than is the director of the drug alliance. kevin, make the case for legalizing. well, you know, i think legalization would just make our problems worse. we would have more addicts, we would be spending more on our health care system. already illegal drugs cost us $200 billion in terms of lost social costs. and legal drugs cost us $400 billion in social costs and we only get about 35 million in revenue. the numbers don t add up for legalization. these cartels are dealing with drugs, human trafficking, piracy, on and on. it would be a small dent in their overall balance sheets, and we would be instead creating addicts here and abroad. why do i hear i was down this weekend listening to people like santos, the very impressive president of columbia. and the others. they seem to think what s going on here, the vast corruption is killing those countries with weapons, with murder, with horror and corruption. how do we respond to that by saying, oh, we ll keep going the way we re going?
on drug policy for the white house. than is the director of the drug alliance. kevin, make the case for legalizing. well, you know, i think legalization would just make our problems worse. we would have more addicts, we would be spending more on our health care system. already illegal drugs cost us $200 billion in terms of lost social costs. and legal drugs cost us $400 billion in social costs and we only get about 35 million in revenue. the numbers don t add up for legalization. these cartels are dealing with drugs, human trafficking, piracy, on and on. it would be a small dent in their overall balance sheets, and we would be instead creating addicts here and abroad. why do i hear i was down this weekend listening to people like santos, the very impressive president of columbia. and the others. they seem to think what s going
on drug policy for the white house. kevin, make the case for legalizing. well, you know, i think legalization would just make our problems worse. we would have more addicts, we would be spending more on our health care system. already illegal drugs cost us $200 billion in terms of lost social costs. and legal drugs cost us $400 billion in social costs and we only get about 400 billion so the numbers don t add up for legalization. these cartels are dealing with drugs, human trafficking, piracy, on and on. it would be a small dent in their overall balance sheets, and we would be instead creating addicts here and abroad. why do i hear i was down this weekend listening to people like santos, the very impressive president of columbia. they seem to think what s going on here, the vast corruption is
the other extreme, and the conversation on the middle ground, we may have more practical policies. i think it is entirely legitimate to have a conversation about whether the laws in place are ones that are doing more harm than good in certain places. i personally, and my administration s position, is that legalization is not the answer. that, in fact, if you think about how it would end up operating, the capacity of a large-scale drug trade to dominate certain countries if they were allowed to operate legally without any constraint could be just as corrupting, if not more corrupting, than the status quo. just as corrupting or worse than the status quo. kevin sabat is a senior adviser
market in tact, but with no sanctions for users, you could have an increase in users but you wouldn t even touch the market, so we re actually going to be giving more money to the cartels. you re already stating things that aren t factually what you re hearing from kevin is the same old-same old for decades. hold off, kevin. the evidence shows that decriminalizing drug possession will reduce the arrest of millions of poor people and people of color without increasing drug use. that s the evidence. we also know that 50% of americans say it s time to legalize marijuana like alcohol. that would make a significant effort in order to reducing the black market. kevin, stop. what s emerging right now is building on what president cardoza, many of the distinguished leaders not from the left but the center right, are saying we need a new bottom line. we re going to be back again and i m sure this debate will continue on here as well. thank you, ethan. thank you, kevin.