Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20150204

It is now 100 years since drugs were first banned in the United States, and i went on a journey to figure out why they were banned in the first place what caused this addiction and what are the alternatives, and what i discovered is almost everything we need we think we know about the subject is wrong. Johann hari on the first and last days of the war on drugs from the governments targeting of Billie Holiday to new efforts to decriminalize all drugs. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Islamic State has released a video showing a captured jordanian Fighter Pilot being burned alive inside a cage. First lieutenant moa alkasasbeh was captured in december when his f16 crashed in Northern Syria during an airstrike as part of the u. S. Led campaign against the Islamic State. Speaking before the video was confirmed, obama said it would only increase u. S. Efforts against the Islamic State. I do not know the details of the confirmation, but should this video in fact be authentic it is one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization, and it, i think, will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of a Global Coalition to make sure that they are degraded, and ultimately defeated. Jordan had hoped to free the pilot by exchanging a female prisoner held for an attempted suicide bombing. Early this morning, jordan executed sajida alrishawi along with another prisoner. Jordanian Government Spokesperson Mohammad Almomani has vowed revenge on isis. Has vowed to wage a firm response. Whoever doubted that jordans response will be firm, tough and strong, we will show them the proof and we will show them the anger of jordanians will shank their ranks. The martyred palette does not belong to a specific tribe but pilot is not does not belong to the specific tribe but he is the son of all jordanians. A call has been issued for the shopping of limbs of Islamic State terrorists. Meanwhile the united arab emirates, a key ally in the u. S. Led fight against isis, has suspended its role in the airstrikes over concerns about pilots safety. Unnamed officials told the New York Times the country has stopped them in december. An imprisoned former al qaeda operative has issued new allegations about ties between the group and the royal family of saudi arabia. Zacarias moussaoui volunteered to testify as part of a lawsuit filed against saudi arabia by relatives of those killed in the attacks of september 11. His testimony, gathered inside a u. S. Prison where he is serving a life sentence on terrorism charges, was submitted as part of a legal brief tuesday. Moussaoui said in the late 1990s he had created a database of al qaeda donors which included thensaudi intelligence chief prince turki alfaisal, prince bandar bin sultan, longtime ambassador to the United States; and billionaire investor prince alwaleed bin talal. He also described meeting with an official who worked for the Saudi Embassy in washington, to discuss a possible plan to shoot down air force one. The revelations come just days after president obama wrapped up a short visit to saudi arabia, where he welcomed the new king salman. A u. S. Drone strike in somalia targeted a top leader of the militant Group Al Shabab on saturday. The pentagon did not confirm the attack until tuesday, and has not said whether it killed the target, yusef dheeq. Unnamed officials have said dheeq and at least one other leader were killed. In eastern ukraine, at least four people have been killed amidst heavy shadow amidst heavy shelling that damaged a hospital and a school. More than 200 people have been killed in the past three weeks alone. In argentina a draft request for , the arrest of argentine president Cristina Fernandez de kirchener has been found at the home of a late prosecutor who was investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish Center that killed 85 people. Prosecutor Alberto Nisman had accused fernandez of helping to cover up irans role in the bombing in a bid for oil. He was found dead of a gunshot wound the day before he was due to testify before congress on his findings. The arrest bid for fernandez and her foreign minister was found in his trash. So far, two judges have refused to take up nismans findings and the prosecutor investigating his death has announced she will take a twoweek vacation. Pope francis has declared salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero died as a martyr to the catholic faith, a step that paves the way for romeros beatification and possible sainthood. Known as the voice of the voiceless, Archbishop Romero was a prominent advocate for the poor and a leading critic of the u. S. Backed salvadoran military government. He was killed 35 years ago, on march 24, 1980, by members of a u. S. Backed death squad while he delivered mass at a hospital chapel. His assassination was ordered by salvadoran military officer roberto daubuisson, a graduate of the u. S. Run school of the americas. In the 1989 film romero, actor raul julia reenacts a dramatic moment in romeros life, one day before his assassination, when he called on the Salvadoran Army to heed the words of god, thou shalt not kill. