What has the War on Drugs done to the world? Look at the murder and mayhem in Mexico, Central America, so many other parts of the planet, the global black market estimated at 300 billion dollars a year, 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, and meanwhile, more people using more drugs than ever. It's my country's history with alcohol prohibition and Al Capone, times 50.
Šta je rat protiv droge učinio svetu? Pogledajte ubistva i haos u Meksiku, u Centralnoj Americi i mnogim drugim delovima planete. Svetsko crno tržište se procenjuje na 300 milijardi dolara godišnje. Zatvori su prenatrpani, kako u SAD-u, tako i drugde. Policija i vojska su uvučeni u nepobedivi rat koji krši osnovna prava, a obični građani se jedino nadaju tome da se ne zateknu u unakrsnoj paljbi. Istovremeno, sve više ljudi koristi sve više droge. To je istorija moje zemlje u vreme prohibicije i Al Kaponea, puta 50.
Which is why it's particularly galling to me as an American that we've been the driving force behind this global drug war. Ask why so many countries criminalize drugs they'd never heard of, why the U.N. drug treaties emphasize criminalization over health, even why most of the money worldwide for dealing with drug abuse goes not to helping agencies but those that punish, and you'll find the good old U.S. of A.
Zato me to naročito razdražuje, kao Amerikanca, da smo mi pokretačka snaga iza ovog svetskog rata protiv droge. Zapitajte se zašto je toliko država inkriminisalo droge za koje nikada nisu ni čuli, zašto UN-ovi paktovi o drogama naglašavaju ilegalizaciju, a ne zdravstvena pitanja. Pa čak i zašto novac širom sveta za bavljenje narkomanijom, odlazi, ne agencijama za lečenje, već onim za kažnjavanje i tu prednjače dobre stare SAD.
Why did we do this? Some people, especially in Latin America, think it's not really about drugs. It's just a subterfuge for advancing the realpolitik interests of the U.S. But by and large, that's not it. We don't want gangsters and guerrillas funded with illegal drug money terrorizing and taking over other nations. No, the fact is, America really is crazy when it comes to drugs. I mean, don't forget, we're the ones who thought that we could prohibit alcohol. So think about our global drug war not as any sort of rational policy, but as the international projection of a domestic psychosis. (Applause)
Zašto to radimo? Neki ljudi, naročito u Latinskoj Americi, misle da sve to nije zbog droga. Već da je sve to mazanje očiju zbog razvoja makijavelističkih interesa SAD-a. No, uglavnom se ne radi o tome. Mi ne želimo gangstere i gerile, koje finansira nelegalni novac od narkotika, da terorišu i osvajaju druge nacije. Ne, činjenica je da je Amerika zaista nenormalna kada je droga u pitanju. Mislim, ne zaboravite da smo mislili kako možemo da zabranimo alkohol. Zato posmatrajte svetski rat protiv droge, ne kao nekakvu razumnu politiku, već kao internacionalnu projekciju domaće psihoze. (Aplauz)
But here's the good news. Now it's the Russians leading the Drug War and not us. Most politicians in my country want to roll back the Drug War now, put fewer people behind bars, not more, and I'm proud to say as an American that we now lead the world in reforming marijuana policies. It's now legal for medical purposes in almost half our 50 states, millions of people can purchase their marijuana, their medicine, in government- licensed dispensaries, and over half my fellow citizens now say it's time to legally regulate and tax marijuana more or less like alcohol. That's what Colorado and Washington are doing, and Uruguay, and others are sure to follow.
Ali evo dobrih vesti. Trenutno su Rusi vodeći u ratu protiv droge, ne mi. Većina političara u mojoj zemlji je za povlačenje iz ovog rata, da što manje ljudi stave iza rešetaka, ne više i ponosan sam, kao Amerikanac, što mogu da kažem da smo trenutno vodeći u svetu kada su u pitanju reforme zakona o marihuani. Trenutno je ona legalna u medicinske svrhe u skoro polovini od naših 50 država. Milioni ljudi sada mogu da kupe marihuanu, svoj lek, u apotekama koje je vlada ovlastila i skoro polovina mojih sunarodnika smatra da je došlo vreme da se zakonski reguliše porez na marihuanu, više-manje kao i za alkohol. To rade Kolorado i Vašington, a Urugvaj i ostali će ih sigurno slediti.
