes in
TOR
and the answer is our children we want
to protect our children so we will
continue with this failed policy for all
of its defects unquote because we want
to keep our children away from a
lifestyle of drug usage and drug selling
but I’m here to tell you and I was in
juvenile court you see this time and
again that we are putting our children
in harm’s way for two extremely
important reasons and the first is don’t
take my word for it ask the next ten
teenagers you find what is easier for
you to get if you want to marijuana or
alcohol and every last one of them if
they care would know where to go it
would be easier for them to get
marijuana or any other illicit substance
then it would be alcohol why because
drug dealers don’t ask for ID you know
the least concern of an illegal drug
dealer is age restrictions they don’t
care somebody might say oh no one wants
to get my 12 year old daughter hooked on
cocaine and the answer is sure they do
because they’ll make money on them a
disgusting situation we couldn’t do it
worse if we try it and number two
putting our children in harm’s way is
look most people understand oh I want to
be in the NBA I want to be professional
football in the NFL most of our kids
understand that there really aren’t very
many Michael Jordan’s coke Kobe Bryant
so Stephon Curry’s so the odds of that
are not good so we otherwise might as
well take out billboards in the inner
cities or anywhere else saying if you
want to make some money the most money
you can ever make is selling drugs
Juvenal street gangs are using this as a
recruiting tool hey you want to make
some money join our gang and be part of
the action
not a good thing so let’s take the money
away from those folks and on the macro
level let’s look at Mexico like we said
with all of the beheadings hey let’s
look at something else drug prohibition
is the Golden Goose of terrorism if our
country really cared our government
really cared about fighting terrorism
understand that the largest source of
funds for terrorist organizations around
the world is drugs illegal drugs and if
our government care
puts tears in my eyes to say this but I
believe it they would do the thing that
would give the most results in fighting
terrorism which is take away their money
take away their funding and our
government doesn’t even discuss that
issue which is really a stupid result we
must change away from this fail system
but it’s not all doom and gloom I’m here
to tell you that there are real options
that we do have how many of you are
aware for example of what has happened
in Portugal since 2001 not very many and
I fault the media for this there should
be headlines in every newspaper saying
hey we have hope there’s a better way
Portugal in the year 2000 recognized
that they had the largest drug problem
of any country in the European Union so
they did something really intelligent
they actually put up a neutral
Commission non-political Commission and
tasked them to go out into the country
figure out what our problems are and
give us recommendations for what to do
about it
and the Commission took about nine
twelve months and came back and said we
have two problems in our country number
one is if you are a problem drug user
you’re afraid of your own government
you’re not going to bring your problem
to the government because they’ll punish
you so they take it underground and
number two is we’re spending so much
money on the investigation prosecution
and incarceration of nonviolent drug
offenders we don’t have any money left
for drug treatment so they did something
really intelligent in Portugal in the
year 2001 they decriminalized all drugs
now let me to find some terms for a
minute
because I don’t want to legalize
marijuana I don’t even know anybody that
wants to legalize any of these drugs if
you’re gonna think about legalization of
drugs think aspirin you know your 12
year old daughter could go to any local
pharmacy could buy generic could buy
name brands could buy a case of this
stuff it’s advertised by the free market
no age restrictions no-one I know wants
to do that what we want to do is have
strict regulations and controls in
effect like alcohol far different
situation
decriminalization means
almost literally it is still illegal in
Portugal or in Holland by the way to buy
you sell possess any of these drugs but
as long as you keep within very
well-known general guidelines the police
are instructed frequently in writing to
look the other way and not and to leave
these people alone now look I’m a judge
I believe in having reasonable laws and
I believe in enforcing those laws and to
instruct your police not to follow the
law conceptually causes me some problems
nevertheless what happened in Portugal
they decriminalized all drugs in 2001
and thereafter they had the Cato
Institute about ten years after that
took the information digested it and
reported to the country and the world
not in our newspapers much but to the
world and they said you know drug use in
Portugal pretty much remains the same
which gives the lie to pretty much every
drug czar we’ve ever had in our country
who says oh we were to have a different
option we’ve become a nation of drug
Sambas or something like that not only
is that silly I think it’s insulting but
I wouldn’t you could give away cocaine
on the street corner I’m not gonna Jam
cocaine up my nose and I don’t think
most other people aren’t either but that
happened in Portugal drug usage pretty
much remained the same but problem drug
usage went down by 50% by half why
because now if a police officer someone
encounters somebody that’s under the
influence these various drugs or is
injecting or whatever yes they’re given
a citation but not to come to judges
like me but to go to medical
professionals that can help them they’ll
come in hey Charlie what are you using
what your lifestyle what can we do to
help you help you get a job help you
have medical issues etc problem drug
usage has gone down by 50% same thing
basically in Holland who decriminalized
all of these drugs basically back in the
1970s the Minister of Health held a
press conference in Holland numbers of
years ago and said we only have half the
marijuana consumption in our country per
capita as you do in the United States
listen to this both for adults and for
teenagers why he went on to say ah we
have succeeded in making pot boring
that’s a
good thing we glamorize it by making it
illegal by having an obscene profit
motive to get you and other people
hooked on it
look people could sell alcohol and their
high school campuses they could sell gen
beam before all that matters they don’t
they could why not
because there’s no money in it let’s
make the same thing with regard to these
other drugs as well we have hope
there are ways Switzerland I don’t know
