To around eight hundred thousand people the judge said they would suffer serious irreparable harm if it ended abruptly. Those are the headlines the stream is up next news has never been more available but the message is a simplistic and misinformation is rife the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging Mainstream Media narrative at this time on aljazeera. I mean ok you in the stream the u. S. Attorney general has made a legislative change that those of the Legal Marijuana sessions move is actually in contradiction to general u. S. Public opinion about cannabis use so now what effect with this legislative change have today would get into the debate about the impact that legalizing marijuana has and he would two experts with differing opinions its. Problematic. For. A. While. But. I dont really have a measure conferred hard. And marketed and they were hard. Hit and. Its done with cartoons and candies and all Different Things theres no guidelines around that its marketed in a way that we would not allow for example apple hard to back into the market so if hungry example theres ten servings of t. H. C. The active ingredient that intra high herrera was it one got me there when the last time you tried cutting one of these into ten pieces. Now we asked our community about the legal status of marijuana in their country and we heard results from all over in ghana hussain tells us most people smoke marijuana average uses are always arrested and prosecuted yet the narcotic control board have done their best to curb the situation meanwhile in nigeria bello says i feel shipped legalized we are currently spending millions on Law Enforcement think about the economic and Health Benefit of legalizing it tobacco kills more alcohol destroys more yet legal in zimbabwe says marijuana is not legalized and i dont think that will change anytime soon the use of it is a serious offense meanwhile down in new Zealand Antony shares his thoughts does not make things safer having a heavy handed war or no harm drugs but of course right here in the us now on a remains illegal at the federal level and is considered to be on par with heroin but eight states have legalized it to varying degrees often even confusion of the gap between state and federal law in texas it is illegal a legislature did not pass to change that status illinois will vote for measures this spring may see a change and here in the district of columbia it is legal to have and use marijuana for Recreational Use most recently on january the first california became the latest state to legalize Recreational Marijuana but just a few days later the attorney general sessions announced a change in policy here with us today to discuss the issue we have a penny present of the minority cannabis a Business Association and founder of Budding Solutions dr carhart is chair the department of psychology at Columbia University and author of high price dr kevin sabot is founder and president of smart approaches to my one a and ben court is author of weed and a consultant in the Addiction Treatment industry hello guess really good to see you this. Not on twitter but imma try sas thank you tenny general Jeff Sessions for your courageous decision to seen the previous administrations guidance on enforcing federal maulana you know us so this is saying thank you come now youre saying whats. His boat im a dress who listens to her. And to what i think about this decision by the attorney general its really not the attorney general we really need the congress to act and legalize marijuana now no wonder there are number of reasons why i think that marijuana should be legal. Chief among them i think about how we use how we enforce drug laws in the United States. In the United States for example black people who are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana and we can go down the law and we use our drug policy in part to. Basically carry out race bill discrimination thats what and into what i think about some of the arguments again its legalization they deal with it by areas science and when i look at the scientific Information Knowledge of the science even the scientific knowledge suggests that marijuana should be illegal and so i mean we think we should have a great conversation because i like to hear the arguments and id like to hear what the other panelists say as well well. A lot of problems with that yeah im going to hear a lot of problems with that i do think theres some agreement but lets do first things first i dont think its fair to pack a former Deputy Director of the Bush Administration who has a ph d. And works at Harvard University and psychopharmacology so thats what im sorry i did i just gotta trust her at a time ok tell us a sense man has less stay on topic or not but. We have a lot of people she was on the president its Opioid Commission so look at this little important thing lets get to the crux of the argument i agree is that we do not need to have a false dichotomy between criminalize ation and legalization were acting as if there are two choices we either have to lock people up or do what were doing in america which is basically start big tobacco all over again and thats why actually every Major Medical organization in the United States and around the world actually dont want to legalize marijuana they dont agree with dr hart they dont agree that we should legalize it all they dont think the science leads us there because todays marijuana is much more harmful than it used to be because its a schedule one that does not mean its on par with heroin it means its classified in the same way because it has a high predict addictive potential and no raw medical use but there are components that the two have medical use and we should recognize that i think c. B. D. Is an important issue to research but were conflating so many things here were conflating decriminalization with legalization those are two very Different Things were