04/17/11 Jodi James

Program
Cultural Baggage Radio Show

Jodi James, Florida activist and candidate speaks regarding 420 events, activism + Terry Nelson of LEAP and MJ Borden with Drug War Facts

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Transcript

Cultural Baggage / Apr 17, 2011

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Broadcasting on the Drug Truth Network, this is Cultural Baggage.

“It’s not only inhumane, it is really fundamentally Un-American.”

“No more! Drug War!” “No more! Drug War!”
“No more! Drug War!” “No more! Drug War!”

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DEAN BECKER: My Name is Dean Becker. I don’t condone or encourage the use of any drugs, legal or illegal. I report the unvarnished truth about the pharmaceutical, banking, prison and judicial nightmare that feeds on Eternal Drug War.

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DEAN BECKER: Hello my friends, welcome to this edition of Cultural Baggage. Here in just a couple seconds we’re going to bring in our guest, Miss Jodi James, the reformer who led the group that encouraged me, that motivated me to do what I do.

We’re going to be talking about the forthcoming 420 season, if you will, here in American and, in fact, around the world. And, what the heck, let’s just go ahead and bring her in now.

Jodi James, are you with us?

JODI JAMES: Dean Becker! Good to be here. Thanks for having me this evening.

DEAN BECKER: Ah, Jodi, it’s always great to talk with you. Let’s tell folks a little bit about Jodi James. You’ve run for office a couple of times over the years, two, have you not?

JODI JAMES: I have been on an eternal quest for justice apparently, Dean. Yeah, and my quest has definitely lead me to Texas, as you mentioned, and it led me to two races for the Florida House of Representatives. As a matter of fact, I ran in 2002 and then, again, here recently in 2010.

DEAN BECKER: Now let’s tell folks, I’ve referenced this over the years many times, the Texas Journey for Justice. What was that all about?

JODI JAMES: Oh, I’m so glad you asked. Because, you know, I was just sitting here thinking a little bit about the Texas Journey for Justice. A Journey for Justice makes perfect sense to anyone who thinks about it. But, in particular, there was group of folks…started in Wisconsin, who believed that if they could simply bring the evidence of a failed drug war to the people of Wisconsin – house by house, neighborhood by neighborhood – that it would be enough to cause an uprising.

And, this group got together and they did a caravan of patients. Patients and caregivers, people who had been affected by the war on drugs, and they moved it through Wisconsin to the capital.

From Wisconsin the seed was spread. Ohio certainly did one and shortly after we did one here in Florida. By the time we got to Texas it was bigger and better because “everything’s bigger in Texas!”

DEAN BECKER: There you go.

JODI JAMES: There you go. We started in Houston, which is where you and I first met. You were holding a sign and I believe it was on the courthouse, right?

DEAN BECKER: Yes, at the county courthouse, the new one at that time. Yes.

JODI JAMES: …at the county courthouse. So, what we did…We had brought activists, people who knew about this issue (experts) from around the country to Texas. And our objective was to help motivate Texans, plants some seeds, to bring drug war education to community by community.

We started in Houston. Our caravan was about 25 people, I think, when we started in Houston, maybe 7 vehicles including a moving jail cell and a Class A RV for patient support. We moved the caravan up through Huntsville which, of course, you know is this incredible prison town, there in Texas. When we look at a map of Huntsville (they have some that you can get from the Chamber) that show where all the prisons are. And they were in purple on this map we had. And it ended up being almost an entire map of purple because this town is, literally, nothing but prison and prison and prison.

DEAN BECKER: Well, and the truth of the matter is, Texas, like many other states, there for a decade or more, didn’t build any colleges, built dozens of prisons.

JODI JAMES: And, you know the worst part about it, I think, in Texas for us, is the fact that as far back as 1970s, the 1970s the Texas Senate received a report on marijuana and what they should do about marijuana. And the report found that if they continued to prohibit marijuana - now this is 1972 – a Texas report, it was instigated by Barbara Jordan, who was a Senator from Texas back then. A black woman, she said that if Texas continued to prohibit cannabis – it would be at the expense of the citizenry - we would continue to prohibit them. More than 200,000 Texas college students and more than 100,000 high school students would be educated inside prison walls – if at all.

And she knew that in the 70s and yet we have continued this incredible failure.

DEAN BECKER: Yes, and it has done exactly what she said. We have locked up hundreds of thousands of young, mostly black, Hispanic kids caught with minor amounts of drugs and what have we benefitted, what have we derived. A big hole in the pocketbook. That’s about it.

