Stossel on Drugs

John Stossel had a very good show tonight on Fox Business Channel. Drug War Disaster

He had a “debate” with Sean Hannity (he couldn’t get anyone from DEA or ONDCP to appear. Talked with guests Jeffrey Miron (libertarian economist) and Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the Wall Street Journal about the economics of prohibition and the situation in Mexico.

He had on Mayor Cheye Calvo (whose dogs were drug war victims) and Radley Balko to talk about SWAT proliferation. And Paul Chabot — a cop in favor of the drug war, and Neil Franklin — LEAP member opposed to the drug war faced off. Chabot talked the usual nonsense about not wanting to “wave the white flag.” And then he took off with more nonsense during the audience Q and A and I had to turn off the TV.

I watched most of it and it was well worth watching.

If you missed the show tonight, I believe it repeats on Saturday at 7 and 11 pm (Eastern) and on Sunday at 10 pm (Eastern).

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27 Responses to Stossel on Drugs

  1. Nick says:

    Thanks for the heads up that my head will explode.

  2. malcolmkyle says:

    “Oh no, I know we’re on the same page… Just making sure our good friend Malcolm understands you are right. When we feature drug related stories, the intent is to point out the stupidity that often times gets them arrested.”

    “What sort of forum is this? Would you guys be doing something similar if this was Nazi Germany? –laughing at the poor retched victims instead of protesting against the in-human system???”

    http://tinyurl.com/2uyh8h9

  3. strayan says:

    Is there video of this anywhere? I don’t live in the US.

  4. Pineapple Express says:

    I remember that Calvo story. He was mayor of a town in the peoples republik of Maryland. Drug task force sent a large package of marijuana to his home so they could raid and justify their worthless salaries and killed his dogs. If the story didn’t involve a “powerful” person no one would even know about it.

  5. claygooding says:

    Pineapple,I believe it was the delivery driver that was supposed to intercept the package,before it reached Calvo,
    but it was detected before it got to the delivery center.
    That was why the police delivered it to Calvo,instead of the regular driver.
    That is why the police chief stood behind his officers actions. The police believed Calvo knew it was being delivered at the time of the raid.
    Not that it made the killing of the dogs any less reprehensible.

  6. ezrydn says:

    You mean John didn’t have Megyn on? LOL I, too, am OTC so I’m looking forward to a video of the show.

  7. Pete says:

    ez, Strayan’s link above is the video of the show.

    For those who don’t remember Cheye Calvo, here’s a good piece that he wrote in the Washington Post about the raid and its larger implications.

  8. Maria says:

    Cool. I enjoy some of Stossel’s stuff but the great thing about this? My father loves Stossel *and* he’s also a staunch anti-drug, pro-drug war flag waver. This is going to make for some fun family dinner talk.

    Didn’t Judge Napolitano also do a recent segment on the drug war?

  9. ezrydn says:

    Thanks for the heads up, Pete (and Strayan).

  10. Shap says:

    Was trying to find a way to send Judge Napolitano the story about the guy in Vegas killed during the marijuana raid that happened this week. He did call for the Missouri SWAT members to be indicted on his Freedom Watch show. Wish he would shed light on this story as well.

  11. denmark says:

    With you all the way on “had to turn the TV off” as the liars started slinging their stuff early on. Will watch the rest at a later date.

    Found it interesting that hands went down in the audience when Ecstasy came up. With what little I know about it it is a wonderful way to over come and transcend trauma in ones life. And honestly, who hasn’t had traumatic events happen, I know I have, and would love to use the Ecstasy with the help of a counselor in finally letting go of that which has hurt me so, so deeply.

  12. malcolmkyle says:

    Oops, I just noticed that strayan had already posted a link to the video.

    This one: http://usaguns.net/patriots/drugwar.html

    For some reason, that one doesn’t work on my mac -audio but no movie.

    So for those having simular problems, here’s mine again:
    http://democrat-vs-republican.com/?p=3379

  13. Jeffrey Miron will be my guest live inside the Opium Den Thursday, 6/24 at 9pm eastern. If you have a question for Jeffrey, please send me an email via my website: http://www.theopiumden.net

    Besides being one of the smartest voices on drug prohibition, Jeffrey is also a Libertarian. It should be a good show – hope everyone has the time to tune in.

  14. claygooding says:

    Watched the complete show,,,waiting patiently for the lightning to strike Stossel.
    I expect we will hear something from the ONDCP on this.
    Soon!
    And the show is stupendous,lies and all. The only prohibitionist was looking a little bedraggled by the end
    simply because the LEAP spokesperson remained calm and answered his standard propaganda rhetoric with facts and common sense.

