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back garner within arm's stamper is on the line with us he is a member of the
law enforcement against probation leap only eight p dot cc is the website he is
the former chief of the seattle police department
and and partner
chief stamper welcome welcome back to the program
i think that's good to be back with *** thank you very much art he he i did
and also what what is the title of your most recent book
uh... breaking a record cop prompt expose of the dark side of american
policing thank you i actually had their written down there and and uh...
available on the all the usual suspects uh... bookstores one i mean i'm guessing
that the other okay great on norris tampered the the states of washington
and colorado have
now said
pot is legal in our state we've become amsterdam
uh... amsterdam
allows i think that i told the story uh... night nine eleven
the airlines were offering super cheap flights free virtually free i could use
miles and so we cite there are three kids want to uh... amsterdam
for third fursat for the christmas in on the month after nine eleven
and we have for our night room at the marriott for a hundred and twelve
dollars not an easy nobody was flying everybody was scared period where this
wonderful time
went into the fanciest restaurant cross the street from the rights busy eminent
from the big uh... casino there in the fancy part of the amsterdam
white linen tablecloth sat down at the restaurant with ralph reed or kids are
over twenty one they're all adults on sat down with a three kids
and uh... the waiter brings so comes over you know with the third the the
cloth over his arm in the menu andy's is here sir is the line many leniency menu
nieces and here's the pot menu and has been in admit african business
yes technically illegal in holland but this is this is our experience in
probably one of five finest restaurants in
in uh... in sturdy and back in time
two thousand one
and uh... sewed is that the situation now that washington colorado near what
warehouses play now in and how it uh... how are the police department responded
this in what's
you know what sleep doing about the i'm just curious the whole thing what's
going on here well i i i think uh...
you know to be produced
some very obvious winners and losers
uh... and the losers or the drug cartels the street gangs in those really on post
signs of a wall
who uh... profit from mass incarceration than the winners of the rest of it
taxpayers policed officers advocate for
uh... community
safety and social justice and not necessarily pot heads
and not necessarily part had at poll we're talking about a civil liberties
issue are talking about public
health and safety issues
we know for example that marijuana is much safer than alcohol and its
healthier than tobacco
uh... and the fact that it was prohibited for all of those decade i
think it uh...
a testament to our uh... are or our willingness that turn the other way when
it comes to common sense and
well it's also testimony to the power of the diesel industry and the uh...
hayward neighborhood dentistry
thank god i don't answer your question i don't believe officers
across this they mystery in colorado is well
uh... are much really
uh... fruit for many of them making very low-level non-violent
marijuana box
was a waste of time
uh... and you could afford it you know just turn your back on it because that
begins to fiji after corruption in the war
uh... you know the kind of uh...
uh... policing that realized on being excessively on discretion
you can't leave it up to
be cops to make those decisions this is the decision that the electorate at that
make and i'm just so glad that
that that our dead yeah
and this is
alma and this this might might mind personal experience of this is somewhat
limited but
we in the uh... i think was sixty nine was the year as i recall
uh... which would in the first year of the nixon presidency
one of my very very best friends from high school
was arrested with a relatively small amount of pot but it was an
insignificant amount
and in michigan
and this was the height of the drug hysteria the drug laws that that the war
on drugs all this kind of stuff
eddie heath they threw the book at him to make an example i mean he he got he
drew two years in prison and and and and serve two years in in the state prison
and when he came out
i didn't know him
i mean he was he was
and
we are doing that
routinely
uh... particularly people of color
but that you know it
pretty much to anybody gets caught up in the mission
and and
end uh... i'd just do you have any sense of how many lives have been destroyed by
by this uh... was another seventy-year experiment with prohibition year
experiment probation
well it it it rebuttal about part that particular intruder and and
during the nixon administration when they were in there
president nixon proclaimed roads public enemy number one in declared all-out war
on them
we have spent one trillion dollars we have incarcerated tens of millions of
americans for nonviolent
very low-level drug offenses
and you know i i just a people use your imagination how many of those lives have
been
uh... damaged if not ruined as a as a result of a criminal arrest
and uh... i i think it's safe to conclude that
the drug war has cause
far more harm than good i i'd they get the worst um...
social policy since slavery and jim crow and i think it's
uh... a high time we did what we did onto the in those two states
it's for me at the beginning at the end of the drug war and all play the truth i
never thought i'd say that my time you know i think so too high i think that
much like
the early cracks in segregation were brown versus board in nineteen fifty
four on and forced busing in the early sixties but it really hits
and an even the civil rights acts in the in the mid-sixties
you know worse we saw the full fruition of this with the with the nomination in
successful election to the president states of america ler
and brock obama it took basically a generation or two generations but once
said that
tipping point was passed there was no turning back and and i think looking
back on it that ten point probably was between fifty four in sixty
it feels to me like this is a similar tipping point right now in the first
political party is seriously gets behind this
uh... whether it's the libertarian wing of the of the republican party
where the pot head wing of the defense democratic party or just the rational
when in the democratic party there s are winning elections like there's no
tomorrow
there if there is no question about that young people overwhelmingly supported
uh...
uh... you electorates decisions in colorado and tuesday last
excuse me and in washington last tuesday
and and given that demographic andy
uh... that the fact that eat even among other age groups and across the country
we're now at fifty percent
sent approval for legalizing marijuana no back in nineteen sixty-nine the
figure uh... at that time when gallup for students
was four percent support
and all the rest of pose
anticipate that reversal has been a long time incoming predicted you point out
it is not reversible what we will see as more and more support
for same sensible drug laws and you're right if if political parties will
uh... want white up for that factor there are bound to uh... reap the
benefits for years to come yet
i absolutely and so is there any indication timing or stamp breeze member
of law enforcement against prohibitions leap
dot cc is their website is the former chief of the seattle police department
and the author of patel ebookee n breaking right
breaking ranks
and india
g stamper the minute we have left dealer idea do you or any of the it members of
lead
you have any sense of what the oklahoma decisions can do about this
well
the the epa short answer is no we really don't uh... we have attempted to appeal
to the obama administration a number of occasions
uh... even even marched on the drug guards office
about a year ago uh... kisses casa marching port
and we got there we go
uh... would get the cold shoulder
uh... and and it's interesting because of course my successor in seattle as
police chief of gil kurla cascaded nor drugs nor
knitting for years
the attitude is been don't park
the other side don't talk
to the drug policy reformers nine i think it's saying how they have a clue
well and that's that again is another indication was that his time tipping
point
um... former chief of seattle police department norm stamper author of
breaking ranks member of the law enforcement against prohibition leap dot
cc is players cops say legalized archie stamper thank you so much for being with
us extinct on my pleasure
great l pleasure and honor speaking supportable