JODI JAMES: And an underclass that is finding it more and more difficult to get past a youthful indiscretion.

DEAN BECKER: Yes, whose lives are forever, well not forfeited, but certainly given a kick to the chest.

JODI JAMES: Well, at 21 I was convicted of a drug crime, Dean. And it certainly has affected everything for the next 20 years. It comes up when I run for office even though in Florida, bless its heart, we are the #1 state for people to be convicted of a crime while in office.

(laughter)

JODI JAMES: Isn’t that something?! You gotta be #1 at something, right?! So more Florida politicians are corrupt and I’ve gotten to thinking that maybe my experience with prison 20-something years ago might make me the perfect person to be qualified to go up and deal with those folks in Tallahassee.

DEAN BECKER: You know what Jodi?! It might even qualify you for President because the past three Presidents have a history of drug use.

JODI JAMES: And, certainly, would we be better off if they had all had felony convictions and could not have served as President? Maybe?!

DEAN BECKER: Well, I would think, yeah. But…

JODI JAMES: (laughing) We’ll argue about the worst Bush ever later.

DEAN BECKER: Let’s talk about the 420 season. This is a, as I was saying earlier, an international day of celebration. A lot of cities around the world stand in support with Dana Beal and his efforts. But many others have gone out on their own and including right here in the gulag-filling station city of Houston, Texas. Where you have been invited to be their primary speaker. Tell us about that event, if you will.

JODI JAMES: I can’t wait to be back in Houston. Houston NORML invited us. We’re going to actually be celebrating on 4/23 so that’s Saturday night. We’re going to be at the Last Concert Café – that’s on Nance Street and Houston. Doors open at 4 p.m. They’ve got a great lineup of bands.

DEAN BECKER: I think it’s 4:20 p.m. but go ahead.

JODI JAMES: (laughing) Well, everything good starts at 4:20 p.m. But, you know the nice thing about 420 is that it’s happening someplace, everywhere, every hour. So, never be afraid to celebrate.

They’ve got great music. Biggest star is House of Griffin, Vicarious Me, Calm Loud. Some poets and I know they are planning on doing a hemp fashion show. We’re going to bring in some fashions that we actually used on the Journey for Justice that we’ve kept around. So we can see how the hemp has changed. Because, really, when I first started getting involved in this, it was hard to find hemp string.

DEAN BECKER: Right.

JODI JAMES: …anywhere. It was only a very few people were manufacturing anything here in the U.S. made of hemp, of course, because it was so hard to get the stuff in here. And now you can get hemp string at Walmart. So, we’ve come a long way, baby, it’s just time that those folks who have thought most of their life that this is something they should get involved in – now’s the time for them to get involved in this.

Did you see, Dean, that there were 17 states with marijuana legislation pending this year?

DEAN BECKER: It’s hard to keep up with. I didn’t know the number was that high. But, that’s indicative of the fact that it’s becoming OK to talk about it. And you won’t be stigmatized or cast aside, you will get your votes again, right?

JODI JAMES: You will! Absolutely! We had our first bill since 1978 introduced here in Florida. We’re very excited. The young man who introduced it, he’s a freshman and he feels very comfortable in his seat and he’s going to introduce it until it wins. So this is not something that’s going away.

And I was looking...Delaware had several bills. I’m sorry, it wasn’t Delaware, it was Connecticut, has several bills. So, yeah, it’s time. You don’t need to be afraid. The vanguard has gone. The band has marched. You are a member Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a speaker for them, right?

DEAN BECKER: I am.

JODI JAMES: So, you know, we’ve got law enforcement our on the front lines. You don’t need to think this is some sort of social stigma anymore. It’s just common sense and more people need to exercise their common sense.

DEAN BECKER: I found it kind of weird last week, President Vicente, or former President Vicente Fox was speaking at Texas A&M and he closed out his speech with a thought that, uh, “I’m a fairly radical guy and I don’t know if the police will arrest me when I leave here.” And that’s, again, indicative of that paranoia that just kind of seeps in when you start doing reform work, right?

JODI JAMES: It does. Well, and you know, we had Texas Public Safety Officers who kind of followed us through Texas. But, it was amazing to me because, of course, everyone has that fear when they first start thinking about, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to tell the world that I want to legalize marijuana.” Of course there’s that, “Wow, that’d be really dumb.” first thought. But, I have found that more that I have come out with this and the more that I am open about my need for reform, the better friends that I have. The smarter friends that I have. Because people get it. And the people who get it tend to be like, “Well, you know, this makes a lot of sense and I’m really supportive and I’m really pround of you.”

