(2014/02/11) Learning to play nice with human nature (War on Drugs)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2014
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Edition #798
Learning to play nice with human nature
Today we look at the evolution of bullshit reasons there have been to prohibit consumption of marijuana: from the bullshit reasons scared white people came up with to ban it originally to the bullshit reasons scared white people use in the present to keep it illegal, all while steadfastly ignoring the evidence which points toward the war on drugs leaving an expensive path of unmitigated destruction behind it wherever it goes.
Ch. 1: Intro - Theme: A Fond Farewell, Elliott Smith
Ch. 2: Act 1: 3 Absurd Reasons for Banning Drugs - LearnLiberty - Air Date: 09-20-11
Ch. 3: Act 2: Smoke Weed? You're Fat & Dangerous According To These Pundits - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 01-08-14
Ch. 4: Song 2: I can't explain - The Who
Ch. 5: Act 3: Gourmet Pot Editor Freaks Out O'Reilly - @jimmy_dore Show - Air Date 12-13-13
Ch. 6: Song 3: Where is my mind? - The Pixies
Ch. 7: Act 4: Government To Sell Pot For $1 A Gram (In Uruguay) - Why? - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 10-23-13
Ch. 8: Song 4: Represent - Weezer
Ch. 9: Act 5: Is the End of Marijuana Prohibition the End of the War On Drugs? Probably Not. - @brucedixon - Air Date: 1-8-14
Ch. 10: Song 5: Inevitable - Scissor Sisters
Ch. 11: Act 6: Thom Hartmann on Decriminalizing Pot - @Thom_Hartmann - Air Date: 01-17-14
Ch. 12: Song 6: Legalize it - Peter Tosh
Ch. 13: Act 7: Obama on Marijuana Legalization: Important For It to Go Forward - @davidpakmanshow - Air Date: 01-22-14
Ch. 14: Song 7: Open your eyes - Snow Patrol
Ch. 15: Act 8: Why Right Wing Addicts Like Rob Ford, Rush Limbaugh Don't Ask For Help - @majorityfm - Air Date: 11-06-13
Ch. 16: Song 8: Everything falls apart - Dog's Eye View
Ch. 17: Act 9: Families Against Mandatory Minimums - Best of the Left Activism
Ch. 18: Song 9: Activism - Shihan
Ch. 19: Act 10: Philip Seymour Hoffman Didn't Have to Die... - @Thom_Hartmann - Air Date: 02-03-14
Ch. 20: Song 10: South Side - Moby
Ch. 21: Act 11: We need drug rules that recognizes human nature - @dccommonsense - Air Date: 2-5-14
Voicemails:
Ch. 22: On the TPP and national sovereignty - Erin from Philadelphia
Ch. 23: Support for Avera on sex education in the south - Mark from New Mexico
Ch. 24: Prior consent still doesn't impart obligation - Jake from New Hampshire
Ch. 25: Weighing quality of life in the discussion of reproductive rights - Anonymous
Leave a message at 202-999-3991
Voicemail Music:
Loud Pipes - Ratatat
Ch. 26: Final comments on the ease of being misunderstood, especially when discussing the abuse of children in the context of the reproductive rights debate
Closing Music:
Here We Are - Patrick Park
ACTIVISM:
Tell the Commission: Cut These Drug Sentences!” from Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Sources/further reading:
AG Holder speaks out on federal sentencing, C-Span broadcast
”A New Development in Prison Reform” from Colorlines
The story of Stephanie George (FAMM)
and ”For Lesser Crimes, Rethinking Life Behind Bars”, The New York Times
Follow Families Against Mandatory Minimums on Twitter and Facebook
Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich
Produced by:
Jay! Tomlinson
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This program is made possible by the members and donors of the show for details and |
| 0:06.4 | visit the membership tab at BestOfAleft.com. |
| 0:08.8 | Now, welcome to the award-winning BestOfAleft podcast with clips today from Learn Liberty, The |
| 0:13.1 | Young Turks, The Jimmy Dore Show, Bruce Dixon, The Tom Hartman program, The David Pakman |
| 0:17.5 | Show, The Majority Report, BestOfAleft Activism, and Common Sense with Anne Carlin. |
| 0:21.9 | Now sit back, relax, and smoke them if you got them. |
| 0:30.4 | Here are three of the most bizarre, strange, and frankly unbelievable kind of reasons that |
| 0:36.0 | have been given for prohibiting the sale and use of drugs. |
| 0:40.3 | The war on drugs, at contrary to what many people believe, has been going on for a long |
| 0:44.5 | time. |
| 0:45.5 | The very first international anti-drugs conference was actually called by no less a person than |
| 0:50.3 | a czar of Russia, Nicholas II. |
| 0:52.9 | Maybe that's why so many people involved in this campaign want to be called czars, although |
| 0:56.8 | you'd think they would remember what happened to him and maybe not be quite so keen to have |
| 1:01.4 | that title. |
| 1:02.4 | Now, over the years, a whole number of reasons have been given for sustaining the war on drugs, |
| 1:09.9 | for extending drug prohibition on the life. |
| 1:12.6 | Many of these are so preposterous to the only sane person's ideas, you wonder how |
| 1:17.5 | an earth they ever got previous. |
| 1:19.7 | One argument which was made, for example, for banning opiates in the United States in |
| 1:24.3 | the 1890s, and which was also made for banning the sale cannabis in the 1930s, was that it |
| 1:31.4 | would lead to a sedination. |
... |
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