WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:270000 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.280 Black lives matter! Black lives matter! 00:00:03.290 --> 00:00:05.310 Protesters are right to ask: 00:00:05.310 --> 00:00:07.180 What we have to do to really 00:00:07.180 --> 00:00:10.130 substantially reform our criminal justice system. 00:00:10.130 --> 00:00:12.280 Our justice system is overwhelmed. 00:00:12.280 --> 00:00:13.480 Courts are jammed. 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:15.300 Innocent people get jailed, 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:19.320 some plead guilty just to avoid waiting years for a trial. 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:20.540 [Gavel] 00:00:20.540 --> 00:00:21.880 So what can be done? 00:00:21.880 --> 00:00:23.560 Well, here’s one answer. 00:00:23.570 --> 00:00:26.010 End the 50-year war on drugs. 00:00:26.010 --> 00:00:27.470 A massive drug bust 00:00:27.470 --> 00:00:30.390 The media and police celebrate drug busts 00:00:30.390 --> 00:00:33.660 We are talking more than 37 pounds of crystal meth. 00:00:33.660 --> 00:00:35.860 But the busts don’t cut off the supply. 00:00:35.860 --> 00:00:37.640 The drugs keep coming. 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:40.430 This is the largest bust they’ve had in years. 00:00:40.430 --> 00:00:42.560 The drug war hasn’t stopped drug use. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:44.530 What it mostly did was 00:00:44.530 --> 00:00:46.330 Get out of the vehicle! 00:00:46.330 --> 00:00:49.440 create more conflict between police and citizens. 00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:50.920 The drug war 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:54.890 pitted police against the communities that they serve 00:00:54.890 --> 00:00:57.820 Neuroscientist Dr. Carl Hart, former chair of 00:00:57.820 --> 00:01:00.730 Columbia University’s psychology department, 00:01:00.730 --> 00:01:03.870 spent the last 20 years studying drug use. 00:01:03.870 --> 00:01:05.080 When you started your research, 00:01:05.080 --> 00:01:08.200 you assumed you were going to confirm that 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:10.600 drugs were doing all this damage. 00:01:10.600 --> 00:01:13.380 Yeah, that’s right I came to the conclusion 00:01:13.380 --> 00:01:14.600 that I was wrong, 00:01:14.600 --> 00:01:16.540 Now he says our drug laws 00:01:16.540 --> 00:01:18.390 do much more harm than the drugs. 00:01:18.390 --> 00:01:20.060 When you have a new law, 00:01:20.060 --> 00:01:21.800 you're going to make crime. 00:01:21.800 --> 00:01:23.350 That's just how it works. 00:01:23.350 --> 00:01:26.200 He says most overdose deaths and gang violence 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:29.280 happen because drugs are illegal. 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:30.920 How different would things be 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:34.500 if somehow all these drugs were legal? 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:36.700 All of that would go away 00:01:36.700 --> 00:01:39.540 if we didn't have this war on drugs. 00:01:39.540 --> 00:01:42.340 [gunfire] 00:01:42.340 --> 00:01:44.560 It’s because drug sales are illegal, 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:46.840 and so sellers can’t ask the police to 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:48.540 protect their property, 00:01:48.540 --> 00:01:50.960 that they buy guns and form gangs. 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:55.030 In the TV show The Wire, this dealer wisely points out: 00:01:55.030 --> 00:01:56.640 Everything else in the world gets sold without 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:00.490 people taking advantage, scamming, lying, 00:02:00.490 --> 00:02:02.380 doing each other dirty. 00:02:02.380 --> 00:02:04.230 Why it gotta be that way with this? 00:02:04.230 --> 00:02:05.370 Why indeed? 00:02:05.370 --> 00:02:07.210 [Pouring coffee] 00:02:07.210 --> 00:02:08.760 There are no coffee gangs, 00:02:08.760 --> 00:02:10.820 [burning cigarette] 00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:12.080 or cigarette gangs 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:13.330 You got nothing! 00:02:13.330 --> 00:02:16.740 Alcohol gangs disappeared once prohibition ended. 00:02:16.740 --> 00:02:20.280 Now it’s drug prohibition that creates the violence. 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:22.740 The Wire was often good at illustrating the 00:02:22.740 --> 00:02:25.500 unintended consequences of our drug war, 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:27.930 like increased police violence. 00:02:27.930 --> 00:02:29.580 You call something a war 00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:31.620 and pretty soon everyone is gonna be running around 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:33.090 acting like warriors. 00:02:33.090 --> 00:02:35.120 Poisoned community relations. 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:36.100 Soon the neighborhood that you’re 00:02:36.100 --> 00:02:39.680 supposed to be policing, that's just occupied territory. 