A new video compilation by Pacifica Radio talk show host Dean Becker brings the voices of 19 distinguished drug policy reform advocates to dissect the failures of the Drug War, the process and path of the reform community and the journey that lies ahead.
“These experts describe in great detail the misery, the ineptitude, the corruption and the myriad horrors we inflict on ourselves and the whole world by continuing to believe in the policy of drug prohibition,” said producer and interview host Dean Becker.
“Thankfully they also provide the simple solution, first to decriminalize to prove a point and then ASAP to legalize, regulate and actually control these now ludicrously named ‘controlled substances’. Decrim and legalization will immediately diminish the need, and thus the numbers of, all too often racially motivated searches and deadly encounters with police.”
Legalization, harm reduction
The 90 minute premiere of Claiming the Moral High Ground: A Global Indictment of the War on Drugs video features government officials and high level experts from around the world, all greatly desirous of being a part of this “indictment’.
President Trump and Joe Biden were also given a very specific invitation to respond to these calls for legalization, regulation and control for adult use and to counter the logic of saving of countless lives via the evisceration of gangs and cartel with the immediate diminution of overdose deaths.
“All politicians are in fact invited to step forward and clarify the need for an eternal war on people, who use drugs,” added Becker. “The door is always open.”
Key organizations, activists
Claiming the Moral High Ground features the following participants:
- Portuguese Drug Czar Dr. Joao Goulao
- Houston District Attorney Kim Ogg
- Dr. Khalid Tinasti of the Global Commission on Drugs
- Beto O’Rourke congressman and presidential candidate
- Dr. Perry Kendall of the BC Substance Abuse Center
- Eric Sterling of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
- Dr. Carl Hart Prof Columbia University
- Sanho Tree of Institute for Policy Studies
- Dr. Christoph Buerki designer of Swiss Heroin Injection Program
- Roger Goodman Washington state Representative
- Maia Szalavitz author and activist
- Howard Wooldridge former cop, head of Citizens Opposing Prohibition
- Neill Franklin Dir of Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) US
- Chris Conrad author, cannabis expert witness and activist (0:38)
- Phil Smith reporter
- Ethan Nadelmann founder of Drug Policy Alliance
- Neil Woods Dir LEAP UK
- Katherine Neill Harris of the James A Baker III Institute at Rice University
- Activist extraordinaire Kevin Zeese of PopularResistance.org to whom this program is dedicated following his death on September 5.
“This is only our 90 minute premiere,” added Becker. “Twice monthly programs will follow beginning later in September 2020. The first of these program will feature much more from Kevin Zeese.
This program from Phantom Hero Production Co was composed by a father and son team branching out anew in this Covid economy. Hosted by KPFT – Pacifica newsman Rev. Dean Becker. HD version: https://youtu.be/zsv3EAgMej0
I believe in drug reform.