Drug Decriminalization

[@NinaMarguerite]

I had to pause the video and recollect myself when Meese said marijuana was more dangerous than alcohol.

[@jwoodswce]

The money shot of this video comes at the end when Meese and McNamara make their predictions about 20 years later, which is now. Time is proving McNamara correct and correct upon principle: problematic drug use should not be a criminal issue.

[@artwebb6939]

remember prohibition? alcohol banned, organized crime enriched, an explosion of violence repealed prohibition, starved organized crime, violence plummeted the wise man learns from the mistakes of others

[@artwebb6939]

Frank Hedden that I don't know

[@mikeherrman5653]

Just a rumor I heard from a High School teacher. Doesn't change the past if it's true or not XD

[@artwebb6939]

Frank Hedden Interesting if true

[@whiff1962]

Scapegoating is a metabolism of a society; it cannot be otherwise. Drugs happen to be that powerful, ubiquitous scapegoat in much of the Occident and the Orient.

[@graphguy]

You live in a fantasy world. Organized is bigger than it every has been, by a magnitude. Alcohol related deaths sky-rocketed Tax dollars spent in the billions you are sadly clueless. Legal drugs will be worse.

[@SKeeZy1902]

Love the older footage. What a great interview. Peter nailed it

[@GenericGenerator]

It would be interesting to redo this now places have in fact legalised m and see where the data is trending...

[@markthornton871]

you can not legislate morals, education and addiction help are probably the only way to help, but the act of doing a drug of some sort, alcohol, tobacco or any other drug being made a criminal act is just flat out stupid but government is full of stupid people.

[@patrickkorpela4324]

I would like to see an update to this to see how opinions have changed.

[@howardmao3331]

Unfortunately, Joe McNamara died in 2014.

[@Mdigi1982]

Thank you Peter.

[@mdehaanb]

Meese was right about the 10 years. Add another 10 and you've got a few following McNamara's plan, at least when it comes to marijuana. In another 10, I think McNamara will be right about all 50 states. Changing public perception of something like drug use is a slow, generational process. I 100% agree that drug use, same with alcohol and smoking, is bad for your health, not just physically but mentally as well, and that education is really the only useful tool to combat it. Imagine how devastating it would be to the drug cartels if drug use was decriminalized! That alone would probably make it worth it.

[@Tijuanabill]

Peter Robinson looks about 15 years old in this.

[@JM-pm3ob]

This is great.

[@arcamemnon9193]

The one argument not made in this interview is crime will skyrocket if drugs are legalized. McNamara was more a politician than a police officer so he completely overlooks the true horror show that legalizing drugs overnight would create. I worked as an officer in Oakland (retired 1 year after this interview) and I can tell you if you legalize drugs tens of thousands of people in that city alone will find their income from their black market drug sales gone with no other means of income. They have no marketable skills and would probably turn to violent crime and theft to keep food on their table. It's easy to say legalize it and I agree it should probably be legal, but it would need a huge social plan in union to prevent mass crime waves from erupting in every major population center. Most people say legalize it because they want to use the drugs and don't really think about what kind of effects it will have on all the people who have lived off the drug markets for virtually their entire lives. It's all they know. I'm not saying the black market is a good thing, it's not. But it does exist and it is the main source of income for a very large percentage of people in Oakland and most other large cities. Eliminating their only source of income would create all kinds of new permanent issues with crime since society has not created any other opportunities for these people and crime is all they know. If they can't feed themselves relatively peacefully via sales of narcotics they will look for other ways to feed themselves.

[@arcamemnon9193]

The mere fact these people are so infused into the thug life culture would probably make any kind of self help approach a failure and a complete waste of time and money (though that's not to say vocational training shouldn't be offered and made available to those who do want to try). When offered school, training or whatever they'd probably just say to themselves it's easier to go out and jack a car, burglarize a house or rob someone. So the lions share of the problem would have to be addressed in the penal system I think. The majority of them will probably need a rehash of k-12 schooling since many dropped out very young from school. Then offer them a commuted sentence if they successfully complete some kind of trade schooling while in prison. If they are paroled into society to work after completion and go a year with no issues commute their sentences and allow them to continue to integrate into society. Otherwise they'd serve out their sentences with no second chances lest they simply learn to abuse the systems good will. Do this for a few decades and it should help reduce the inevitable huge crime waves that will occur. But I see no way of stopping them as the drug culture is so imbedded into the inner cities of America and hundreds of thousands if not millions of people depend on its black market sales for their incomes. Most have forsaken normal culture and schooling to take part in the thug life culture, so they have no marketable skills outside their criminal endeavors. So the only other option would be to build more prisons and prepare to warehouse them.

[@ainslie187]

Decriminalize possession of all drugs to a specified weight threshold- say 30 grams. Possession of anything greater than this amount would be a criminal offense, but up to 30g would result in a civil fine. Perhaps a "three strikes" type law could be enacted where after the third or fourth citation for possession of 30g or less occurred the offender would be charged criminally and forced into rehab or jail. This would be the best solution because it lessens the chaos and violence resulting from our current drug laws, it also appeases the court system by keeping money flowing in, and it allows users a chance to get treatment before being branded a criminal, alienating them from society. Hard drugs can never be fully legalized because they are poison. However, marijuana & psychedelics/entheogens should be legalized and regulated similar to how we currently treat alcohol.

[@warrbarrt]

Wow...hindsight.

[@sammuckerman]

"Although their predictions were not entirely accurate..." Indeed. Here's a question for the Hoover Institution; what are the economic implications of states legalizing marijuana in terms of the financial drain via "drug tourism"? It seems as though the current situation has led to liberal states having a "straw" into the law abiding states economies.

[@robinsss]

how is pot tourism a drain?

[@nachochitiu6953]

Look at Portugal. Then try to take in the advantages of de-crimminalising drugs. Then speak.