(2011/08/27) The Great Failing (Drug War)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 August 2011
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Edition #522
The Great Failing
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Act 1: War on Drugs Keeps Failing, Countries Try Decriminalization - David Pakman Air Date: 6-7-11
Song 1: Gimme Sympathy -Metric
Act 2: Report War On Drugs Wastes Billions In Mexico - Young Turks
Song 2: Anti-Hu - Pinback
Act 3: Columbian Bio-Engineers Create Gun-And-Drugs Tree - The Onion
Song 3: The bleeding heart show - The New Pornographers
Act 4: Portugal Treats Addicts, Does not Punish Them - Le Show Air Date: 07-17-11
Song 4: Brain Stew - Green Day
Act 5: War on Drugs Keeps Failing While Portuguese Drug Decriminalization Works - David Pakman Air Date: 7-19-11
Song 5: Opportunities - Pet Shop Boys
Act 6: Medical Benefits Of Marijuana - National Cancer Institute - Young Turks Air Date: 3-28-11
Song 6: Failure by design - Brand New
Act 7: The war on cold medicine isn't working - Jim Hightower
Song 7: Moment Of Tranquillity - Apoptygma Berzerk
Act 8: Corporations growing Cannabis for their needs, while you cannot - Majority Report Air Date: 06-13-11
Song 8: This is why we fight - The Decemberists
Act 9: Florida's Outrageous and Unconstitutional Welfare Drug-Testing Law - The Progressive
Song 9: Lighting myself on fire - Jukebox The Ghost
Act 10: Drugs Now Legal If User Is Employed - The Onion
Song 10: Smile like you mean it - The Killers
Act 11: Drug Use Rising - Pot, Meth & Ecstasy - Young Turks
Song 11: Try not to breathe - R.E.M.
Act 12: A Former Crack Kingpin On The Economics Of Illegal Drugs - NPR
Song 12: Come on Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
Act 13: Drugs And Taxes - Mumia Abu-Jamal
Song 13: Wavin' Flag - K'naan
Act 14: Senior Moment - Pot Smoking Seniors - Colbert Report
Song 14: Old man - Neil Young
Act 15: End The Failed War On Drugs - Young Turks
Voicemails:
The need for campaign finance reform - Beth from New Brunswick, NJ
Thoughts on progressive messaging - Mike from Rochester, NY
Voicemail Music:
Loud Pipes - Ratatat
Turtle (Bonobo Remix) - Pilote
Ghostwriter - RjD2
Final comments on summery of excersized pro-meat-consumption voicemailer
Bonus Voicemails:
Getting smarter about food choices - Ken in Chicagoland
Guy who looks into the eyes of animals before killing them is a lunatic - Oni from Japan
Lesson on morals across countries regarding food choices - Michael From Glenn Bernie
Considering the condition of the workers in factory farms - Ashley from Syracuse, NY
Bonus iPhone/iPod Touch App Content:
More Blacks In Prison Than Slaves In 1850 - Young Turks
Produced by:
Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This program is made possible by the members and donors to the show, for details visit |
| 0:05.9 | the membership tab at BestOfTheLeft.com, now welcome to the award-winning BestOfTheLeft |
| 0:10.4 | podcast with clips today from the David Pakman show, The Young Turks, The Onion Radio |
| 0:14.1 | News, The Show, Jim Hightower, The Majority Report, The Progressive, NPR, MUMI Abu |
| 0:19.3 | Jamal, and The Cold Bear Report with a bonus video clip for our Apple iOS and Android |
| 0:24.1 | app users from The Young Turks. |
| 0:30.1 | A number of major international leaders are basically pleading with the US and the world |
| 0:35.7 | to get smart and stop the war on drugs, and we've talked about the war on drugs often |
| 0:40.2 | on for a while, and it's come up on the show in a number of different ways, really though |
| 0:45.9 | Lewis, we are starting to see more and more evidence that the way the United States |
| 0:50.3 | is handling non-violent drug offenses and the criminalization of certain drugs is really |
| 0:55.9 | just not working for a variety of reasons, and I know many conservatives say that we progressives |
| 1:02.3 | who are into the decriminalization of drugs, it's because we're potheads, and that's really |
| 1:07.2 | not the case, I'm not a marijuana user, quite frankly, let me be complete without identifying |
| 1:12.6 | anybody specific, there's some marijuana users at my condo complex, which I find incredibly |
| 1:19.2 | annoying, I hate the smell, I really wish that they just wouldn't do it, I really wish |
| 1:23.4 | they would actually move out to be completely honest, and I hope they don't listen to the |
| 1:26.4 | show, I can't imagine they do, but really the amount of problems and the amount of waste |
| 1:32.7 | in terms of resources and money that is going into the war on drugs is getting to the point |
| 1:37.8 | where it just belies any kind of logic and reason. |
| 1:43.2 | Lewis is stunned, he doesn't even know how to respond, I agree. |
| 1:47.1 | There's a number of countries that have enacted harm reduction strategies, which include |
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