Im super, super thrilled to be hosting what i think is the first talk weve ever hosted for a book that has been blurbed by both noam chomsky and elton john. [laughter] this blew my mind. So that is really also for my exciting. And then finally im excited to have a book that says something a little new about the drug war. We all know the drug war is bad and awful right . I dont want need to tell you that right . If youre living in baltimore, you know that the drug war is bad and awful. But what its really exciting, when someone with the talent writing journalism like johann hari comes along and is able to look at that history, look at where we are today, talk to people, go to place figure out a way to tell the story in a way that makes us see new things but gives us a different lens and a different optic on something that we know is horrible and in telling that story gives us a way to deal with it and create a better future. So im terribly excited to welcome him here, and im glad you all came out. Thank you. [applause] thank you for coming. When the war on drugs was being launched, the man who launched it, Harry Anslinger said there was one place in the world that proved more than any other that it was going to work. If you looked at this place, it would prove if you cracked down hard enough, if you arrested enough people, if you were consistently tough drugs and drug gangs woulddisappear. That place was baltimore. [laughter] hows it working out for you . [laughter] im really glad i feel like before i start, i should kind of apologize for something which you might be able to tell from my voice that im not from here. Ive spent a lot of time in the u. S. And ive never felt anxious about it. I went to texas and i went to interview this hitman, the only hit match for the worst Mexican Drug Cartel who made it out and lived to tell the story. Hes in prison now. I went into a lunch at jack in thebox, do you think what that is . Its like a fast food chain which is responsible for at least one of my chips. And i went in there and said to the woman, can i have like a quarterpounder with cheese and she said to me, what . And i said, could i have a quarterpounder with cheese . She said to me, i apologize, and she said do you speak english . [laughter] and i said, madam, my people invented it. [laughter] she didnt laugh. [laughter] what i want to talk to you about, as i said before its now 100 years since drugs were first criminalized. And as i realized we were coming up to this ken tenly i had centenary, i had a personal reason for wanting to think about it. We had a lot of drug addiction in my family. One of my earliest memories was trying to wake up one of my relatives and not being able to. And i realized even though this had been going on for 100 years, there were loads of really basic questions that i just didnt know the answer to. And that my teachers had never told me, my government had never told me, your government had never told me no one had told me. Why were drugs banned in the first place . Why do we carry on with the drug war approach when a lot of people think it isnt working . What really causes drug use and drug addiction, and what are the alternatives . I realize we talk about it in such an abstract way. If you read most writing about the drug war its like youre sitting in a philosophy seminar. I thought, screw that, i want to find out how it really effects people all over the world. I started across this journey nine countries, 30,000 miles and just sitting and spending time and talking with loads of different people from a transsession yule crack dealer in brownsville brooklyn, to a scientist who spends a lot of time [inaudible] to see if they like them. It turns out they do but only in specific circumstancings. To the only country in the world thats decriminalized all drugs from cannabis to crack with incredible results. And the main thing i took away from this is almost everything we think we know about this subject is wrong. Drugs are not what we think they are. Drug addiction is not what we think it is. The drug war is not what weve been told it is for 100 years, and alternatives are not what we think they are. I tell the story in the book through the story of real people whose lives were changed one way or another by this war. Just five or six of the people that i talk about in the book, one of them is one of your home girls. In 1939 Billie Holliday stood on stage in new york city and she sang a song called strange fruit. Its a song against lynching. Her goddaughter, lorraine, said to me youve got to understand how shocking this was, to have an africanamerican woman standing in front of a white audience in a hotel that she was not allowed to walk through the front door. She went through the service elevator, singing a song against lynching. And that night, according to her biographer, Julia BlackburnBillie Holliday received a threat, a warning from the federal bureau of narcotics. They said stop singing this song. The man who ran that bureau was a guy called Harry Anslinger the most influential person no ones ever heard of. He took over the department of prohibition just as alcohol prohibition is ending and he had to find a new purpose for his d. And he was driven by his department, and he was driven by two really strong hatreds. The one was a hatred of addicts the other was the hatred of africanamericans. He used the nword in official police memos so often his own senator said he should have to resign and Billie Holliday can, he was obsessed. Billie holliday was everything he hated was an africanamerican woman standing up to White Supremacy was a heroin addict, was a, you know he thought jazz was really interesting, he thought jazz was this mongrel, evil music that was disordered and a sign of chaos, and he would write these memos where hed listen to the lyrics, and hed write that is what they do think when they use his heroin. [laughter] Billie Holliday grew up here in baltimore, so she grew up