So, you know, I encourage anyone who’s ever thought that this was a good idea to get involved now. This is the time. This is…there is a tipping point and I believe that we’re there. We know everything there is to know about this issue. We’ve got great faces like Law Enforcement Against Prohibition to lead the charge. And then, at the end of the day, we’ve got folks like myself and Florida Cannabis Action Network, my organization, who are going to come through and we’re going to make sure that it’s OK for the average citizen to get involved.

I’m really thankful for the people who are listening to this show. You know it was a beautiful day today so I hope people are out in their cars and in their yards and getting motivated by what we’re saying. And the people who dial in later remember that 420 is certainly the cannabis culture’s day to shine. It’s also a day of mourning for a lot of people who have sacrificed themselves.

DEAN BECKER: Going back to the thought of the original Texas Journey for Justice…

JODI JAMES: Texas, love Texas.

DEAN BECKER: I met you guys on the first day and we did a march from the courthouse to the federal detention center and we got hassled by the police and there was a gentleman, I believe his name was Scott “Bullhorn” Bledsoe.

JODI JAMES: Yeah, God bless Scott.

DEAN BECKER: Who was kind of leading the effort, maybe 8 or 10 of us that were in this little procession between these two facilities. The guards came out from the detention center and said, “You can’t use a bullhorn here.” Scott started arguing with them and handed the bullhorn off to a little kid. I think he’s, uh, maybe one of yours, no your sons were too young then but a young kid.

JODI JAMES: Arlo, he’s name was Arlo and you know he’s an Eagle Scout and an awesome activist.

DEAN BECKER: Well that’s wonderful, but, Arlo took that bullhorn and started continuing on while Scott “Bullhorn” Bledsoe was arguing with the federal detention officer and continued on shouting up to those hundreds of prisoners that were up above us in that center and it kind of showed me…no…it showed me what courage can do. What….that courage was necessary.

JODI JAMES: It gives me goose bumps because, you know, one of the mottos of the Journey when we did it in Florida and, of course, there was kind of a joke when we did the Journey for Justice. Because we went from Florida to Texas and, of course, both were under the Governors’ Bushes, at the time.

DEAN BECKER: Yup.

JODI JAMES: I had Jeb and you had G.W. who was running for President. And we would, uh, activists from Texas and I would argue about who had the worst Governor or the best Governor, as the case may be. But the motto was, “If one of us will fall, the rest of us will continue.” So the idea that this young man, and Arlo would have been a young man, 13/14-years-old at that point…picked up that bullhorn and continued the fight, that’s just amazing to me.

Scott is actually vacationing in Portugal this month. Portugal has some of the most liberal drug laws in the world and they’re actually closing prisons. And they find that their drug use has dropped. So Scott is over there finding out exactly what the secret to the….Oh, wait…We know what the secret to their success is – changing drug laws.

DEAN BECKER: Yeah, well we do. We do. Now this brings back, you know, again, you guys started in Houston and then you went to Huntsville, Navasota, bunch of other prison towns…

JODI JAMES: Hempstead, right?! We swung down through Hempstead. And, you know, this bill, the Texas bill that has been running. Right now it’s the Representative from Hempstead – that takes that area – who is holding up that bill. So, you know, her constituency know better. I know that they know better because we taught them better.

DEAN BECKER: And I would imagine that a hundred years ago there was just enormous crops of hemp being harvested in that area. How else did it get the name?!

JODI JAMES: Well, you know, Hempstead was a great spot…For someone who hasn’t looked at the history. We did a war memorial in Hempstead, a prohibition memorial because Hempstead actually was where one of the first people who were killed in alcohol prohibition. Did you know that?

DEAN BECKER: I did not.

JODI JAMES: This is a great story, yeah. There was a congressman who was in Hempstead and was talking about a prohibition bill that he was in favor of or he had just voted for prohibition (I can’t remember the exact details, it’s been a minute). But this guy was shot by constituents for starting alcohol prohibition. Right there…

DEAN BECKER: Well I don’t blame them.

JODI JAMES: …at the courthouse in Hempstead. Well, you know, I was thinking, Dean, This is a show that has been near and dear to my heart for ten years…you’re going on ten, right?

DEAN BECKER: Yes I am.

JODI JAMES: So I was thinking this might be a great day – You and I – that we should call it right here and now, right?!

DEAN BECKER: OK.

JODI JAMES: The War on Drugs is over. Prohibition has failed. The final score: Prohibition - 0, the People – 1.

DEAN BECKER: Right, or 7 billion…one of those.