So that's what I do: work to end the Drug War. I think it all started growing up in a fairly religious, moral family, eldest son of a rabbi, going off to university where I smoked some marijuana and I liked it. (Laughter) And I liked drinking too, but it was obvious that alcohol was really the more dangerous of the two, but my friends and I could get busted for smoking a joint.
Evo čime se ja bavim: radim na tome da se završi rat protiv droge. Mislim da je sve to počelo dok sam odrastao u prilično religioznoj, moralnoj porodici, kao najstariji rabinov sin, potom sam otišao na fakultet, gde sam povremeno pušio marihuanu i svidela mi se. (Smeh) Svideo mi se i alkohol, ali mi je bilo očigledno da je alkohol zaista opasniji od marihuane, no prijatelje i mene bi uhapsili zbog pušenja džointa.
Now, that hypocrisy kept bugging me, so I wrote my Ph.D dissertation on international drug control. I talked my way into the State Department. I got a security clearance. I interviewed hundreds of DEA and other law enforcement agents all around Europe and the Americas, and I'd ask them, "What do you think the answer is?" Well, in Latin America, they'd say to me, "You can't really cut off the supply. The answer lies back in the U.S., in cutting off the demand." 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 trying to stop drugs at the borders, and they'd say, "You're not going to stop it here. The answer lies over there, in cutting off supply and demand." And it hit me: Everybody involved in this thought the answer lay in that area about which they knew the least.
To licemerje me stalno nerviralo, pa sam napisao doktorsku tezu o internacionalnoj kontroli narkotika. Prokrčio sam sebi put do Stejt departmenta. Dobio sam sigurnosne dozvole. Intervjuisao sam na stotine agenata DEA i drugih agencija širom Evrope i Amerike, pitao sam ih: "Šta mislite da je rešenje?" U Latinskoj Americi su mi rekli: "Ne možete zaista da prekinete snabdevanje. Odgovor je u SAD-u, u ukidanju potražnje." Pa sam se vratio kući i razgovarao sam s ljudima uključenim u napore za suzbijanje narkotika, a oni su rekli: "Znaš, Itane, ne možeš zaista da ukineš potražnju. Odgovor je na drugoj strani. Moraš da prekineš snabdevanje." Onda bih otišao da razgovaram s momcima na carini, koji pokušavaju da zaustave drogu na granici, a oni bi mi rekli: "Ne možete je ovde zaustaviti. Odgovor leži na drugoj strani, u ukidanju snabdevanja i potražnje." A onda mi je sinulo: svi koji su uključeni u ovo, mislili su da odgovor leži u onoj oblasti o kojoj su znali najmanje.
So that's when I started reading everything I could about psychoactive drugs: the history, the science, the politics, all of it, and the more one read, the more it hit you how a thoughtful, enlightened, intelligent approach took you over here, whereas the politics and laws of my country were taking you over here. And that disparity struck me as this incredible intellectual and moral puzzle.
Tada sam počeo da čitam sve što sam mogao o psihoaktivnim drogama: o istoriji, nauci, politici, svemu tome, i što više čovek čita, sve mu je jasnije kako su pažljivi, prosvetljujući, inteligentni pristupi koji vas vode dovde, dok vas politika i zakoni moje zemlje vode dovde. I ta nepodudarnost mi je izgledala poput nekakve neverovatne intelektualne i moralne zagonetke.
There's probably never been a drug-free society. Virtually every society has ingested psychoactive substances to deal with pain, increase our energy, socialize, even commune with God. Our desire to alter our consciousness may be as fundamental as our desires for food, companionship and sex. So our true challenge is to learn how to live with drugs so they cause the least possible harm and in some cases the greatest possible benefit.
