The Union: The Business Behind Getting High Page #9

Even further, this whole deal

is over a drug

that seems to pose

no more of a threat

than the substances we

already regulate.

At the very least,

why isn't this up for debate ?

Dwight Eisenhower once spoke of

a military-industrial complex.

Have we built up a marijuana

Prohibition complex ?

The real war on marijuana

didn't start until 1972,

and President Nixon, he said

it's all the Jews smoking pot.

I mean, he really said that.

( Jack )

When Nixon got into this

with his War on Drugs,

he had things

that he wanted to do.

He had an agenda.

( Todd )

A lot of the information that

was kept and warehoused

in the Library of Congress

and also at major universities,

was actually recalled

and destroyed...

The Nixon report that came out

through his administration

was called the Shafer Report.

It was by

a Republican governor,

and when he studied it

and gave an ounce for it,

"You can pick this report up,

pick up any page, open it,

"and if you actually have

experience with cannabis,

you'll realize

they're telling the truth."

( Dana )

And then when it came back

saying that marijuana

was essentially harmless,

he totally ignored it, said,

"We're going to launch a War

on Drugs, anyways."

( Todd )

They didn't

even print as many copies

that Congress and the House

would have been able to see.

the War on Drugs.

detectives-- I was one of them.

They designated 1/3 of us

undercover.

I happened to fall in that 1/3.

That's where I spent

the next 14 years of my life.

What we were targeted on

was the pot smokers.

There was a very good reason

we were targeted on

the pot smokers.

Most of them were protesting

against the Vietnam War.

If you could arrest

that whole group of people

because they were smoking pot,

you didn't have to have

a Vietnam War protest,

which Mr. Nixon thought

was a pretty good idea.

So when President Nixon declared

this civil war

that we're

living in right now,

the drug war, in 1972, it was

really a war on marijuana.

It really didn't kick in

until the '80s when Reagan,

you know, took over his

presidency of the U.S.

( man )

Ronald Reagan, he said,

"These young people,

they get together,

they read books, they smoke

marijuana, and they talk."

Like these three elements

were a recipe for disaster.

How do I feel about

legalizing marijuana ?

Am I for it or against it ?

I am totally against

legalizing marijuana.

( applause )

Make no mistake,

the U.S. government,

the focus of their War on Drugs

is cannabis.

The focus of

their rhetoric is cannabis.

( Greg )

It's certainly used as a poster

child for all drugs.

When you see an ad for drugs,

it's always the marijuana leaf

that goes up.

It's almost like

a religious jihad.

More powerful than going

for the gusto.

It causes people to think-- when

people think, they question,

they question things like,

say, the war in Vietnam

or race separation

of blacks and whites,

like they did in the '30s

in the jazz clubs,

or women's rights,

or the Gulf War or oil wars.

( Joe )

It's real simple.

You put your loafers on,

you put your black socks on,

you get in your car, you have

your briefcase,

you say "hi"

to your neighbors.

He mows his lawn

just like you do,

and things keep moving along

in the same direction

they always have been.

That's why

marijuana laws exist.

( Norm )

There are, in my opinion,

people in government,

at all levels of government,

who know that it's not

a winnable war,

and yet they

continue to pursue it.

Acceptance of drug use

is simply not an option

for this administration.

Often, we go to debates,

and it's a police officer

debating us.

Okay, the police are

supposed to enforce the laws.

They should not be arguing

for or against laws.

That's not their job.

Well, what is their job ?

Is it to enforce laws

that exist on the books

or to determine the policy of

the laws that are made ?

The way to justify the policy

is to create a lot of fear

and then spend a lot of money

combating that.

Quite frankly, if you

took the using population

of all the other illegal

drugs combined

and you eliminated

cannabis from that equation,

there wouldn't be a big enough

drug problem

in either this country

or the United States

to justify

the massive expenditures

that go towards fighting

the war.

The amazing thing is

a small amount of enforcement

is necessary.

$400 million

is spent annually in Canada

arresting and prosecuting

marijuana crimes.

The total budget

in Canada for all drugs

is $500 million.

That means 4/5

of the drug budget

goes towards arresting and

prosecuting marijuana users,

leaving 1/5 for crack,

heroin, coke,

crystal meth,

the date-rape drug, whatever.

( Norm )

The drug-enforcement industry

is big business.

It's self-perpetuating,

it relies on taxpayer dollars.

( Marc )

And so it's an endless battle

that the DEA doesn't win,

they participate in.

It's like doing

a big-budget movie, you know.

You get $30 million

to do a movie,

and then the movie comes out

and it doesn't make any money,

but someone made $30 million.

Every once in awhile,

they'll show a guy posing

beside a big bunch

of marijuana.

You know, "This is

the DEA money at work."

It would be like asking loggers

about saving trees,

you know what I mean ?

This is where their mainstay of

their cash flow comes from.

The campaign will continue

until every available known

plot of marijuana

has been eradicated.

We've got to live with it

doing the best job we can.

Even if it's a bad job ?

We're all carrying a pretty

impossible load, Ms. Gibson.

( Norm )

There are many, many police

officers, however,

who believe that

it ought to be legalized,

regulated and controlled.

They see the hypocrisy between

our existing laws

relating to

alcohol and marijuana

in their day-to-day life...

shift after shift after shift,

and they get it.

But they don't

wanna lose their jobs.

They don't wanna lose that

promotion to sergeant

or the assignment

to detectives.

They wanna be

a chief someday,

and they don't wanna piss off

the people in power.

Judges, lawyers, prosecutors,

defense lawyers,

prison guards.

There's all of those people in

the criminal-justice industry.

Are their interests

being protected ?

Well, in a sense,

yes, they are.

Defense bar, similarly--

we make money.

The more things they prohibit,

the more money we make.

Sorry I'm late, Kent,

I was delayed in court.

( John )

You still have

large numbers of people

being busted for simple

possession.

If you look at the stats

in terms of drug offenses,

the largest group are still

simple possession of marijuana.

Every time you blow

a marijuana cigarette,

you take a chance on

blowing your future.

Oh, come on, Pop,

all my friends smoke pot.

They're not criminals.

Only because they

haven't been caught yet.

If you do drugs,

you will be caught,

and when you're caught,

you will be punished.

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