surrounded by the smell of burning feces. She grew up in an area called pigtown, a pigtown home girl over there. And Billie Holliday learned something, she made herself a promise. She wasnt allowed in a lot of the stores because she was an africanamerican. She promised herself she was never going to bow her head to any white man. So she says in effect, screw you. Im an american citizen, ill sing my song ill do what i want and that is the point at which the stalking and killing of bullly holiday Billie Holliday began. Harry anslinger, it was hard to stop a white guy into harlem to stop Billie Holliday so he appointed a man called Jimmy Fletcher, so his job was to follow her for two years and watch everything that she did. And Jimmy Fletcher fell in love with her, and he felt ashamed of what he did next. He busts her, she was put on trial. Shes sent to prison and when Billie Holliday gets out she cant sung. You needed a license you needed a performers license to perform anywhere where alcohol was served, and they wouldnt give it to her. Her friend yolanda said to me what is the cruelest thing you can do to a person . Take away the thing that they love. Its what we do to addicts all over the world today. I went out with a female chain gang in arizona made to wear tshirts saying i was a drug addict and dig graves. Theyre never going to work again, theyve got a criminal record. And like a lot of those women bullly holiday in all that suffering relapses. When shes in her early 40s, she collapses in new york, and shes taken to the hospital. The hospital refuses to have her. She says to one of her friends that the narcotics agents arent finished with her she says theyre going to kill me in there, dont let them. On her hospital bed shes diagnosed with liver cancer. They arrest her on a hospital bed. They handcuff her. I interviewed the last man who was still alive who was still in that room eugene calendar, incredible man. They take away all her candieses, her toys, and she goes boo withdrawal because she into withdrawal because she hasnt got any heroin. She starts to recover. Ten days later they cut off the methadone, and she dies. One of her friends said she looked like she had been violently wrenched from life. Billie holliday would go anywhere theyd have her. No mart what they did, she always sang strange fruit. And it really helped me to think about the addicts in my life if were honest theres a bit of a drug warrior in all of us, and theres a bit of all of us that thinks someone should stop you and feels really angry some of the time. And it really helped me to know that addicts can can be heroes. Her friend, annie ross Billie Hollidays friend said to me billy Billie Holliday wasnt week, she was as strong as she could be. I wanted to understand how those dynamics continue into today. And i was introduced to someone, one of the best people i know a former transsexual crack dealer in brownsville brooklyn called chino. He was conceived in 1980 when his mother who was a crack addict was raped by his father who was an nypd officer. Deborah, his mother gets aids very early in the aids crisis because nothing was done to prevent the transmission of aids amongst drug users. In fact, the thing that would help, the distribution of clean needles, was a crime. People were prosecuted under the Drug Paraphernalia act. So his mother dies. And when hes 13, he becomes a crack dealer on his corner. He helped me understand what happens with drug dealers. I didnt want check but i didnt check, but im guessing theres a liquor store on this street right . If we go in there, any of us, tonight and we try to steal the beer or vodka and i apologize if you feel like doing that after i speak theyll call the cops. That liquor store doesnt need to be violet. If we go up to the local weed dealer or the local coke dealer and try to steal their goods they cant call the police. Right . The police will come and arrest them. Theyve got to be terrifying. Theyre either got to fight you, or better yet, establish a reputation for being so frighten ping that you wont dare taking them on. Chi know had to learn to be forfying. Chino had to discipline his gang by whipping them if they got out of line. Chino had to shoot at people, had to be adepress e and violence. Aggressive and violation. Prohibition creates a culture of terror. This has got nothing to do with drugs, right . If you banned milk and people still wanted to buy milk, exactly the same dynamics would happen. This is not about drugs, this is about prohibition. You will notice that the liquor store over there, theyre not going and shooting the people who work in the drinks aisle in walmart, right . That never happens. And alcohol prohibition, alcohol sellers were killing each other. What happened was chino starts to rise through the crips hes sent to a youth prison. To send chino and his four fellow gang members to the youth detention facility cost a Million Dollars a year. I dont know if theres anybody here who can think of Something Better we can do but if youve got any ideas im happy to talk about them. And chino rises, his whole life is malformed. He starts using crack because as he put it to me, i wanted to know what my mother chose over me. And when hes in his early 20s, he gets out of prison and he starts to read about the drug war. And he discovers something that blows his mind. This isnt a law of nature. This isnt something that just happens in the world. Its not like a tsunami, a hurricane, this is a political choice. What happened to chinos mother what happened to chino, his life in rikers, his life in a prohibited market, all of that, it didnt have to happen. Chino became a campaigner against the war on drugs. His First Campaign was to shut down sparta the youth prison he was put in. And he succeeded. It no longer exists. Chinos also a really articulate exponent as explaining how much what this is about. When Harry Anslinger found out Billie Holliday was a heroin addict, he also found out judy garland was a heroin addict. 