also conflating c. B. Doing in the non so i dont know component with t. H. C. Well a lot of people are and i think this is something that im just taking certain dont you know with about to become a station here thats how about conversation here and Kevin Sessums things that were just right on number one when we think about big tobacco you know one of the reasons that were concerned about big tobacco is because tobacco lie to the people of the United States and its like marijuana its doing please let me finish please let me finish we are upset with big tobacco because they lie they lie in. Said that their product was not addictive not harmful and they even set up a research are they but they were going to try to have independent research which was a law were not upset with tobacco because they are making money there in a Capitalistic Society like those shoes and kevin lets take a call and i wont because we havent had all have a conversation we have to other gas and the Online Community as well trying to get some. Community in here as well let me just share this with you this is ultimately i dont see this is a big policy shift the best way industry can respond is by doing what weve always done operate transparency so were talking about the cannabis industry the growing kind of this industry i know that you have a part of that what impact is this going to have on small absolutely this wasnt a shock to anyone in the industry we have been operating in a place of you know leaning on the coal mimo and other protections that we have in place and we havent done the leg work of ending prohibition which is what we need to do its not enough to him prohibition without having a loons on racial equality and equity in this space so we have to look at the social justice perspective in that lens and so when we start to talk about what happened last week with Jeff Sessions for sending the call memo essentially what it does is light a fire under this industry and what we should be doing is uniting and ending probation really changing policies so that were operating in a place where were not in a silo in a state weve had eight states now that have great programs that have been successful the heads of those states at least to colorado and washington oregon and washington excuse me that are coming out and saying hey we will stand tall we will support our industry and what we should be focused on again is being unified in republicans democrats less in prohibition than was different now from six months ago what difference does it make to the marana business the growing business medical uses. Bank. Im not sure. If im the right one but its a question you know im not in the business and i dont. Or a lot to do with the industry im just a colorado who kind of has to Pay Attention to what happened in my own state i think that the biggest thing that its going to do is make a lot of the folks who have large scale operations nervous about it this this shift those and nothing to do with users has nothing to do with people who choose to consume this substance on the road it really has everything to do with the people who are setting up shop in these states and they were in all they can to get as much money out of us it is possible you know that my home state has shipped bought like we. Really embraced this industry in many ways and i think there were a lot of us who were expecting it to be as hard hitting and going to use it as quickly as it is that some of this is about it industry this isnt about somebody choosing to use a substance or not this is about what they are not we want to allow people to. Prop it with with weed operators in this industry are not comfortable operating patients will suffer consumers will suffer if they have to go out of business if they have to shut their doors in anticipation of you know a rate now patients will ultimately suffer the employee of the issue is you know ultimately suffer whats whats so amazing also is that there actually there are a lot is a lot of evidence saying that it has not been going well in the states in fact there are more black and bannock kids being arrested in ca denver now for Marijuana Possession than there was before legalization and is that in d. C. Actually to your guest there is agreeing with me actually on a second thing is let me finish weve seen more arrests in washington d. C. And they are almost all africanamericans for pop. Accused as well as distribution so you know if you want to right the wrongs of the war on drugs and i think we would have a lot of agreement that weve been racist policies that we want to reverse you dont do it with creating another massive industry who we know will be led by rich white guys from Silicon Valley going to ball street and that by the way is who is making money from this business that by the way is who is leading this and the issue is we wouldnt need to embrace that we could simply change our criminal laws we dont want to go after users and by the way this memo simply goes back to create twenty thirteen days its not a change in policy its there is a federal law its been there for a while and we would all agree if you are going to legalize marijuana which i dont think we should let me just one who want to be agreement and here we would agree that you should do it through congress. Not to have it go ahead called getting that yes kevin just said something thats just so mis informed but the fact is when you look at states like colorado and washington and you look at the numbers of people who are being arrested for marijuana that number is dramatic plea down it is true that we still have Racial Disparities in a rest but the number of black people who are being the rest in those places is dramatically decreased so i dont understand what youre even talking about let me bring in another place how this is divisive will jones who was part of the organization in small approaches to maulana he talks about the black community