JODI JAMES: Oh my.

DEAN BECKER: Jodi, we’re starting to run out of time. I want to remind folks we’re speaking with Jodi James, Reformer extraordinaire, based in Florida coming to Houston to speak at the 420 Fest that’s going to be April 23rd at the Last Concert Café.

Now, Jodi, I want to go back to that day. It’s now 11 years ago, I guess, the Journey for Justice and you guys were touring around Texas with big banners on the side, marijuana leaves, “Save the Patients” all of this …

JODI JAMES: …”Save the Patients”…”Don’t you DARE arrest my parents”…

DEAN BECKER: And, as you say, DPS and others were kind of following you around the state to see what you were up to, I guess.

JODI JAMES: Well, they were…We couldn’t have done it. We actually started in Houston at the Larger UU Church in Houston. And, you might remember, that it was the UU Church in Houston, right there, that first UU Church that started the Statement of Conscience through the UU Fellowship that ultimately ended up being the first organization of its kind (religious organization) to come out against the modern war on drugs. So that happened right there and that was happening while we were there.

So, DPFT was instrumental, Houston NORML, I will not say how instrumental and all the ways that Houston NORML helped when we got…We actually did a big question mark through Texas if you at it through the mirror because we came down through Hempstead and then we went across to Austin. We were joined in Austin, you might remember, by the folks from Tulia.

DEAN BECKER: All those little kids whose parents were in prison for, well, for the drugs which did not exist save for Tom Coleman’s lies.

JODI JAMES: Oh my, yeah. A whole town devastated on the word of one confidential informant. And, you know, the Bible tells us that we’re not supposed to convict anyone on the word of one informant. It’s very clear on that. So, how in the world can we call this a moral and just war when there’s certainly nothing moral or just about it?!

You know it’s very exciting to me those states that are looking at reform. But, we can talk about this all we want. The Obama administration promised that it was not going to continue, quote/unquote “the War on Drugs” and yet 25 legitimate dispensaries in legal states were shut down and raided last month.

And, I was looking today…there was an article about West Virginia. And the Charleston Gazette was saying that West Virginia is arresting people for non-violent, drug crimes at a rate of 21.9%. And, in 2004, it was about 15%. So, in this kinder, gentler war that the President has declared, we’re arresting people and 2 out of every 10 are non-violent, drug crimes and we are claiming that we have fiscal crisis. So, we have a lot of crisis.

DEAN BECKER: And it’s just preposterous that in this time of economic shortfall, uh, you know…I talk about this too much, but I’m just bring it up quickly. In Texas it’s no longer necessary to arrest or jail anybody for less than 4 ounces of weed but 95% of the counties in Texas continue to do so despite the fact their jails are overcrowded, they’re running out of money, they’re laying off police officers. They just have this belief that somehow by continuing to do this that they will change history. And yet there’s no indications that they’re anywhere near correct, your response?

JODI JAMES: Well, I’m so grateful that you continue to say that, Dean. Just grateful because that’s what the Texas Journey was about. It was about planting seeds that would come to harvest. It was about fertilizing and tilling the soil and certainly the seeds that we planted with you that day could not have come to a better fruition. Look at what you’re doing every week with your show, every day with the archives that are available to people. You know, I just can’t thank you enough for the energy that you’ve put into this because not only are you affecting Texas but you’re affecting the whole world.

And the idea that you’ve had some tremendous guests over the years and that you’ve allowed me to be counted as one of them just, uh…I really appreciate that, Dean.

DEAN BECKER: Well, Jodi, the courage I saw in you…I remember seeing on that last day as the thing was kind of winding down..we were in front of George Bush’s mansion and people were on the streets trying to get folks to honk their horns, trying to show the signs, trying to get people motivated and encouraged to do something. And, it has made a difference. The people know it’s these dumb politicians.

Jodi, we got about 30 seconds here, any closing thoughts, websites you’d like to share with the listeners?

JODI JAMES: Well, certainly people can follow what we’re doing at www.flcan.org but come out and see me. www.HoustonNORML.org, you can find out more about their 4/23 show there at the Last Concert Café and I would love to meet the folks who are anxious to do something about this. And, you know, my motivation has always been to empower people to take back our government. We own it, it’s our flag, it’s our state, it’s our country. And they need to be hearing from us.

And, you know, I’ve ran for office because I believe that it is important for everyone to take and stand where they’re at. So, you may not be ready to do that, you may not be ready to lead a march, you may not be ready to host a radio show…but, if you just write a letter to your representative, invite someone to help you put on a program, I know there are people who want to make this (ending the war on drugs) a reality and I’m here to help and I’m glad you are too, Dean. Thanks for being here for us.