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of god. In his name, and in the name of our tormented people that have suffered so much, and whose laments cry out to heaven, i implore you, i beg you, i order you, stop the repression. Actor raul julia in the film romero reenacting the speech delivered by Archbishop Oscar Romero a day before he was assassinated. Romeros supporters have long called for him to be placed on the path to sainthood, but rightwing Church Leaders who opposed his ties to liberation theology, a religious movement opposed to economic and political injustice. In the United States cia , whistleblower John Kiriakou has been released from prison. Kiriakou exposed the bushera cia torture program and became the only official jailed over it. In january, 2013, he was sentenced to two and a half years after pleading guilty to confirming the identity of a covert officer to a reporter who didnt publish it. His supporters say he was unfairly targeted as part of the Obama Administrations crackdown on whistleblowers. In 2007, he had become the first cia official to publicly confirm the bush administrations use of waterboarding. A twitter post tuesday shows kiak smingith s dr, wi t mn th king jr. Quote free at last free at least, thank god almighty, im free at last. He remains under house arrest for three months. The Obama Administration has announced a series of minor surveillance reforms that will leave its bulk spying operations in place. The reports limit retention o data on foreigners and limiting the use of intercepted data to data. Critics point out obama could and it himself. The Environmental Protection agency has warned the Keystone Xl Oil pipeline would fuel Climate Change by increasing Oil Production in the canadian tar sands. An earlier state Department Analysis found the pipeline would not have an impact because the oil would be moved through other means. But the epa concludes the recent drop in oil prices means much of the oil in the tar sands would remain in the ground if the and it estimates the pipeline could increase Greenhouse Gas emissions by nearly the equivalent of eight new coalfired power plants. Obama has said Climate Change will play a key role in his final decision on whether to approve the pipeline. Congress has approved a bill to address suicides among military veterans. An estimated 22 veterans kill themselves each day. The measure would impose independent reviews of v. A. Suicide prevention programs, launch a peersupport program, and gives incentives to psychiatrists who work for the v. A. Obama is expected to sign the bill, which passed both houses unanimously. A new York City Police officer has been indicted for assault after he was caught on video stomping on the head of an unarmed African American who was pinned to the ground and pleading for help. The attack took place in brooklyn july 23, less than a week after the Police Chokehold death of eric garner in staten island. Garner was also pinned to the ground while pleading, i cant breathe. A grand jury declined to indict a white police officer, daniel pantaleo, for garners death. But on tuesday, officer joel edouard, who is black, was arraigned on charges that could carry up to a year in jail. Cell phone video shows edouard and another officer pinning Jahmiel Cuffee to the ground while he pleads help me. Stop. Officer cuffee briefly removes his gun before replacing it in the holster. He then walks away and returns to cuffee before stomping on his head. Cuffee was charged with resisting arrest. Police accused him of drinking on the sidewalk and trying to throw away a joint. His case was later dismissed. The announcement came just days dismissed. Alabama is poised to become the 37th state to allow samesex marriage. A federal Appeals Court tuesday rejected the states request to stay a Lower Court Ruling that struck down its samesex marriage ban. The ban will remain in effect until monday as the state appeals to the supreme court. And the pulitzer prizewinning author harper lee will publish a new novel this summer. Lee, who is 88, says she wrote a novel in the mid1950s called go set a watchman, which focuses on an adult woman named scout, but her editor persuaded her to focus on a younger scout, and that novel became the classic, to kill a mockingbird. Lee says she thought the old manuscript was lost until her lawyer discovered it. Both novels are set in the fictional town of maycomb, based on lees hometown of monroeville, alabama. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. And i am juan gonzalez. Welcome to our listeners around the world. President obama has unveiled a 4 trillion Budget Proposal for next year that calls for raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations in order to help Fund Education and fix crumbling infrastructure. The plan includes tax cuts for some poor and middleclass families. It also seeks to recoup losses from corporations that stash an estimated 2 trillion overseas by taxing such earnings at 14 percent, still less than half of the 35 percent rate for profits made in the United States. Obama announced his plan tuesday. The budget i have sent to Congress Today is fully paid for through a combination of smart spending cuts and tax reforms. Let me give you an example right now are tax code is full of loopholes for special interests like the trust Fund Loophole that allows the wealthiest americans to avoid paying taxes on unarmed unearned income. I think we should fix that and use the savings to cut taxes for middleclass families. That would be good for the economy. Obamas proposed budget also takes aim at the high cost of prescription drugs, proposes a new agency to regulate food safety, and seeks 1 billion to curb immigration from central america. It also calls for a 4. 