Verovatno nikada nije postojalo društvo lišeno droge. Skoro svako društvo je uzimalo psihoaktivne supstance da se izbori s bolom, poveća energiju, socijalizuje, čak i da opšti s bogom. Naša želja da izmenimo svoju svest možda spada u osnovne pobude, poput naših žudnji za hranom, društvom i seksom. Zato je za nas pravi izazov da naučimo kako da živimo s drogama, kako bi uzrokovale najmanju moguću štetu i, u nekim slučajevima, bile zaslužne za najveću moguću dobit.
I'll tell you something else I learned, that the reason some drugs are legal and others not has almost nothing to do with science or health or the relative risk of drugs, and almost everything to do with who uses and who is perceived to use particular drugs. In the late 19th century, when most of the drugs that are now illegal were legal, the principal consumers of opiates in my country and others were middle-aged white women, using them to alleviate aches and pains when few other analgesics were available. And nobody thought about criminalizing it back then because nobody wanted to put Grandma behind bars. But when hundreds of thousands of Chinese started showing up in my country, working hard on the railroads and the mines and then kicking back in the evening just like they had in the old country with a few puffs on that opium pipe, that's when you saw the first drug prohibition laws in California and Nevada, driven by racist fears of Chinese transforming white women into opium-addicted sex slaves. The first cocaine prohibition laws, similarly prompted by racist fears of black men sniffing that white powder and forgetting their proper place in Southern society. And the first marijuana prohibition laws, all about fears of Mexican migrants in the West and the Southwest. And what was true in my country, is true in so many others as well, with both the origins of these laws and their implementation. Put it this way, and I exaggerate only slightly: If the principal smokers of cocaine were affluent older white men and the principal consumers of Viagra were poor young black men, then smokable cocaine would be easy to get with a prescription from your doctor and selling Viagra would get you five to 10 years behind bars. (Applause)
Reći ću vam šta sam još naučio, razlog zašto su neke droge legalne, a druge nisu skoro da nema nikakve veze s naukom ili zdravljem, ili relativnim rizikom od droga, a skoro da je u potpunosti u vezi s tim ko je korisnik i koga vide kao potrošača određene droge. U kasnom 19. veku, kada je većina droga, koje su sad nelegalne, bila legalna, glavni potrošači opijata u mojoj zemlji i drugde, bile su sredovečne belkinje, koje su ih koristile da uklone bolove, kada nije bilo mnogo dostupnih analgetika. I niko tada nije razmišljao da ih kriminalizuje jer niko nije želeo da stavi baku iza rešetaka. Ali kada je na stotine hiljada Kineza počelo da se pojavljuje u mojoj zemlji, vredno radeći na prugama i u rudnicima, da bi se potom opustili uveče, kao nekad u svojoj zemlji, pućkanjem dima ili dva iz te opijumske lule, tada smo dobili prve zakone o zabrani narkotika u Kaliforniji i Nevadi, podstaknute rasističkim strahom da bi Kinezi mogli da transformišu belkinje u seksualne robove navučene na opijum. Prvi zakoni o zabrani kokaina, slično su podstaknuti rasističkim strahom od crnaca koji su ušmrkavali taj beli prah i tako zaboravljali svoje mesto u južnjačkom društvu. A prvi zakoni o zabrani marihuane su vezani za strah od meksičkih emigranata na zapadu i jugozapadu. A ono što je istina za moju zemlju, istina je i za većinu drugih zemalja, i kad je poreklo zakona u pitanju i njihova implementacija. Gledajte na to ovako, ja samo blago preterujem: da su glavni pušači kokaina bili imućniji stariji belci, a da su glavni potrošači vijagre bili siromašni mladi crnci, onda bi kokain za pušenje bio dostupan na recept vašeg doktora, a prodaja vijagre bi vam donela pet do deset godina zatvora. (Aplauz)
I used to be a professor teaching about this. Now I'm an activist, a human rights activist, and what drives me is my shame at living in an otherwise great nation that has less than five percent of the world's population but almost 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. It's the people I meet who have lost someone they love to drug-related violence or prison or overdose or AIDS because our drug policies emphasize criminalization over health. It's good people who have lost their jobs, their homes, their freedom, even their children to the state, not because they hurt anyone but solely because they chose to use one drug instead of another.