17 of the people who sell drugs in the United States are africanamerican. They make up 65 of the people who go to prison for it. Just outside baltimore at the same time that chino was selling on his block a person called lee maddox was standing on the i95. Lee maddox was a cop, and she was arresting anyone she could find who she suspected of being a drug user. Lee had long hair and a hot temper, her job was to get numbers. She knew that if you busted people, you get the cops get to keep 80 of everything they take. If they find you with coke in your car, they can take your car away. It was paying her way. Lee was thrilled. Lee could not have been a stronger believer in the war on drugs. Lee signed up to be a cop because her best friend lisa, who she grew up with they used to share an id they looked just alike, was murdered by what she believed was a drug gang. She signed up to be a cop to destroy drug gangs. That was why she went into it. But lee is an honest person. And lee noticed something. When youre a cop if you arrest a rapist the next week theres less rape in your town. If you arrest a dealer well, no one thinks theres less dealing. Theres always someone else on the corner. Crucially, lee noticed if you bust dealers, the murder rate actually goes up. And lee was like, how can that be . And what she discovered is that if you think chino, chino establishes a reputation for terror on his block, he controls his block. If you kill or arrest chino, you just trigger a war between rival gangs to control his patch. You start a turf war. Huge numbers of people are killed. The nobel prizewinning economist Milton Friedman said there are 10,000 deaths a year in the United States three 9 11s as a result of those turf wars and theyre not just dealers. Tells the story about tiffany smith, a 3yearold girl whos playing on her stoop in west baltimore, gets hit in the crossfire. And lee didnt know what to do with this. And then another of her best friends, an agent who also believed in the drug war goes to do an undercover drug bust and hes shot by the dealer who just thought he was another dealer. And lee goes and looked at eds body, and she thinks i cant do this anymore and she quit the police force, and he retrained as a lawyer, and now she spends her time getting the sentences quashed, and lee is actually here today. Im proud to know her. [applause] i wanted to know what life is like on the supply routes. This dynamic were talking about, this dynamic of creating as Charles Bowden the writer, put it the war on drugs creates the war for drugs. Thats horrific in a lot of places. In this city its one of the worst. One city where i this oi of its even worse, Ciudad Juarez. Its on the border with texas in el paso. I would stay every night in el paso, and every morning i would walk across the bridge, and it was bizarre. You walk across the bridge into what feels like an American City theres a kfc theres a deppnys and murder has effectively been legalized. And the way it really helped me to understand the story of whats happened there is through the story of mary [inaudible] she never sold drugs in her life, no one in her life used or sold drugs. She happened to live in Ciudad Juarez. She had a daughter called ruby who was 14 years old. One day [inaudible] he turns up and he says, look, ive got a kid, i need some work have you got anything i can do, and mary was a and he starts to flirt with her daughter whos 14, and marys like get out of here right . And ruby runs away to go off with sergei. And mary goes to the police, as none here would do and says look, this guys 21, hes having an affair with my daughter whos 14, and youve got to stop him. The police do nothing. Her daughter wont come back she tries to keep her daughter in her life, the daughter gets mr. President marys heart broken. Ruby has a baby. And one day mary turns up, and rubys not there. But her babys there. And sergei says ruby ran away. She ran off with another man. And mary says no no, no, she didnt run off with another man and leave her child with you. I know she wouldnt do that. He says, well, thats what happened. So mary decides to distribute leaflets all over juarez saying have you seen my daughter . Nothing happens. After a while, a kid calls her, and hes terrified. She has to drive out far into the desert with him, and he says to her i helped dispose of your daughters body. Sergei killed her. I can tell you where we dumped the body. And she goes, and she finds the bits of her daughters body. And she goes to the police and says youve got to do something, and the police wont do anything. She still doesnt quite understand why. And mary eventually campaigns. And in the witness box, sergei breaks down, and he apologizes to her and says im sorry for what i did, and he anytimes what he did he admits what he did and two weeks later hes acquitted, and he disappeared. Sergei worked for the Mexican Drug Cartel. If you imagine a Housing Project in baltimore lets say 5 or 10 is in the hands of armed criminal gangs selling drugs, thats going to be a lousy place to live. 70 of the economy of Ciudad Juarez is in illegal drugs. They can outbid the state. I was being shuttled around by the reuters correspondent, and he kept introducing me to people who had been killed by the police. I said this is important, i need to meet people who have been killed by cartels, and he said, you dont understand the cartel pay the police to do it. She would not accept it. She decided to track down sr bay sergei. She turns herself into a detective, she quits her job, and she spends three years tracking him all over mexico. She becomes a crack detective. And with her friends, who are mothers of the missing, she walks across the desert. She walks thousands of miles. And after three years, she finds him and she goes to the police, and they let him get away again. And she goes and stands outside the Governors Mansion in chihuahua, and she leads this pr