Name: 【TED】Ethan Nadelmann: Why we need to end the War on Drugs (Ethan Nadelmann: Why we need to end the War on Drugs)
Uploaded: 2015-02-05T08:26:10.000Z
Duration: 17 min 31 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

What has the War on Drugs 
done to the world?

Adverbs of degree

Central America, so many 
other parts of the planet,

prisons packed in the 
United States and elsewhere,

police and military drawn 
into an unwinnable war

that violates basic rights, 
and ordinary citizens

just hope they don't get 
caught in the crossfire,

It's my country's history 
with alcohol prohibition

Which is why it's 
particularly galling to me

as an American that we've 
been the driving force

to helping agencies but those that punish,

Some people, especially in Latin America,

terrorizing and taking over other nations.

I mean, don't forget, we're 
the ones who thought

Now it's the Russians leading
the Drug War and not us.

millions of people can 
purchase their marijuana,

their medicine, in government-
licensed dispensaries,

and over half my fellow 
citizens now say it's time

That's what Colorado and 
Washington are doing,

and Uruguay, and others 
are sure to follow.

And I liked drinking too, but it was obvious

that alcohol was really the
more dangerous of the two,

so I wrote my Ph.D dissertation
on international drug control.

I talked my way into the State Department.

I interviewed hundreds of DEA
and other law enforcement agents

Well, in Latin America, they'd say to me,

So then I go back home and I talk to people

involved in anti-drug efforts there, and they'd say,

"You know, Ethan, you can't 
really cut off the demand.

The answer lies over there.
You've got to cut off the supply."

Then I'd go and talk 
to the guys in customs

and they'd say, "You're 
not going to stop it here.

So that's when I started 
reading everything I could

about psychoactive drugs: 
the history, the science,