Nekada sam kao profesor podučavao o ovome. Sada sam aktivista, aktivista za ljudska prava, i ono što me pokreće je stid što živim, u inače divnoj naciji, koja čini manje od pet procenata svetske populacije, ali i skoro 25 procenata zatvorenika celokupnog čovečanstva. Ljudi koje srećem su izgubili nekoga koga vole zbog nasilja u vezi s drogom ili zatvora ili predoziranja ili side, jer naši zakoni o narkoticima naglašavaju kriminalizaciju nauštrb zdravlja. Dobri ljudi su izgubili posao, dom, slobodu, čak i decu zbog države, ne zato što su povredili nekoga, već samo zato što su izabrali da koriste jednu drogu, a ne neku drugu.
So is legalization the answer? On that, I'm torn: three days a week I think yes, three days a week I think no, and on Sundays I'm agnostic. But since today is Tuesday, let me just say that legally regulating and taxing most of the drugs that are now criminalized would radically reduce the crime, violence, corruption and black markets, and the problems of adulterated and unregulated drugs, and improve public safety, and allow taxpayer resources to be developed to more useful purposes. I mean, look, the markets in marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine are global commodities markets just like the global markets in alcohol, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and so many other things. Where there is a demand, there will be a supply. Knock out one source and another inevitably emerges. People tend to think of prohibition as the ultimate form of regulation when in fact it represents the abdication of regulation with criminals filling the void. Which is why putting criminal laws and police front and center in trying to control a dynamic global commodities market is a recipe for disaster. And what we really need to do is to bring the underground drug markets as much as possible aboveground and regulate them as intelligently as we can to minimize both the harms of drugs and the harms of prohibitionist policies.
Dakle, da li je legalizacija rešenje? Dvoumim se po tom pitanju: tri dana u nedelji mislim da jeste, tri dana u nedelji mislim da nije, a nedeljom sam agnostik. No, kako je danas utorak, dozvolite da kažem da bi se zakonskom regulacijom i oporezivanjem većine droga koje su trenutno nelegalne, radikalno smanjio broj prekršaja, nasilje, korupcija i crno tržište, i da bi bio rešen problem sa štetnim i neispravnim drogama, unapredila bi se javna sigurnost i novac poreskih obveznika bi se trošio u korisnije svrhe. Mislim, pogledajte tržišta marihuane, kokaina, heroina i metamfetamina, to su svetska tržišta robe, baš kao i svetska tržišta alkohola, duvana, kafe, šećera i mnogih drugih stvari. Dok postoji potražnja, biće i ponude. Oborite jedan izvor i drugi će se neizbežno pojaviti. Ljudi imaju običaj da misle o zabrani kao krajnjem obliku regulacije, dok ona, zapravo, predstavlja odricanje od regulacije gde kriminalci ispunjavaju prazninu. Zbog čega je stavljanje zakona i policije u prve i cetralne redove, u pokušaju kontrolisanja dinamičnog svetskog tržišta robe, recept za katastrofu. A ono što bi zaista trebalo da uradimo je da izvedemo podzemna tržišta droge, koliko god je moguće, na površinu i da ih regulišemo što pametnije kako bismo sveli na minimum i štetu od droge i štetne zakone o zabrani.
Now, with marijuana, that obviously means legally regulating and taxing it like alcohol. The benefits of doing so are enormous, the risks minimal. Will more people use marijuana? Maybe, but it's not going to be young people, because it's not going to be legalized for them, and quite frankly, they already have the best access to marijuana. I think it's going to be older people. It's going to be people in their 40s and 60s and 80s who find they prefer a little marijuana to that drink in the evening or the sleeping pill or that it helps with their arthritis or diabetes or maybe helps spice up a long-term marriage. (Laughter) And that just might be a net public health benefit.