5 percent increase in military spending, including a 534 billion base budget for the pentagon, plus 51 billion to fund u. S. Involvement in syria, iraq and afghanistan. Speaking at the department of homeland security, obama said acrosstheboard cuts known as sequestration would hurt the military. Just last week, top military officials told congress that if congress does nothing to stop sequestration, there could be serious consequences for our National Security, at a time when our military is stretched on a whole range of issues. That is why i want to work with congress to replace mindless austerity with Smart Investments that strengthen america, and we can do so in a way that is fiscally responsible. Well for more, were joined from washington, d. C. , by dean baker, economist, codirector of the center for economic and policy research and author of getting back to full employment a Better Bargain for working people. first, your overall assessment of the budget president obama has presented. Overall, im saying it is the best he has presented since he has been in office, ignoring the stimulus, which had good things in there. He has increased spending, trying to increase spending on infrastructure that we think of for the future, but will also help low and middle income people. He has tax increases for the wealthy. He is raising the tax rate on Capital Gains and dividends to 28 . Currently it is about 22 . It has been as low as 15 . That is a big tax increase. These are middle income people do not have a lot of Capital Gains or dividend income, so that is a big deal. He has increased Corporate Tax proposing you would one time tax 14 on the foreign earnings of u. S. Corporations stashed overseas, and then 19 thereafter. That is not ideal, there are other ways to structure that, but it is a lot more than people have been talking about. That is a positive. The negative is we are still on austerity cap. He said this is he is against mindless austerity. That is good. This is more thoughtful austerity. I say that cryptically. One reason we have not the government has refused to spend more following a severe recession. Every other recession we have done that. Instead of spending more, we are spending less, and we are still well below full employment, well below the economys potential. We are throwing 720 billion in goods and services we could be producing into the garbage. So, that does not really change. In terms of the spending the investment portion of the budget, Discretionary Spending that is not going down as fast as it would absent the increase president obama has proposed, but we are still looking at spending less relative to the size of the economy than we did at any point in the 1990s, the 1980s, 19 70s i do not know how far you would have to go back to find us spending less. The baseline was very low. On the whole, a very mixed story. Dean, i wanted to ask you about the military part of the budget. We are talking about 51 billion for ongoing activities in iraq, syria, afghanistan, even though the United States is supposedly withdrawing troops and ending those wars we are still talking about spending 1 billion a week, essentially next year . Well, i do not know when we will see an end to those wars, but if i had my choice it would have been a long time ago and we would not have been there to begin with, but nobody asked me. At the peak, we were spending 180 billion 100 90 billion a year, so we are spending less, but 50 billion is not an insignificant chunk of change. The point is is this a good use of resources, are we doing something positive that is much more important. How does sequestration fit into this . I wanted to turn to president obama speaking about his Budget Proposal, addressing the issue of sequestration, and claiming republican lawmakers are playing politics with the issue of funding homeland security. Im not going to accept a budget that locks in sequestration going forward. It would be bad for security and growth. I will not accept a budget that severs the vital link between National Security and economic security. Someone capital hill would say we would be willing to increase defense spending, but were not going to increase investments in infrastructure, for example, or basic research. Well those two things go handinhand. If we do not have a vital infrastructure, if we do not have wrong band lines across the country, it broadband lines across the country, a smart read, all of that makes us more vulnerable. America cannot afford being shortsighted, and im not going to allow it. That is president obama on sequestration. Dean baker, how has sequestration affected the country . It was a phasing thine phasing down of spending. We are in a situation, in my mind a perverse one, we have people running around washington saying we want to get the budget deficit down, and there are patting themselves on the back after reducing the budget so much, but what we need is demand in the economy, so you are patting yourself on the back for pulling money out of the