Very common in louisiana. Donna weidenhaft is a public defender in new orleans. Are the penalties severe here for Marijuana Possession . Absolutely. You can get anywhere up to 20 years if you are caught with marijuana 3 times. And in some cases, you can even get life. Bernard noble, one of weidenhafts clients, was sentenced to 13 years in jail last year after he was stopped with 2. 8 grams of pot about 3 marijuana cigarettes. When bernard was riding his bike the New Orleans Police Department saw him and they thought that he had swerved his bike onto the sidewalk to avoid them, almost hitting a car so they stopped bernard at that point and thats pretty much where bernards nightmare began. Noble was riding to a sweet shop. In the past he had been arrested for possessing small amounts of pot and cocaine. His most recent arrest was nine and a half years before. Is Bernard Noble a drug dealer . Bernard noble is not a drug dealer, no. Was Bernard Noble ever arrested for violent offenses . Bernard noble has never been accused of a crime of violence. The judge in nobles case assessed his character and the offense and sentenced him to 5 years in prison still serious time for 3 joints. But after the orleans District Attorney appealed three times, the Louisiana Supreme Court ordered noble to prison for thirteen years. Derwyn bunton is the chief public defender in new orleans. We in the south are part of the bible belt, very christian part of the country that has produced some very conservative values that play themselves out in our criminal justice system. There is also the history of slavery and racism in the south. Do you think the fact that District Attorneys and judges are elected plays a big role in the tough pot penalties here . I think thats played a big part in sentencing; it becomes easy to sort of make a political name prosecuting very vigorously drug offenses. He was just so concerned about his childrens wellbeing, you know im going to be 60 years old and gonna miss everything in their lives, everything. Latonya noble is bernards sister. This is the picture of the whole family. The impact of nobles imprisonment on his family has been devastating. When my daughter told me just the amount of years he got, i thought i would just die. Its been really hard. Whats it been like to have your father in jail . Time is precious, so i feel thats its not right. Because for a bag of weed, its just too long . I aint seen my daddy since i was 18. He wrote me last year for my 20th birthday. He has a son that has autism. When bernard left, his son was two years old. Hes now 5. So bernard was a breadwinner for a lot of people . He was the provider, the main provider in the household. So, with him gone, they lost their home, their independence, they lost everything. What do you think when you see they are selling pot legally in colorado but bernard is in jail for 13 years for 3 joints . I think just need to change the law, they have murderers; they have people who have killed people who have less time than bernard has for a nonviolent act. 13 years to keep a man away from his family for three joints . It just doesnt make sense. Noble and his family placed a great deal of hope in Marijuana Reform legislation considered in the Louisiana Legislature last year. It would have reduced the penalty for third time pot possession to 5 years. The bill passed the house, but was prevented from being voted on in the senate. Why didnt it pass . Who was opposing it at the time . Well, primarily it was local Law Enforcement and the sheriffs. George steimel, a lobbyist for the louisiana defense lawyers association, tried to get the Marijuana Reform legislation through. But the bill would have affected the hundreds of millions of dollars the sheriffs get from housing state inmates. The state pays the sheriffs a per diem for each of the state inmates. And a great deal of those state inmates are serving time in local jails for drug offenses so the sheriffs have an economic interest in having a steady flow of inmates . Thats correct. And they also want to keep as many people on the payroll because that boosts their political popularity. The sheriffs provide corrections jobs in the jails they run in their counties, known as parishes. They also have deals with private Prison Companies that house inmates. Are the jobs in parish jails a big part of the jobs that sheriffs provide . Yes. In the northern part of the state, in the rural parishes housing state inmates have become Economic Development tools. While we should be producing manufacturing jobs were producing jobs, low paying, lowskilled correctional workers jobs. Noble was sent to a parish jail run by the local sheriff in the rural northern part of the state. We were denied permission to interview Bernard Noble here at the Concordia Parish correctional center. Louisiana Law Enforcement officials had little interest in discussing the human costs of steep penalties for pot possession and the economic incentives that promote them. The District Attorney who sent noble to jail for 13 years declined our request for an interview. So did the executive director of the Louisiana Sheriffs Association which lobbied successfully against Marijuana Law reform late last year. Mass incarceration is a for profit business. People dont want to see those Revenue Streams go. The more people you arrest and criminalize the more youre going to need the Services Potentially of private entities, whether its telephone companies, health care or actual prisons themselves to deal with this kind of mass prison Industrial Complex. Do you think weve reached a Tipping Point in regard to pot legalization in the United States . Even though im optimistic about the end of the war on marijuana and i think thats the direction were going in, its going to be a hard road. Right now if you look at the states that are contemplating or have legalized theyre predominately on the west coast and in the northeast and frankly theyre overwhelmingly white states. I think if you look at states that either have large black communities, particularly in the deep south, or that have very segregated populations in the midwest, that those states are further behind. There arent very many people that are doing time in jail or in prison for user quantities of marijuana. That