The war on drugs has failed.
Despite the best efforts of the current and previous governments and the billions of dollars spent in law enforcement, today illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent, and easier to get than they were 35 years ago. Meanwhile, people continue dying in our streets while drug barons and terrorists continue to grow richer than ever before.
There is no medical, scientific, or legal justification for a war on drugs policy. With seventy-percent of cases in the criminal courts being indirectly or directly drug related, we could revolutionize criminal justice and substantially lower the tendency toward repetition of criminal or antisocial behaviour if we simply wiped out the drugs statute book.
Our panellists argue that this scenario must be the very definition of a failed public policy. They agree that all drugs should be legalized and the markets then regulated.
Dr Alex Wodak is the Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent's Hospital. He is also President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation and author (with Timothy Moore) of 'Modernising Australia's drug policy' published by UNSW Press.
Greg Barns is a former senior advisor to the Howard Government, New South Wales Premier Nick Greiner and federal Finance Minister John Fahey. He is the author of What’s Wrong with the Liberal Party? (2003) and Selling the Australian Government: Politics and Propaganda from Whitlam to Howard (2005).
Norm Stamper is a 34-year veteran police officer who retired as Seattle's chief of police in 2000. He is currently a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com)
Duration: 60 minutes with no interval
http://www.sydneyoperahouse.
Make All Drug Use Legal
- Presented By
Sydney Opera House & St James Ethics - Venue
The Studio
- Date: Sunday 4th of October
- Program
Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Stamper introduces us to the violent, secret world of domestic abuse that cops must not only navigate, but which some also perpetrate. Stamper goes on to expose a troubling culture of racism, sexism, and homophobia that is still pervasive within the 21st century force, exploring how such prejudices can be addressed. He reveals the dangers and temptations that cops on the street face, describing in gripping detail their split second life-and-death decisions.
DR. Norm Stamper; LEAP Speaker profile
http://leap.cc/cms/index.php?
Norm Stamper is the author of Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing, Nation Books, 2005 (see www.normstamper.com) and Removing Managerial Barriers to Effective Police Leadership, Police Executive Research Forum, Washington, D.C., 1992.
YouTube video link
Stamper videos
YouTube Search Link
Australian Tour Dates
http://hempembassy.blogspot.
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Australian Tour Dates
http://hempembassy.blogspot.
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LEAP confirmation.
LEAP Goes Down Under: The Australian Tour
Festival for Dangerous Ideas: Make All Drugs Legal
The Nimbin HEMP Embassy would like to see Dr. Norm in a POLITE hat outside the Sydney Opera House with the BIG JOINT, or is that a dangerous idea?
Festival for Dangerous Ideas: Make All Drugs Legal
FESTIVAL OF DANGEROUS IDEAS
http://www.sydneyoperahouse.The Nimbin HEMP Embassy would like to see Dr. Norm in a POLITE hat outside the Sydney Opera House with the BIG JOINT, or is that a dangerous idea?