economy, reducing growth, reducing employment. I am not happy about that. In washington, the debates here, getting the deficit down is a goal in itself, so it does not matter how many people you throw out of work. Sequestration is a big part of that story. It has both military budget and domestic discretionary on his downward path over the next decade, and that certainly slowed demand, Economic Growth and meant fewer jobs. President obama is proposing move away from that, and proposing ok, i want to spend more on the military side and also the domestic discretionary side. Whether that is political i cannot speak to his motives will presumably, that makes it easier for republicans to accept that he is giving ground on the military side, and not just asking for spending on the domestic side. What he will end up with coming out of congress, who knows, but i have to say, realistically, it is hard to imagine he could of got more discretionary without making concessions on the military side. Dean, i would like to get back to this issue of the tax holiday for overseas corporations. There are 2 trillion at microsoft, general electric, and all of these other companies have been parking overseas for years because it are not want to pay the u. S. 35 Corporate Tax but now president obama is saying we will let you bring that back for 14 , and that is higher than the last tax holiday, when it was five percent, but you know, and a lot of people in washington no that is his opening number, and the republicans will probably whittle that down further, and that is probably the only aspect of his proposal, other than reducing the Corporate Tax, that the republicans are actually going to pay much attention to. So, my concern is some people have said his proposal, especially the 19 present ongoing on those foreign profits, will actually set a minimum Corporate Tax, and more corporations in the u. S. Will shift as much as they can outside of the country, and then claim this 90 tax, and that will become the 19 tax and that will become the floor for corporations. I am actually not too upset about the proposal. There is this idea of a unitary tax a number of states have this they tax copies based on worldwide earnings and they say if 10 of your sales are in the state of california, we will say 10 of your profits are. You could do that. Absent that, it is not too bad. You are right, 14 is a starting offer. In 2005, president bush had amnesty at just 5 , so we are better off at 14 . Where does that end up . If it ends up close to 5 , that is a bad idea. If it goes to 13 , 12 , it is not too bad. Realistically, we are not getting it now, so i would rather see us getting 12 , then sit around and hope for the messiah. In terms of the 19 rate going forward, it is actually higher than that because they only give and 80 5 exemption on foreign taxes paid. It ends up being around 21 percent, 22 . Almost no companies actually pay 35 , the marginal tax rate. The tax rate varies year to year, and it is about 21 . I am not worried about companies in mass trying to arrange or shuffle their profits overseas. They have been doing that. As it stands now, you could differ them to eternity, or hope someone like president bush gives you a 5 tax holiday. This makes it less desirable than it is today. If we got the 19 rate, i do not think republicans would jump and grab that, but if they embrace that, you would see less of the tax shifting we have seen over the last 15 or 20 years, so i consider that overwhelmingly a positive story. During his state of the union address, president obama called for taxing the rich. Lets close the loopholes by allowing the top 1 to avoid pain taxes energyrelated wealth. We could use that money to help families pay for health care and send kids to college. We need a tax code that truly helps working americans trying to get a leg up in the new economy, and we can achieve that together. Talk about this thrust of president obama, and how it expresses itself in the economy and how different is this then president s past . Talk a few things the raise in dividends is a big increase for wealthy people. You think of bill gates, Warren Buffett that is where most of the income is coming from. They have dividend payouts. As it stands, they are paying less lower tax rate that middle income people paying 25 , 28 . This is a step in the right direction. The New York Times had a piece, spreading the wealth around socialism or whatever, i would like to point out 28 is the rate Ronald Reagan signed. It is hardly an exorbitant rate. I like to see him go in that direction. A few other things as it stands now, if someone dies they pass on their estate to their heirs and there is something called the step up aces for Capital Gains. Lets say the person had made 100 million on owning microsoft stock or whatever it might he they pass it on to their children, the children never pay tax on the capital gain. If they sell it the next day they do not pay any taxes. If they wait a few years and it is worth 120 million, they just pay on the 20 million. One of the things he proposed is it would be taxed at the rate it is passed on, so that would be a big hit to a lot of wealthy people and to my mind, totally justified. There are a few other on cnns its and ends one governor romney was running, he had an ira, and he proposed limiting