Kad je marihuana u pitanju, to očigledno znači da je zakonski regulišemo i oporezujemo, poput alkohola. Korist od ovog čina je ogromna, rizik minimalan. Da li će više ljudi da koristi marihuanu? Možda, ali to neće da budu mladi ljudi, jer neće da bude legalna za njih, i da budem iskren, oni već imaju najbolji pristup marihuani. Mislim da će to da budu stariji ljudi. Biće to ljudi u 40-im i 60-im i 80-im godinama, koji će da otkriju da više vole malo marihuane od tog večernjeg pića ili tablete za spavanje, ili će im to olakšavati tegobe od artritisa ili dijabetesa ili će im možda pomoći da začine dugotrajni brak. (Smeh) A to bi mogao da bude značajan doprinos zdravlju.
As for the other drugs, look at Portugal, where nobody goes to jail for possessing drugs, and the government's made a serious commitment to treating addiction as a health issue. Look at Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, England, where people who have been addicted to heroin for many years and repeatedly tried to quit and failed can get pharmaceutical heroin and helping services in medical clinics, and the results are in: Illegal drug abuse and disease and overdoses and crime and arrests all go down, health and well-being improve, taxpayers benefit, and many drug users even put their addictions behind them.
Što se tiče drugih droga, pogledajte Portugal, gde niko ne ide u zatvor zbog posedovanja droge, a vlada je posvećena tome da zavisnost tretira kao zdravstveno pitanje. Pogledajte Švajcarsku, Nemačku, Holandiju, Dansku, Englesku, gde ljudi koji su zavisni o heroinu mnogo godina i koji su više puta prestajali i nije im uspelo, mogu da dobiju medicinski heroin i službenu pomoć u domovima zdravlja, a rezultati toga su: upotreba nelegalnih droga, bolesti, predoziranja, kriminal i hapšenja, sve je u padu, dok zdravlje i dobrobit napreduju, poreski obveznici imaju koristi, a mnogim korisnicima je zavisnost postala prošlost.
Look at New Zealand, which recently enacted a law allowing certain recreational drugs to be sold legally provided their safety had been established. Look here in Brazil, and some other countries, where a remarkable psychoactive substance, ayahuasca, can be legally bought and consumed provided it's done so within a religious context. Look in Bolivia and Peru, where all sorts of products made from the coca leaf, the source of cocaine, are sold legally over the counter with no apparent harm to people's public health. I mean, don't forget, Coca-Cola had cocaine in it until 1900, and so far as we know was no more addictive than Coca-Cola is today.
Pogledajte Novi Zeland, gde je nedavno na snagu stupio zakon kojim se dozvoljava legalna prodaja određenih lakih droga, ukoliko se potvrdi njihova neškodljivost. Pogledajte ovde u Brazilu i u još nekim zemljama, gde se izuzetno psihoaktivna supstanca, ajahuaska, može legalno kupiti i konzumirati, ukoliko se to radi u religijske svrhe. Pogledajte Boliviju i Peru, gde se razni proizvodi napravljeni od lista koke, izvora kokaina, prodaju legalno na tezgama, bez vidljive štete po javno zdravlje. Mislim, ne zaboravite da je Koka-kola sadržala kokain do 1900. i, čini se da nije izazivala veću zavisnost od današnje Koka-kole.
Conversely, think about cigarettes: Nothing can both hook you and kill you like cigarettes. When researchers ask heroin addicts what's the toughest drug to quit, most say cigarettes. Yet in my country and many others, half of all the people who were ever addicted to cigarettes have quit without anyone being arrested or put in jail or sent to a "treatment program" by a prosecutor or a judge. What did it were higher taxes and time and place restrictions on sale and use and effective anti-smoking campaigns. Now, could we reduce smoking even more by making it totally illegal? Probably. But just imagine the drug war nightmare that would result.