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:41.920 But don’t rely on The Wire, says Hart. 00:02:41.920 --> 00:02:43.880 The Wire played a role 00:02:43.880 --> 00:02:48.590 in this nonsense in this way we view drugs, too. 00:02:48.590 --> 00:02:51.060 The only people that we see doing drugs, 00:02:51.060 --> 00:02:53.980 people who are having a tremendous amount of 00:02:53.980 --> 00:02:55.750 problems in their life. 00:02:55.750 --> 00:02:59.580 That’s an unrealistic portrayal of drug users. 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:04.060 At the same time, the cops the “good guys” 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:05.980 are almost always 00:03:05.980 --> 00:03:09.780 in the local Irish pub having a good time 00:03:09.780 --> 00:03:11.599 Can you do one more? 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:12.660 But in real life, 00:03:12.660 --> 00:03:15.940 I know tons of people who do drugs, 00:03:15.940 --> 00:03:20.540 and they are public officials, 00:03:20.540 --> 00:03:24.280 they are captains of industry, and they're doing well. 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:25.980 Public enemy number one 00:03:25.980 --> 00:03:28.590 But because some people are hurt by drugs. 00:03:28.590 --> 00:03:30.610 They’re killing our children. 00:03:30.610 --> 00:03:33.040 Politicians kept passing tougher laws. 00:03:33.040 --> 00:03:36.020 We have to hold every drug user accountable. 00:03:36.030 --> 00:03:37.940 So America locked up more people, 00:03:37.940 --> 00:03:40.180 disproportionately black people. 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:42.960 In fact, America now jails a higher percentage 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:46.230 of our citizens than any other country in the world. 00:03:46.230 --> 00:03:48.580 [jail door closing] 00:03:48.580 --> 00:03:49.800 [frying] 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:51.020 Government also partnered with 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:53.880 ad agencies to make anti-drug ads: 00:03:53.890 --> 00:03:55.420 This is drugs. 00:03:55.420 --> 00:03:57.080 [sizzle] 00:03:57.080 --> 00:03:59.080 This is your brain on drugs. 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:01.860 We have convinced the American people that 00:04:01.860 --> 00:04:04.350 drugs are the boogeyman. 00:04:04.350 --> 00:04:05.350 Questions? 00:04:05.350 --> 00:04:07.960 Those commercials were so effective, 00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:10.000 and they were so dishonest. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:12.580 Dishonest? But drugs can kill, 00:04:12.580 --> 00:04:14.400 and overdoses are increasing. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:16.340 Hart’s new book argues that 00:04:16.340 --> 00:04:19.039 that too is because of the drug war. 00:04:19.039 --> 00:04:22.900 In every country with a more permissive drug regime, 00:04:22.900 --> 00:04:24.699 all outcomes are better. 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:27.060 Spain, drugs are all decriminalized. 00:04:27.060 --> 00:04:27.930 Switzerland. 00:04:27.930 --> 00:04:29.560 The Netherlands, Portugal. 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:30.760 They don't have these problems 00:04:30.760 --> 00:04:33.389 that we have with drug overdoses. 00:04:33.389 --> 00:04:37.140 In 2015 Portugal had just six deaths per million people, 00:04:37.140 --> 00:04:38.560 the lowest in Western Europe 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:41.180 and a tiny fraction of that in the U.S. 00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:43.000 If drugs were over the counter, 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:44.800 there would be fewer deaths? 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:45.740 Of course. 00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:46.900 People die from opioids 00:04:46.900 --> 00:04:49.240 because they get tainted opioids. 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:51.080 [gasp] 00:04:51.080 --> 00:04:55.220 In a society, you will have people who misbehave. 00:04:55.220 --> 00:04:57.150 But that doesn't mean you should punish all 00:04:57.150 --> 00:05:01.759 of us because someone can't handle this activity. 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:02.820 [flashbang] 00:05:02.820 --> 00:05:05.240 Police! Arrest warrant! 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:07.620 If we understand what liberty is about, 00:05:07.620 --> 00:05:11.760 we would show up for our fellow citizens 00:05:11.760 --> 00:05:15.520 when their liberties are being trampled on. 00:05:15.520 --> 00:05:18.160 He’s right. It’s time to end the drug war, 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:19.900 for everyone’s sake. 00:05:19.900 --> 00:05:22.840 [Swoosh] 00:05:22.840 --> 00:05:24.040 If you like these videos 00:05:24.040 --> 00:05:25.960 and you’d like to help us make more, 00:05:25.960 --> 00:05:28.740 we do count on people like you for donations. 00:05:28.740 --> 00:05:31.020 Please, press that button.