that. This is supposed to be a middle income savings people, not something for the richest in the country to shield their income. There are a few other things of that nature. Individually, they do not amount to much, collectively they are not urge huge, but it is frankly obscene. The rest of us are paying taxes mitt romney as 100 million in a taxsheltered ira hard to justify that. These are right indefinitely in the right direction and i was glad to see president obama proposed them. What about the issue of Social Security . Republicans are always talking about the need for the government to rein in future budget cost, or what they call the entitlement programs to kill how does the budget deal with that programs how does the budget deal with that . His proposal would reduce the cost of living benefit over 10 years, three percent, 20 years 6 . If someone has been collecting Social Security for 30 years they are looking at 9 less benefit, which is a big deal for a lot of people. That would have been a big deal. That is not there. That is a good story. He has proposals on medicare that are a mixed bag. He is proposing some reductions in payments to Drug Companies reductions in payments. A subsidy for Insurance Companies that has no rationale. He is proposing increased cost sharing for high income beneficiaries people that are 50,000, 60,000 a year not people we talk about is wealthy. That is not a good story. One thing people should realize, and this is a change whether president obama deserves credit for it, one could quibble about that, but we have seen much lower growth in Health Care Cost over the last five or six years, and you now see that included in the projections. For what that is worth, that makes the story look, 10, 20 years out, much more manageable. Before, we stand these people running around all my god the deficit is exploding, we will have these huge burdens but as it stands now if you look out a decade, two decades they are projecting deficits but they are manageable deficits. The story of baby boomers people like me retiring and bankrupting the government, it does not make sense, not that it ever made sense, but there is no story there. We could be happy about that, that whatever problems we face, they are manageable. I wanted to ask about infrastructure, and also Climate Change you had this hernandez accident in westchester, seven people dead. A trained hate a car. It goes to a bigger issue. They a train hit a car. It goes to a bigger issue. The National Infrastructure was given an overall grade of the d and Climate Change is affecting if a structure across the country. Your comment. President obama has proposed additional spending, but these are baby steps. Maybe he could not get more through congress. We know he will not get the proposal through congress in any case, so why not think big, put more on the table . We are on a path of declining infrastructure spending. His proposals make the decline less rapid, but it is going the wrong way. We should be looking to spend more for creating jobs today and also because it is needed we need to upgrade infrastructure, and instead were letting it deteriorate. In terms of Climate Change, we have tremendous need for retrofitting buildings developing a more energyefficient infrastructure, mass transit, on down the list because we should be treating Climate Change with urgency. Again, the Republican Congress does not want that, but it would be more helpful if president obama put big things on the table. There is money all caps. It is an order of money out there. It is an order of magnitude too small to address the problem. I wanted to ask about another country where leaders are trying to push back against austerity greece has open negotiations on its bailout package with european partners, saying it refuses to cooperate with lenders. This is the finance minister. Our government will proceed seeking with utmost cooperation with the legal institutions of the eurozone and the International Monetary fund, but with the troika, whose aim is what we consider antieuropean we do not aim to work with. Dean baker, youve written that greece needs an exit option. Could you explain . Briefly, greece has had austerity imposed on it over the past five years, and the economy has suffered her bundesliga the drop, has suffered horrendously. The drop we were down 26 and bounced back 10 tunics cheer. Seven two year. Greece is still 23 below where it was in 2007. The Unemployment Rate is 25 . Youth unemployment, over 50 . Massive cutbacks in government service. It has been hell for the greek people. Germany has been behind us saying you have to stay with the program. The greek government is being very smart saying you have to move away from this, you have to give us room to grow. They are trying to press the case with germany being the main party on the other side. They are hoping to get allies amongst spain, italy, france they are trying to push that line. What i was arguing is they also have to be prepared, and i understand they might not want to say this, but they have to be prepared to say we will leave the euro. If they left, they would be massive destruction financial panic, but the good side of the story is the European Union has already wreaked so much havoc on greeces economy, it does not have far to go down, and if they go that route, they