The Real Drug Czar

altering drugs, you've really come to the right place. For more than twenty years, I was ahead of the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization that's been the driver of drug related reforms like legalizing marijuana and ending the broader war on drugs. In fact, I've spent most of my adult life almost four decades now, researching, writing, and teaching about drugs, and also advocating for drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health,

and human rights. It all started for me growing up in a fairly religious old family, eldest son of a rabbi, learning to question and argue about pretty much everything. I didn't really get high until I started college. I liked marijuana and mushrooms and booze, but didn't think much about drug policy or even other drugs. Back then, I did wonder, though,

why any of this stuff needed to be illegal. Why was I being defined as a criminal for smoking a joint or tripping on mushrooms even though I was harming nobody? And that bothered me. I went to law school and grad school and political science. A few academics back then were much interested in drugs, and it wasn't much in the media or political discourse. But I was curious. By the time I finished my dissertation and started teaching at Princeton,

the drug issue had exploded. See this cute little vial here. That's crack rock cocaine, the most addictive form. Do you think it's the glamour drug of the eighties? It can kill you. President Reagan declared war on drugs tonight. There's something special to talk about. Drugs are menacing our society. They're threatening our values and undercutting our institutions. They're killing

our children. Congress, state legislatures, and foreign governments enacted every more draconian laws, and politicians from across the political spectrum competed to be the toughest on drugs and crime. We speak with great concern about the drug problem in American to day, but we fail to appreciate or address it for what it really is. The number one threat to our national security. As President Alderman said, the drugs also yes, an act of war on drugs. It was madness like

McCarthyism on steroids. I was baffled by the lack of skepticism and descent, even among liberals and black political leaders in the elite media. So I wrote a series of articles that catapulted me into the public eye. The drug war, i argued, was doomed to failure, just as alcohol prohibition had been. Its costs were escalating rapidly and ever more punitive.

Prohibitionist measures would only fill prisons and rich and empower criminal organizations, exacerbate the dangers of drugs, and divert public resources for more productive ways of dealing with drug misuse. The fact is there has never been a drug free society. Any psychoactive substance can be used in ways that are unhealthy and even dangerous, and any psychoactive substance can be

used safely and even beneficially. A couple of years into my advocacy and teaching, actually, while in a mushroom trip, I came to a realization not so much an epiphany as a crystallization of things. I've been thinking that this issue, at this cause where my calling in life. So with the country divided on drug use and jail time, how can Americans settle these policy issues when drug laws are

so different state to state. Jointing us to help answer some of these questions is ethan natalment and that's what I did, working pretty much round the clock for the next twenty three years building the world's leading drug policy before more organization, the Drug Policy Alliance. We lead the way in legalizing marijuana, first for medical purposes and then for all adults. We started in one campaigns to cut the number of people getting arrested and locked up on

drug charges. We showed people all the ways in which drug policies were enforced in racist and racially disproportionate ways, and deepen the links between the movements for racial justice and drug policy reform. People often ask me why I devoted so much of my life to teaching about drugs and reforming drug policies. Part of it, I realized some time ago, was simply an emotional and probably existential need to embed my intellectual pursuits in a cause that I

really cared about personally. It bugged me that the law defined me as a criminal for using marijuana and other drugs, and it bothered me even more that tens of millions of other people, many of them far more vulnerable to arrest and punishment than I, were similarly defined. The reason why some drugs were legal and others illegal, I realized early on, has little to do with the relative harms of different drugs, but almost everything to do with who

used and who was perceived to use particular drugs. But the most fundamental reason I committed my life to this issue is that I saw it as one of human rights. I believe that no one deserves to be punished or discriminated against her amongst based solely on the substance one chooses to put into their body. I believe that every human being is inherently sovereign over one's own mind and body.

But hey, you've tuned into this introductory episode not just to learn about me, but also to find out more about this podcast. Why am I starting it? One of the biggest hurtles for drug reform has been the lack of open and honest discussion about drugs. People were afraid to admit they use drugs, and for good reason. I see this podcast as a chance to talk with some of the smartest, the most interesting people in the world to bring a unique perspective to the issue of drugs.

Some guests who will be old friends, and others will be people I've never met before. Some will be famous, some infamous. You'll hear from scientists and scholars, activists and politicians, actors, musicians, writers and comedians. Will probably talk to some drug dealers and drug enforcers. And of course we'll invite people whose relationships with drugs have ranged from wildly and profoundly successful

to tragically and immensely destructive. I'm interested in all psychoactive drugs, so we'll cover the spectrum, talking not just about marijuana and d n A, cocaine, heroin, and the wide range of psychedelics. Will also talk about opioids and all sorts of amphetamines, benson, azippines and SSR eyes and alcohol, tobacco and nicotine and caffeine, cot cava, cradum and ketamine, and

an endless variety of synthetic drugs. One more thing, I am not a medical doctor, so when I or a guests talk about the benefits of using particular drugs or even suggest trying something. Trust our judgment up to a point, but don't try anything just because I or a guest suggested it. Do your own research and talk first with others you know personally and whose judgment you trust. In the meantime, I would love for you to reach out

to me on Twitter and over voicemail. The number we've set up is eight three three seven seven nine two four six, So I want to know what you find interesting and what you disagree with. I want to hear your suggestions for topics and guests, and I want to hear your experiences. Finally, in response to a question I've already been asked, many times, should you get high before or while listening to Psychoactive? What can I say? It's

your call? Or maybe I should say whatever keeps you coming back and and to dip and he then conject them and jip and