just, in our state that doesnt happen and in most places that doesnt happen. In louisiana someone whos caught with marijuana three times, with a joint three times, can go to jail for 20 years. Theres no justification for that is there . Well isnt that up to the people of louisiana . If legalization is up to the people of colorado then why cant the people of louisiana have it the other way if thats the way they want to have it . What were talking about here is people deciding what they want to do. Thats exactly what federal legislation introduced in washington dc by congressman Dana Rorhabacher would allow. The main purpose of the bill is just basically tell the federal Government Agencies not to interfere with state law. Rohrbacher served as a senior speechwriter for president ronald reagan. Its a sign of the times that he is now an advocate for cannabis legalization. I was very involved in trying to defeat communism, but now that communism has been defeated, i feel its time to get back to more of a classic american view of what government should and shouldnt do. And that classical view i believe our Founding Fathers were aimed at liberty. There is a downside to using marijuana and i discourage anybody from using it, but i dont want the federal government to be involved in making those decisions for the individual. Do you think that economic selfinterest plays a role in Law Enforcement opposition to pot legalization . Yeah, these people now they just like every other government bureaucracy become a selfserving bureaucracy. People understand the military Industrial Complex over there; i mean eisenhower warned us about that. Well we have the same thing with drug laws. What do you say to those who say the war on drugs was targeted on people of color and that theyve paid the highest price . I think that thought reflects a paranoid view of reality that doesnt exist. Reagan, and the other republicans i know, probably felt they were doing people in the ghetto and in the barrio trying to do them a favor by protecting their children from the drug dealers. Would you agree that the war on drugs failed . Yeah i think the war on drugs was like the war in iraq. It was something we should not have really gotten into. One of the unintended consequences of marijuana prohibition is the fact that we have undermined honest government in various parts of the third world, especially on our own border with mexico. We have created a flow of wealth and power into the hands of a criminal element. Its a chilling and draconian sentence. It simply cannot stand. Its disgraceful. The only crime they really committed is journalism. They are truth seekers. All they really wanna do is find out whats happening, so they can tell people. Governments around the world all united to condemn this. As you can see, its still a very much volatile situation. The government is prepared to carry out mass array. If you want free press in the new democracy, let the journalists live. Since 2006 in mexico, the war against drug traffickers, and their fight to control territory, has resulted in more than 60,000 deaths and 20,000 disappearances. In mexico and other latin american countries, the legalization of marijuana is seen by many as the only way to combat the Cartel Violence that has traumatized families. These protestors were calling on the government to investigate what happened to their loved ones. And for the legalization of drugs. This mans son, a cafe owner, was killed because he refused to sell drugs for a mexican trafficker. A bill to legalize the production and sale of marijuana has been introduced in the mexican congress. But so far the proposed legislation has garnered little support. Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto is opposed. Roberto campa, deputy minister of the interior, is in charge of the pena nieto administrations violence prevention program. In mexico, small amounts of drugs for personal use are allowed, but sales are illegal. Many people ive spoken to say that the only way to combat the violence of the drug cartels here in mexico is to legalize drugs, to end prohibition. You dont think that eliminating the market for drugs would eliminate a lot of their earnings that it would strip them of a tremendous economic power . Mexicos gotten hundreds of millions of dollars to fight the drug war from the United States, there are strong ties between intelligence agencies, drug fighting agencies in the United States and mexico. Does that make it difficult for mexico to go its own way on drug policy . Its very insignificant, drug consumption in mexico, and yet we have this war. Why . Because its to the convenience of United States. They want always war outside of the territory. Vicente fox is a businessman who was the president of mexico from 2000 to 2006. So mexico is in this trap. We have paid with many lives, blood. So this has to change. What impact do you think legalization in colorado and Washington State are having in mexico and in latin america . For the moment its just cultural, and informative, but californias key to me. Theres no way that mexico will have the alternative of refraining to this course and to approve the same that california approves. Otherwise imagine tijuana, by the side of san diego california. If san diego has approved and tijuana has not, it will be a thoroughly conflictive situation. Do you think that a Tipping Point in terms of the legalization of marijuana has occurred, both in the United States and in latin america . Nobody can stop this. This is on its way. It will happen so we better adopt our minds to the new paradigm do you think Marijuana Legalization will cut into the economic profits of the cartels. I mean marijuana is only. 40 of the income on drugs. 