how many of you are familiar with what’s
happened in Switzerland since the late
1990s they put in clinics in various
heroin using cities and towns in
Switzerland clinics made up of social
workers medical doctors registered
nurses they would bring these people in
to the clinic and then what would they
do pretty much the same thing you or I
would do they try to help them get drug
treatment get off their heroin but if
they didn’t want to they say look as
long as you satisfy three criteria we
have a program for you the criteria are
you’re at least 22 years of age and a
failed traditional drug treatment at
least twice that you are addicted to
heroin not that hard to prove and number
three that you’ll remain crime free in
the future if you do that you’re on the
program what did that mean they are
given a prescription for heroin they can
have it filled at pharmaceutical prices
and then they can inject their heroin
under medically controlled circumstances
at the clinic now stop for a minute none
of these drugs we’re talking about is
expensive the only reason they’re
expensive is because they’re illegal you
know marijuana is not called a weed for
nothing it’ll grow anywhere and heroines
the opium poppy by the way for years the
National Park Service was growing it in
Monticello until the DEA found out about
it it’s a beautiful flower
DEA made them take it out but I assure
you if it’ll grow in Virginia it will
grow anywhere so the only reason these
things are expensive is because they’re
illegal so if you’re gonna get a
prescription for a maximum amount of
about ten dollars a day under
pharmaceutical controlled prices you can
afford that drug number two this is not
an orgy so-called
of heroin usage because remember there’s
a medical doctor on this team and the
medical doctor will give you a blood
test and figure out the strength of your
fiction and then will prescribe you
enough heroin to maintain you at that
level not enough to give you that
euphoria or whatever it is not enough
too much to go through a withdrawal but
will maintain you at your current level
hence by the way the program is called a
heroin maintenance program back to the
story soon they found out that of course
no one there had overdosed
because overdosing is a quality control
problem it’s unknown strength it’s
unknown purity on the streets you can
use the same amount of heroin today that
you used yesterday unbeknownst to you
it’s three times stronger you use it and
you die that’s a drug drug prohibition
problem nobody’s overdosed in
Switzerland nobody’s gotten AIDS
nobody has caused gotten any of these
other blood-borne diseases employment
has gone up by 50%
they’re basically able to get off the
dole treat their families like they like
they want to these things work and by
the way this is also very consistent
with my libertarian philosophy that you
all know who Robert Downey jr. is the
very successful actor but it’s pretty
much had a life of a very long heroin
problem and I’m proud of him he’s making
good movies but he should be careful he
will always have that craving but it
makes as much sense to me to put this
gifted actor Robert Downey jr. in jail
for his heroin problem as it would have
Betty Ford in jail for her alcohol
problem and as you all know Betty Ford
was the wife of President Gerald Ford
and of what Anna self acknowledged
alcoholic so it’s a medical issue you
want to bring them closer to medical
professionals that can help them instead
of rendering them automatic criminals
and pushing them farther away but if
Robert Downey jr. Betty Ford you or I
drive a motor vehicle impaired by you
name it methamphetamines alcohol which
is my drug of choice marijuana heroin
whatever that’s a crime what’s the
difference
hear ye hear ye I love that statement
hear ye hear ye
the criminal justice system is designed
for and quite good at holding people
accountable for their actions protecting
us from each other
so if you drive a motor vehicle impaired
by any of these you’re putting our
safety at risk legitimate criminal
justice issue but if all you’re doing is
harming yourself the criminal justice
system is not designed to protect us
from ourselves and that makes perfect
sense philosophically because as far as
I’m concerned the government has as much
right to control me as an adult as to
what I put into my body as the does
whatever I put into my mind it’s none of
their business
so these are things you look at it any
of us were over 21 could go home tonight
and drink 10 martinis if we wanted to
certainly not a smart thing to do
certainly not a medically healthy thing
to do but it’s not a violation of law
and you look further into this entire
area the most successful program that we
have had with regard to any form of
mind-altering sometimes addicting
substances it’s what we’ve done in the
last 10 or 20 years with regard to
cigarettes you know we can look at that
and see that we have reduced consumption
of cigarettes not by making it illegal
and it just bring Al Capone and Mexican
drug cartels into the cigarette
distribution business but by putting out
honest information in the marketplace
for people honest medical information
social mores regulations
you can’t smoke cigarettes in this
building hooray for that and that’s why
we need to go and I look back into my
experience and and I can tell you a
couple of things there’s one time in
which I was sentencing to young men at
various times for being under the
influence of methamphetamines and in
California and pretty much all
jurisdictions before you’re going to
plead guilty you have to put give us a
factual basis which means basically you
put into your own words why you’re
guilty of the offense and I heard from
them your honor pretty much the same
story my drug of choice was marijuana
and for years I would buy my marijuana
from the same supplier but one fine day
unbeknownst to me he sold me some
marijuana laced with methamphetamines I
ended up getting myself addicted and I
seemed thinking to myself wait a minute
you know we all know smoking cigarettes
is harmful to your health but at least
if you go to your local mini-mart and
buy a pack of Marlboros you’re going to
know it’s not laced with
methamphetamines those are drug
prohibition problems so let’s all get
together
I make you a guaranteed as soon as we
come to our senses and repeal drug
prohibition all of us within a year
maybe two will join hands look back the
aghast and we could have perpetuated
such a failed system for so long that is
a guarantee it’s for the sake of our
children it’s for the sake of our
country it’s really for the sake of the
world
so that is my view from my judges
perspective use your own insights and
I’m sure you will come to the same
conclusion thank you
[Applause]
you
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