would rebound fairly quickly. A model being argentina. They broke their link to the dollar, defaulted on the debt by december, 2001. By 2002, they were growing rapidly, and by 2003 they made up all of the lost ground and then some. I do not know if greece would rebound that quickly, but it is important for something to hold down. Greece were to hold out. If greece were to do that and rebound, there would be pressure on spain, italy, other countries to leave the euro. I think it is important there would be pressure on germany that they understand it is not working for greece, spain, europe. Flex you were quoted in you were quoted in a piece about croatia which has canceled debt for its poorest residents. Can you explain . I do not know a lot about that. They have proposed the cancellation of debt for the poorest residents, and that sounds good, but you have to see how that is being done. If people expect no one will lend the money, at the end of the day that is probably not a good policy. I do not know the details but if we just say canceled debt for poor people, they will not be able to borrow again. It says there debts are absorbed by creditors and the move comes as more than three and a thousand croatian citizens saw their blank Bank Accounts blocked last summer due to debt. Again, that will help them today, but the people will probably want to borrow in the future, and if there is concern on the part of creditors that the government will do this again, they will not lend the money. I do not know the specifics. I was arguing for a debt maturing them moratorium in the collapse of the housing bubble because that is a unique event. Maybe there is a similar thing in croatia. Dean baker, thank you for being with us. Economist, author of getting back to full employment, a Better Bargain for working people. When we come back, johann hari joins us on chasing the screen the first and last days of the war on drugs. [music break] i need a dollar. Aloe blacc here on this is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. One part of president obamas new budget that has received little attention is the war on drugs. The white house is seeking 27. 6 billion for federal drug control programs, nearly 1 billion more than last year. More than half the money will be allocated for Drug Law Enforcement by the pentagon, homeland security, and department of justice and the drug czars office. Hundreds of millions of dollars have also been requested to be spent fighting the war on drugs in colombia, mexico, and central america. The budget also includes a line item that would clear the path for allowing legal sales of marijuana in washington, d. C. Well, today we spend the rest of the hour looking at the u. S. Drug war with british journalist johann hari, author of the new book chasing the scream the first and last days of the war of drugs. The book begins a century ago with the passage of the harrison narcotics tax act, the law that launched the modernday drug war, not only in the United States, but around the world. The book also details the latest Science Behind addiction. Hari recently wrote a piece for Huffington Post titled the likely cause of addiction has been discovered, and it is not what you think. Welcome. What is it then . If you had asked me when i started on the journey what causes heroin addiction, i would have looked at you like you are simpleminded and said heroine causes heroine addiction. We have been told a story that we take it for granted if we all took heroine for 20 days, by day 21, because there are comical hooks, our bodies would physically need the heroine chemical hooks our bodies would physically need heroine. One of my earliest memories is trying to wake up one of my relatives and not being able to. If one of the steps out today and we get hit by a car and break our hip, we would be speaking to taken to hospital and there is a good chance we will be given dire morphing. It is much better heroine than you would score on the streets. You would be given it for quite a long period of time. All over the developed world people are given lots of heroin, but you will notice something odd your grandmother was not turned into a junkie. Before we thought about addiction was right, those people should be addicts. They are not. I met an incredible man named bruce alexander, and he explained the theory of addiction comes from experience experience done in the 1920s. You can do them at home if you are feeling sadistic. Put a rat in a cage with two water bottles. One is water, and the other is laced with heroin or cocaine. If you do that, the rat will almost always preferred the drug water and almost always kill itself. Bruce came along and said lets do this differently. He built rat park. They have cheese food they like, lots of balls, friends, they could have sex anything they want. Here is the fascinating thing they tried both water bottles, but they do not like the drug water. They use very little of it, they never overdose, and never use it in a way that looks like addiction or compulsion. There are lots of examples, but this shows the rightwing theory and left wing theories are wrong. The right wing theory is you are a hedonist you indulge too far. The left wing theory is your brain gets hijacked and you are taken over. Bruce says it is not your brain. Addiction is an