saying this is his perspective have a listen koll. The reason that im working on this issue is because i receive Marijuana Policy new form in a way this cost him back in my community and right now if i walk out the door of my home number any direction the first or the need to see to be a Liquor Service cigarette advertising plastered all over the net is because for a day out on Tobacco Industry in disproportion targeted my marine disenfranchise communities fortunately if you look at places like Denver Colorado were seeing that the Marijuana Industry is doing the exact same thing where some minority communities have one caution before each year and says im see people clearly for profit legalization doesnt do that published work about ok so again this is misleading when we look at cancer we look at illnesses we look at anything in American Society we can see that a disproportionately negatively impact black people but when you were a the totality of this thing for example like prisons and those sorts of things changing drug laws would decrease the number of black people caught up in the criminal Justice System here i dont want that sort of comment that i want to make a there can you please that comment that was made of it was just. Simplistic and misinformed or i dont think the caller had a question i just genuine question but i think we need to have dialogue in this day and age where dialogue was is really just not we dont have it and thats why im proud to but work on both for publicans and democrats call it a great question. Well dont you think that there we could have a compromise where we can go a long way in reducing incarceration rates as well as righting the wrongs of the past by. Simply removing criminal penalties for marijuana and not actually having a system like alcohol or tobacco where we actually enter into that capitalist system with selling and we simply focus on saying you know what you know if you if you possess an amount or whatever there isnt going to be jail time and we actually and you would agree we want to discourage use among young people because todays t. H. C. Is so much powerful than it used to be but wouldnt that be a compromise where you could assemble essentially remove the criminal penalties as opposed to saying we want to let this out into our capitalist society and kind of hope for the best and i hear a lot actually ok yes let me hear the answer now i can see i know you want you want to weigh in on this as well i had intentionally thank you thank you so much thank you so much for that question. Yeah i really like the idea of making sure that we remove the criminal penalties the problem is when you just remove the criminal penalties particularly when it relates to a psychoactive substance without making it legal you dont have the Quality Control thats necessary to make sure that whatever people were getting is something that has high quality thats one and two this notion that you keep referring to is that the marijuana today is more dangerous than a marijuana that people had previously thats just simply is not true throughout the history of humankind and we have known how to increase the t. H. C. Levels in marijuana its true the average concentration of t. H. C. On the street today is higher than that in one thousand i said about people who have it is a very you know i say this you know coming along to make some Space Missions we should need time making space for me go ahead i absolutely think theres a place for regulation especially as you look at the. Medicine as medicine if i am growing this for my personal use im not concerned i know where i planted it i know what i used to grow this cannabis and im ok with thats the same thing as growing tomatoes in my home but when i go into a pharmacy or a dispensary i want to know that this medicine has been tested i want to know what its been processed with if anything and ultimately i want to be able to look at a label and know that there are ten servings in that gummy or in that chocolate bar so that i can responsibly consume as a as a Recreational User or as a medical patient from what he was after i had taken but yet by. Lets not move the color red and then i go into dispensaries all the time and ive seen what the industrialization has done and in my state and first off because like just hop on weed maps for a minute its an app on the i store on the i phone store and you can see that all of the dispensary are concentrated in the lowest Income Neighborhood the denver post ran a wonderful piece called really simple titled remember most dispensaries located in poor minority neighborhoods as a result these communities have been inundated with commuter shops so youve got all of these weed shops around theyre targeting their marketing to the folks who live in spite of those communities i dont have a shop for eight miles from my house but theyre all over the poor neighborhoods inside of denver and its for us this raised in the hope you can see in us keeping track on whats going on so this would be a Search Engine look at the recalls that have happened in colorado as a result of the pesticides the antifungal things that we found we are not regulating the way that its produced and youve gone from would naturally occurs inside a can of a system of. Myself like would naturally occurs inside of cannabis is less than half of a percent t. H. C. And were so in colorado now because its been industrialized to the. The point that it is and theres always money behind it we concentrate on the ninety nine percent well mankind has interacted with cannabis for millennia weve been a good with cannabis this strong five years let me just bring in Jeff Sessions as well i guess. I have to say i think about bits comment to say one thing about this comment i just find it remarkable that people who have never ever actually tried to address any of the concerns of minority communities make comments about these docs being in