  15. chuck says:

    outstanding show! loved the audience member shown rolling his eyes after he was fed a line of bulls**t from the pro-drug cop. he really lined that guy up against a tough panel and they let him have it

  16. kaptinemo says:

    “He really lined that guy up against a tough panel and they let him have it.

    Precisely why the prohibs generally avoid any such debates; they get sliced and diced when put against reformers who know their stuff.

    But this is also indicative of something else: the prohibs have finally realized that they cannot fight the war from their (Taxpayer supplied) ivory towers anymore, and must get into the trenches…with us.

    And we’ll take no prisoners. Comparatively, we’re lean and mean, battle-scarred veterans of the Reform War; they’re puff-gutted, bubble-butted, concrete-brained ideologues who move ponderously slow while we dart in and prod them where it hurts. That prohib on Stossel’s show found out what the future holds for prohibs. The other prohibs will either have to pick up the slack, or face public derision, as expressed by that person who rolled his eyes at the nonsense.

    This is also what the prohibs feared; losing a previously unassailable high-ground courtesy of their offices, their badges and whatnot falsely conferring expertise when there was none. And the public is seeing this more and more. Kinda embarrassing for them…

  17. Rick says:

    I’m continually amazed that Fox, of all networks, seems to be the only major media company airing the reasonable side of this debate. Between their recent story on endocannabinoids with the attendant implication that MMJ might alleviate deficiencies, and Napolitano’s “When are you going to put those cops in jail where they belong” to the mayor of Columbia, MO – and now this – it just staggers the mind. I’m no fan of Fox’s extreme-right rhetoric on virtually every other topic, but I have to give credit where credit is due.

  18. claygooding says:

    Embarrassing for them and joyful to us. I find it exciting that Fox had anything to do with it. Between the Judge Napolitano(sp) and Stossel,everyone should be pretty well informed.
    The AP Impact article has brought this about. After reading that,the news executives finally snapped that activists were not just blowing smoke about all the money wasted by our government and the fact that the prohibition was doing more harm to our society than the drugs.

  19. Chris says:

    Fox business news is the only sane part of their network, and we all know Stossel. The show was great, loved the eye rolling and constitution question dodging.

  20. denmark says:

    O.K. watched the whole thing. Maybe because I’m physically drained but I wasn’t impressed. As usual the Prohibitionist, when he came on, did most of the talking.

    At one point Neill looked really irritated with what was coming out of Chabot’s mouth. Then a bell went off inside the head and if memory serves me Chabot is the idiot the Police / Prison people hired in California to smear the November initiative to legalize.

  21. Scott says:

    We are winning the public over.

    Today in the Wall Street Journal, an article on L.A. cannabis dispensaries fighting back has a comments section in which people “recommend” the comment favoring the end of prohibition.

    We must continue to do what we can to publicly discredit the prohibitionists by challenging them to prove any disaster happened as a result of any ‘drug-related’ penalty reduction (roughly 30 of them, including Portugal decriminalizing all drugs in 2001). Simply put, if they cannot prove disaster, there is no need for prohibition.

    When dealing with conservatives, tell them the prohibition of marijuana (and certain other drugs) is solely constitutionally grounded in the New Deal and the corresponding abuse of the Commerce Clause required to “authorize” such heavy “public servant” interference in the private sector.

    Read them the original Commerce Clause, and then compare that to a ban on the free growth, free distribution, and free possession of marijuana, all within a single state. Judicial activism is the only logical conclusion.

    We also need to figure out how to translate major public support into pressure against the entrenched forces in the iron triangle (e.g. “incarceration lobby”) to get Congress to repeal the Controlled Substances Act as unconstitutional.

    What powerful organizations can we pursue as allies to help us pressure our “public servants” on this repealing? The answer is any organization that stands to benefit from that repeal.

    I suggest ‘lumping’ our cause in with the overall need to fix the Commerce Clause abuse (strong focus on which may arrive when legally challenging Obamacare). So many powerful private sector forces have great incentive to put our Supreme Court on the public hot seat on this front (and the highest court is very vulnerable there).

    The bottom line is we need friends. Powerful friends. Public support will help us convince those friends to join our cause.

  22. Storm Crow says:

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    Or on face book at-

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    After you view my list, if you decide that you want a free copy, just send an email to-

    i.wantgrannyslist(at)greenpassion.org

    I usually email off a copy to you by the next day and it’s always free, no strings attached.

    When I started using cannabis over 40 years ago, there wasn’t even the concept of MMJ! Now, we have 14 states with some form of MMJ. The difference is education! My list has been created with one goal in mind, to educate people about this healing herb. Please read my list and educate yourselves. I believe even the activists among you will be amazed! Thank you.

    (Hi kapt- nice to see you here!)

  23. Hope says:

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  24. Hope says:

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