Nasuprot tome, razmislite o cigaretama. Ništa vas ne može tako navući i ubiti kao cigarete. Kada istraživači pitaju heroinske zavisnike, s koje se droge najteže skinuti, većina kaže da su to cigarete. Ipak u mojoj i mnogim drugim državama, polovina svih ljudi koji su ikada bili zavisni od cigareta su prestali da puše, a da niko nije pritvoren ili smešten u zatvor ili poslat na "tretman lečenja" od strane tužioca ili sudije. Do toga su doveli veći porezi i ograničenja vremena i prostora za prodaju i konzumiranje, kao i efikasne kampanje protiv pušenja. E sad, da li bismo još više smanjili broj pušača kada bismo ga učinili skroz nelegalnim? Verovatno. Ali samo zamislite kakva bi noćna mora od rata protiv droge iz toga proizašla.
So the challenges we face today are twofold. The first is the policy challenge of designing and implementing alternatives to ineffective prohibitionist policies, even as we need to get better at regulating and living with the drugs that are now legal. But the second challenge is tougher, because it's about us. The obstacles to reform lie not just out there in the power of the prison industrial complex or other vested interests that want to keep things the way they are, but within each and every one of us. It's our fears and our lack of knowledge and imagination that stands in the way of real reform. And ultimately, I think that boils down to the kids, and to every parent's desire to put our baby in a bubble, and the fear that somehow drugs will pierce that bubble and put our young ones at risk. In fact, sometimes it seems like the entire War on Drugs gets justified as one great big child protection act, which any young person can tell you it's not.
Dakle, izazovi s kojima se danas suočavamo su dvostruki. Na prvom mestu je izazov sa regulativama, kako osmisliti i implementirati alternative neefikasnim propisima o zabrani, čak moramo i da popravimo regulative i život uz droge koje su trenutno legalne. Ali drugi izazov je teži jer se tiče nas samih. Prepreke reformama, ne leže samo na drugoj strani, u nadležnosti industrije zatvorskih kompleksa ili u interesima onih koji bi da održavaju stanje kakvo jeste, već u svakome od nas. Naši strahovi i neznanje i uobrazilje stoje na putu istinskih reformi. I konačno, mislim da se sve svodi na decu i na potrebu svakog roditelja da drži svoje dete pod staklenim zvonom, i na strah da će droge nekako probiti to stakleno zvono i izložiti našu omladinu riziku. Zapravo, ponekad se čini da se čitav rat protiv droge opravdava kao jedan veliki čin zaštite dece, što će vam svaka mlada osoba opovrgnuti.
So here's what I say to teenagers. First, don't do drugs. Second, don't do drugs. Third, if you do do drugs, there's some things I want you to know, because my bottom line as your parent is, come home safely at the end of the night and grow up and lead a healthy and good adulthood. That's my drug education mantra: Safety first.
Evo šta ja kažem tinejdžerima. Pod jedan, ne drogirajte se. Pod dva, ne drogirajte se. Pod tri, ako se drogirate, želim da nešto znate, jer ja, kao roditelj, samo želim da na kraju večeri dođete bezbedno kući i da odrastete i da vodite zdrav i dobar život. To je moja obrazovna mantra za droge: sigurnost na prvom mestu.
So this is what I've dedicated my life to, to building an organization and a movement of people who believe we need to turn our backs on the failed prohibitions of the past and embrace new drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, where people who come from across the political spectrum and every other spectrum as well, where people who love our drugs, people who hate drugs, and people who don't give a damn about drugs, but every one of us believes that this War on Drugs, this backward, heartless, disastrous War on Drugs, has got to end.
Evo čemu sam posvetio život, izgradnji organizacije i pokreta ljudi koji veruju da moramo da okrenemo leđa neuspelim zabranama iz prošlosti i da prigrlimo nove zakone o drogama, zasnovane na nauci, saosećanju, zdravlju i ljudskim pravima, gde će da budu ljudi različitih političkih pogleda, kao i drugih shvatanja, gde ljudi koji vole droge, ljudi koji mrze droge i ljudi koje baš briga za droge, ali gde svi oni veruju da ovaj rat protiv droga ovaj nazadni, okrutni, katastrofalni rat protiv droge mora da prestane.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Thank you. Thank you.