adaptation to your environment, and there are massive implications. There are human examples going on at the same time as the rat park experiment. The vietnam war 20 were using heroin, and there was a real panic because they believe the old theory of addiction they believe they would come home and you would certainly have enormous numbers of addicts on the streets. What happened . The evidence is the vast majority, home and stop, because if you are taken out of a hellish jungle where you do not want to be and you could be killed at any moment, and you go back to a nice life in wichita kansas, with friends, and family, it is the same as being taken from the first page to the second cage. The war on drugs is built on the idea that chemicals cause addiction, and when he to eradicate the chemicals from the United States. I do not think that is physically possible. We cannot even keep them out of prison. If the chemicals are not the primary driver of the addiction if, in fact, huge numbers the vast majority do not become addicted, if the driver is isolation, pain, and distress, a policy based on a plummeting more pain and distress is a bad idea. I went out with a female chain gang forced to wear tshirts saying i was a drug addict, and they were made to date grades and collect trash. The idea that more suffering or make them that are is crazy. We have created a society where number of fellow citizens cannot bear to be present in their lives and have to medicate themselves to get through the day. A hyper capitalist, hyper individualist Society Makes people feel like the rats in the first cage there is nothing as bruce explains, in Human Evolution that prepares us for being as isolated as the ideal citizen of a hyper capitalist, hyper individualist country like yours and mine. In your book, you delve into the origins of the modern drug war, and come up with surprising information, that initially, it was targeting key figures africanamerican figures in the musical world. Can you talk about that . Not far from where we are Billie Holiday stands and sings strange fruit. You have to understand how shocking this was she was not allowed to walk through the front door of the hotel. To have an africanamerican woman standing up, and most pop songs were twee, singing in front of the white audience whats shocking. She was told by the federal bureau of narcotics to stop singing this song, and it was run by a man named Harry Anslinger. I think he was the most influential person no one ever heard of. He has a huge bureaucracy, and he is driven by two passions and intense hatred of africanamericans. He was regarded as a crazy racist among the crazy racist in the 1920s. Billie holiday was a symbol of everything that was going wrong in america. He gives her an order, and she basically says i will say what i want, growing up in segregated baltimore, she promised herself she would never bow her head to any white man, and that is when Harry Anslinger begins the process of stalking her, and, i think, plays a role in her death. The first agent that stocks are is jimmy and Harry Anslinger hated employing africanamericans, but you could not send a white guy into harlem so jimmy was sent to follow her, and he fell in love with her. He felt ashamed about his role. When she gets out of jail, she could not get a job. They would not give her the license. Her friend said it was the coolest thing you could do to a person take away the thing they love. She sinks into addiction. She collapses in new york city, and she is convinced the narcotics agents are not finished, and she says to one of her friends they will kill me in there, and she was right. In a hospital bed she was diagnosed with liver cancer. I spoke to the only surviving person in the room. She is handcuffed to the bed. They take away her record player, her candy, they do not let friends see her. One of her friends convinces the doctor to give her methadone. She starts to recover, 10 days later they cut it off, she dies. There are a lot of things in the dynamic that tell us about the drug war it was founded in a race panic. The same time Harry Anslinger Billie Holiday finds out Billie Holiday is a heroin user, he finds out judy garland is a heroin user, and he tells her to take a vacation. What amazed me about Billie Holiday, she never stop singing the song. She sang the song the matter how much they try to intimidate her and that is inspiring, not just for resisting the racism in the drug war, but realizing addicts can be heroes. All over the world you are listening to Billie Holiday and feeling stronger. It is an incredible achievement. The people that i met from a drug dealer in brownsville brooklyn, to a scientist feeding hallucinogens to monkeys, there is resistance all over this world. We have to break, but we will come back to the discussion. His book is called chasing the scream the first and last days of the war on drugs. [music break] strange fruit Billie Holiday. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. With juan gonzalez, our guest is johann hari on his new book chasing the scream the first and last days of the war on drugs. Your travels around the world you found places that have chosen another way. Can you talk about portugal, what has happened in terms of drug addiction, and also vancouver. I was inspired they abandon the war model and try the alternative. In portugal, they had one of the biggest drug problems in europe 1 of the population was addicted to heroin. Every year they tried harder, the american way, and every year it got worse. One year they said lets have a panel of doctors figure out what would solve this problem, lets agree in advance we will do what they tell us to do, taking out politics. The panel goes away for a year and a half and they come back and say the criminalize everything cannabis to crack but this is the crucial thing transfer all of the money we currently spend on arresting drug users into incredibly good drug treatment. Parlay that his rehab, psychological support, that kind of thing but much more of the stuff learned in the rat park. All of us could be drunk, but we are not because we have a job we love, something we do, a purpose in life. The goal is every addict needs to be given a person in life subsidize jobs. If he used to be a mechanic, your life fell apart, they go to a garage say employ this guy for a year, we will pay half of the wages. It is getting reconnected. It has been nearly 15 years, and the results are in, and they are incredible. Injecting drug use is down by 50 . Every study shows addiction is down, overdosing is down, and the leader of the opposition to the decomposition said, i am paraphrasing, everything i said what happened did not happen and everything the other guy said would happen did her, he talks about how ashamed he was did. He talks about how ashamed he was. In vancouver, there was a homeless addict on the street in the era of the worth worst addiction. He was watching friends die around him. People would use of flash behind dumpsters. He said i cannot watch these people die, but said i am a street addict, what can i do he had an idea what he said will patrol the alleyways, monitor each other, and call an ambulance. In 2011, at a law form in vancouver fueled by grief and rage, combustion flashing up through my nervous system and in my head like an explosion because of another, because of too many because of unnecessary overdosed death repetitively in my head, no more, no more, no more, of this heartbreaking family shattering, Community Dimension diminishing pain of overdose death. That was blood osborne. Bud osborne. What he achieved his people started to learn to do things differently. In frankfurt, they had safe injecting rooms of people could use legally. Bud and his friends decided to stalk the mayor of vancouver, a guy that said addicts should be put in an army base somewhere. They followed him everywhere he went with a coffin and it said who will die next before you open a safe injecting room . One day he said who are these people, and he spends time, opens his heart, and says i had no idea it was like this. He holds a press conference, they have the chief of police, a corner, and an addict, and says we will never talk about addiction without an addict here. The openness injecting room. He is deselected by his own rightwing party. He is replaced by a candidate that continues it from the liberal party, and it has been 10 years now, and the results are in, overdose is down by 80 . Average Life Expectancy in the neighborhood is up by 10 years. Those are only figures you get one a war ends. I spoke to philip, and he says it was the proudest thing he ever did and he would sacrifice his career. But bud died last year. When he died, they had this amazing memorial service, there were huge number of people in the crowd that knew they were alive because of what he had done, and i would say 21 watching, it is easy to feel daunted by the political challenges, the drug war, or you are more powerful than you know. He was a homeless street addict, and started a movement that has transformed vancouver, canada and saved thousands of peoples lives. If he can do it, we can do it. This war has been going for 100 years. Why chasing the scream . The guy we were talking about, Harry Anslinger, when he was 10 years old, he lives in a farmhouse, next to a farmer who was an addict, and he wakes up and she was screaming, the farmer said go and buy some heri on. The always remember that screams, and he was convinced he was taking on the big war and he could eradicate the drugs. The tragic irony is he created a lot of screens. Finally, can you talk about the president of paraguay . Uruguay . Its one of the most fascinating people i have spoken to. He lives in a shack. It is no exaggeration to say that David Cameron and barack obama would not keep their shoes where he lives. He let his country to legalize marijuana because he had seen what happened, and i went to see this in northern mexico if a large part of the economy is illegal drugs, the armed criminal gangs have more money than the state. They can hijack the state and take it over. He thought if it hits uruguay they are screwed. It is a small country. Theyve not have much military force. This is one of the most around us atrocities, what it does to the supply route countries. Johann hari, thank you for being with us. His book is chasing the screen. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now these three delicious dishes, you will recognize every single one of them. But i put a new twist to them. [theme music playing] tutti a tavola a mangiare the italian art of good eating. Monini extra virgin olive oil