40 . So its not small. If its 50 billion, 20 billion come from marijuana. Imagine taking that money away from cartels. You will weaken the capacities. Theyre not going to be able to buy the weapons that they buy in the United States and bring them to mexico to kill kids on the street. They are not going to be able to bribe institutions and police corps and even army in mexico. So, everything will change. Saturday on tech know. A brutal killing. A thorough investigation. Were pushing the envelope. But this is no ordinary c. S. I. What went on right before that animal died . Hunting the hunter. Were gonna take down the bad guys. Solving the crime. We can save species. Tech knows team of experts show you how the miracles of science. This is my selfie, what can you tell me about my future . Can affect and surprise us. Dont try this at home. Tech know, where Technology Meets humanity. Saturday at 7 30 eastern. Only on Al Jazeera America. We set out to the mountainous region of sinoloa state to assess the impact on the underground drug market of cannabis legalization in the u. S. Home of the sinoloa cartel, the area is one of the main marijuana producing regions in mexico. Sinaloa farmers grow a highquality strain of pot known as chronic. The farmers sell the marijuana to the highest bidder for transport to the u. S. How much is it worth . The percentage of drug cartel profits that come from marijuana sales are a matter of debate. But the cannabis now being raised legally in the u. S. Is already having an effect on profits from pot. What impact has the spread of medical marijuana had on the price down here in mexico . If they legalize marihuana in the United States, do you think is going to impact your life a lot down here . Do you think that the legalization of drugs will combat violence here in mexico . To say that youre going to eliminate the black market, youre going to eliminate criminal activity by legalizing it, i dont think thats true. Violence diminished dramatically when alcohol prohibition ended. I think a lot of things have changed since prohibition. Criminal activity has gotten to be a lot more sophisticated. Theres a lot of money to be made off marijuana, theyre making a lot of money off methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin and the other drugs too. Wouldnt it weaken them like it weakened al capone during prohibition . I dont know how to answer that question really, bob. I think itd put them out of business and thats the purpose of it. Its to reduce the crime and violence and stop the killing. People are dying in this drug trade in central and south america in staggering numbers, compared to the United States. In uruguay, combatting drug Cartel Violence was a major aim of a cannabis Legalization Campaign last year. The campaign was mounted in support of legalization legislation pushed by uruguays president jose mujica. Last december, uruguay became the first country in the world to legalize the production and sale of recreational marijuana. The cannabis legalization effort was spearheaded by mujicas president ial secretary, diego canepa. In denver last year, canepa and other latin american officials participated in the drug policy alliances meeting of legalization advocates we are working very hard to move from vienna to new york to start the discussions. Its very important for us. Latin american leaders have convinced the un to hold a special 2016 session on drugs and the drug war. The war on drugs that started with nixons speech in 1971 has not given us a good result in the region. We totally agree, all of us. Different government, from the right to the left to the center. What role do you think uruguay can play and is playing in the rethinking of the war on drugs . The better way that we can help people in the world is that you show our policy is better for the population. So, you can discuss and say, uruguay choose to change the policy, choose to have a radical movement and now we have a better result, why we not dont it . In the us, this is very much a grass roots movement, pardon the pun. Conversely, in latin america, barely a third of the public actually supports legalizing marijuana, but you have elected officials, president s, providing real leadership. Do you think Marijuana Legalization is the beginning of the end of the drug war . Yes. I think Marijuana Legalization is the beginning of the end, but its not like bringing down the berlin wall. That wall crumbled awfully fast when it finally came down. So, theres a long way to go but, theres a powerful argument, which says that the war on marijuana subsidizes the rest of the war on drugs. If marijuanas taken out of the picture, a lot of the cops barely have anything to do anymore . As Police Officers we dont make the law we enforce the law. If they change the law we are stuck with what the law is. What do you think would be the most persuasive thing to happen to prevent legalization . If things go badly in colorado and Washington State . I think were going to see some of that, yes. I think eventually were going to get to a point far enough down the road where people are going to understand what the real dangers and the damage is. Do you expect to see pot being sold on bourbon street during your lifetime . I dont expect to see it in louisiana anytime soon. It may never happen without the federal government getting involved and saying hey marijuana is off the list. I think if that happens then you create a sort of a catalyst effect, not just for louisiana but everywhere else. If it was a secret ballot the legalizing marijuana would pass with a very Strong Majority here. But people are afraid that their position will be misrepresented in Advertising Campaign against them in their very next election. Do you expect to see 25 states legalize pot in your lifetime . Yes. Do you think that the legalization of marijuana is the beginning of the end of the drug war . I think it a waste of resources to take the police, our courts, our jails and put people in them whose only crime is trying to smoke some weed that you can grow in your backyard or trying to sell someone something for them to smoke. Were going broke. I think weve reached a point where there can be a reevaluation as to what the benefits are of channeling resources of our federal government into marijuana or the war on drugs. Weekday mornings on Al Jazeera America we do have breaking news this morning. Start your day with in depth coverage from around the world. First hand reporting from across the country and real news keeping you up to date. The big stories of the day, from around the world. These people need help, this is were the worst of the attack took place. And throughout the morning, get a global perspective on the news. The life of doha. This is the International News hour. 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