Hvala vam. Hvala vam.
Chris Anderson: Ethan, congrats — quite the reaction. That was a powerful talk. Not quite a complete standing O, though, and I'm guessing that some people here and maybe a few watching online, maybe someone knows a teenager or a friend or whatever who got sick, maybe died from some drug overdose. I'm sure you've had these people approach you before. What do you say to them?
Kris Anderson: Itane, čestitam - poprilična reakcija. To je bio snažan govor. Ne baš ovacije, no ipak, i pretpostavljam da neki ljudi ovde i možda nekolicina njih koji prate preko interneta možda neko od njih zna tinejdžera ili prijatelja ili bilo koga, ko je oboleo, možda i umro od predoziranja. Ubeđen sam da su ti takvi ljudi prilazili. Šta im kažeš?
Ethan Nadelmann: Chris, the most amazing thing that's happened of late is that I've met a growing number of people who have actually lost a sibling or a child to a drug overdose, and 10 years ago, those people just wanted to say, let's line up all the drug dealers and shoot them and that will solve it. And what they've come to understand is that the Drug War did nothing to protect their kids. If anything, it made it more likely that those kids were put at risk. And so they're now becoming part of this drug policy reform movement. There's other people who have kids, one's addicted to alcohol, the other one's addicted to cocaine or heroin, and they ask themselves the question: Why does this kid get to take one step at a time and try to get better and that one's got to deal with jail and police and criminals all the time? So everybody's understanding, the Drug War's not protecting anybody.
Itan Nejdlman: Kris, najdivnije što mi se desilo je da srećem sve više ljudi koji su zapravo izgubili brata ili dete zbog predoziranja, i pre 10 godina, ti ljudi bi samo rekli, poređajmo sve dilere i streljajmo ih i to će da reši problem. A ono što su shvatili je da rat protiv droge nije zaštitio njihovu decu. Štaviše, povećao je šanse da ta deca budu u rizičnoj grupi. I zato se oni sada uključuju u ovaj pokret za reforme o drogama. Tu su i drugi ljudi koji imaju decu, jedno je zavisno od alkohola, drugo od kokaina ili heroina i oni se pitaju: zašto ovo dete može malo-pomalo da pokušava da ozdravi, dok je drugo suočeno sa zatvorom, policijom i kriminalcima, istovremeno? Svima je jasno da rat protiv droge ne štiti nikoga.
CA: Certainly in the U.S., you've got political gridlock on most issues. Is there any realistic chance of anything actually shifting on this issue in the next five years?
KA: Svakako ne u SAD-u, gde politika koči mnoga pitanja. Postoji li realna šansa da će se išta zapravo promeniti po ovom pitanju u narednih pet godina?
EN: I'd say it's quite remarkable. I'm getting all these calls from journalists now who are saying to me, "Ethan, it seems like the only two issues advancing politically in America right now are marijuana law reform and gay marriage. What are you doing right?" And then you're looking at bipartisanship breaking out with, actually, Republicans in the Congress and state legislatures allowing bills to be enacted with majority Democratic support, so we've gone from being sort of the third rail, the most fearful issue of American politics, to becoming one of the most successful.
IN: Izvanredno je što primam silne pozive od novinara koji mi govore: "Itane, izgleda da se jedino po dva pitanja trenutno u SAD-u postiže politički pomak, a to su marihuana i homoseksualni brakovi. Kako ti to uspeva?" Potom vidite kako se dvostranačje usaglašava sa, zapravo, republikancima u kongresu i državnim zakonodavnim telima, kako zajedno donose zakone uz većinsku podršku demokrata, tako smo prešli put od crne tačke na putu, najstrašnijeg pitanja u američkoj politici, do toga da smo postali najuspešnije pitanje.
CA: Ethan, thank you so much for coming to TEDGlobal. EN: Chris, thanks so much.
KA: Itane, hvala što si došao. IN: Kris, mnogo hvala.
CA: Thank you. EN: Thank you. (Applause)
KA: Hvala. IN: Hvala. (Aplauz)