my you know already communities causing problems i write if i have a lot of money to. Please talk or hurt. That serbia and i dont dont then thats the whole year i grew up on public assistance man in washington d. C. Is where i got sober im not. Out of the sober never done im not im not saying that you didnt grow up in public this and dont do i cant what im saying is that you arent making condits well minority communities are you kidding me what you are doing what you want why can i not you know why can i not empathize and have a conversation about. This because as a man just because im heterosexual insists gender that hasnt kept me from serving on the board of directors of the National Association of lynns military transgender bisexual provider so i can be a part of a conversation. I also want sex sessions to be a few more conversations lets go back to december twenty seventeen when he talked about his drug policy and right now a lot of fitting into that have a listen. You know this is not healthy so. Were. All three responses. For. You so when youre. On friday. You. Probably hear. From. You. All over to go to. Work and. Now wow going to. Be. Seen is im not. As president of the minority kind of a space inside solution where the u. S. Is going in terms of the Current Administration going in terms of drug policy and cannabis i am clear that the Current Administration wants to return the United States to prohibition i am clear that this is just another way for them to push their agenda against black and brown people. Nothing has changed though the work that i am doing with the Minority Cannabis Business Association will be to him prohibition and you know legislation to do that is it enough that legislation will have to include you know concepts around race Equity Concepts around things like gentrification of course you know that was just brought up as we talked about what happened in colorado as these states regulate their programs in a silo you know we have an opportunity to look at the best practices throughout the country and try to get it right i think california is a great example of that while we are doing this on a state by state basis california has taken the initiative to say hey the war on drugs you know tremendously impacted these communities specifically and so were going to. You know give some priority to these communities not only in starting out in the sand but then reinvesting that i dont have revenues into those communities that bore the right that i i love that idea but the problem with that is its three billionaire white guys in Silicon Valley that are controlling the entire california market and because they want to export it california create supply creates produces eight times as much marijuana as consumed so you can bet whos going to be part of this and its futile and its wonderful to have people at the table but all its going to be just people at the table the alcohol industry is the same thing the alcohol related offenses are responsible for twice as many arrests than all drugs combined and thats a legal regulated drug show me in American History where we have regulated something successfully in a way that protects Public Health over private profit it does not happen thats a very very different than for medical if you want to do medical marijuana you talked about the patient its earlier than lets regulate that i totally agree lets have medical components that are not obviously smoke because you dont smoke any medicine but at a pharmacy with doctors that thats a separate issue but this dreamland that many people have is its going to somehow were going to get it right after two hundred years and include the voices are going to be included is nothing more than lip service from the rich white guys that serve on the boards of the major organizations getting a lot of calls i dont talk to panic because ben is a recovering addict because i doubt it but let me say this mission for me cos they call says making kind of a small widely available would assist many people moving away from opioids and other more harmful substances including alcohol and tobacco in the very last like thirty seconds i think its not something you can get behind. So when it comes to recovery i think thats such a personal dear bernie. The point about a smart well but that is to give a voice to somebody you dont know theyre like for me abstinence from all but altering substance has really been the trick you know and its something that has allowed me to. Become who i want to be in pursuit of relationships and to seem like theres reality so if there are people going to get a different route thats on them but ok who are wired like i just need more more more more that when i hate you or Bankole Kevin sites hot shes a penny thank you for this vibrant conversation becomes a show about maulana and legalizing it goes on in the United States a conversation continues at a strain thats what you have taken. A new level of luxury has a right. To experience that will transform the way. Our impeccable some of us really. But nothing comes breaking. Its. Previous experience to tell us. Whether conducting business sharing this mission. To instill. A church. Sanctuary the school. Still. Cares only going places together. To. Closer to. Zero where ever you are. There were over forty charges as i recall but primarily it was Material Support to terrorism the Holy Land Foundation was the biggest Muslim Charity in the us id definitely say that this was a political trial and that these were Political Prisoners because we were able to see the secret over them we were able to tell it in a two part series aljazeera world examines one of the most Controversial Court cases of the socalled war on terror the holy land following at this time on al jazeera world. South koreas president says hes open to meeting with north Korean Leader kim jong un but only under certain conditions. Of them jane this is their life and coming up