DEAN BECKER: Jodi James, thank you so much.

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SPEAKER: I think gradualism is so often an excuse for escapism and do-nothingism which ends up in standstill-ism.

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(Game show music)

DEAN BECKER: It’s time to play: Name That Drug by Its Side Effects.

Physical stimulation, appetite suppression, the prevention of altitude sickness through increased oxygen supply…

(gong)

Time’s up!

The answer, as is so obvious in the lives of millions of Bolivians: Coca, Mother Coca.

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TERRY NELSON: This is Terry Nelson speaking on behalf of LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The balance attributable to the prohibition of drugs just gets worse and worse each year. The Wall Street Journal reported that former Mexican President Vicente Fox said we have to do anything possible to stop drug violence. That’s why I’m not only suggesting the legalization of drugs, I’m promoting it.

This stance is one that Mr. Fox had taken previously as have other former Presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Mr. Fox’s successor, Felipe Calderon, encouraged by the United States with Plan Merida, deployed the Mexican Army to combat drug traffickers in Mexico’s northern states resulting in wide-spread violence and deaths.

Mr. Fox said prohibition did little to stem alcohol consumption, likening that situation to outlawing drug use. He offered three steps for defusing the drug war and it’s ill effects; legalizing drugs in the United States, withdrawing the Mexican Army from the conflict and better training and empowering local police forces.

Fox said the cost of the drug war for Mexico is too much. Starting with 40,000 kids killed. He said that adding another 100,000 are pressed unwillingly to service the drug cartels.

And it’s not just Mexico that suffers. We, here in the United States, have a relatively minor crime and a violence problem. The crime and violence problem and the murder rate is approximately 5.4 per 100,000. However, the other countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America are not so lucky.

Honduras reports 77.5, El Savador 64.8, Guatemala 41.5 and Mexico 18.0 per 100,000. These numbers are reported by La Prensa Grafica of El Salvador.

So, the Mexican violence that is reported almost daily is not as bad as in other countries that are affected by the United States drug policies. The prohibition policy by our government is a failed public policy that causes the deaths of tens of thousands of people each year.

While our government continues to support this failed policy with dollars and diplomacy, people die in the streets daily. Far more people die from prohibition of drugs than the drugs themselves.

Before many of these drugs were made illegal by the Harrison Drug Act of 1914, we had an addiction rate of 1.3%. And, today, the best estimates are still at 1.3%. So decades of dollars wasted, lives lost and credibility squandered – we have not gained an inch on addiction.

So, let’s scrap prohibition. Legalize drugs that are causing all this violence. Begin a system of regulation and control of all drugs. We can educate our way out of our drug problems but we will never arrest our way out.

Stay safe. This is Terry Nelson of www.leap.cc, signing off.

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MARY JANE BORDEN: Hello drug policy aficionados, I’m Mary Jane Borden, editor of Drug War Facts. The question for this week asks, “Is asset forfeiture taxation?”

According to the U.S. Justice Department, “Civil forfeiture is a proceeding brought against the property rather than against the person who committed the offense. Civil forfeiture does not require either criminal charges against the owner of the property or a criminal conviction.”

“…forfeiture can be used to seize and forfeit the following:
- any amount of currency;
- personal property valued at $500,000 or less. including cars, guns and boats;
- hauling conveyances of unlimited value.

Real property cannot be forfeited administratively.”

In 2009, The U.S. Attorney seized over 1 billion dollars in assets – roughly four times more than in 1989. During that 21 year span, the value of forfeited assets totaled 11 billion dollars, 5 billion short of the 2011 federal drug control budget.

The Federal Justice Department readily admits that,

“…civil forfeiture expanded greatly during the early 1980s as governments at all levels stepped up the war on drugs.”

The department goes on to claim,

“…asset forfeiture can assist in the budgeting realm by helping to offset the costs associated with fighting crime. Doing what it takes to undermine the illicit drug trade is expensive and time consuming. Forfeiture can help agencies target these difficult problems, sometimes without the need to seek additional outside resources to offset their costs.”

In its 2010 report, the Institute of Justice forfeiture,

“…legal fiction that enables law enforcement to take legal action against inanimate objects for participation in an alleged criminal activity, regardless of whether the property owner is guilty or innocent - or even whether the owner is charged with a crime.”

I have to ask…Is asset forfeiture for merely alleged crimes taxation without representation?

These facts and others can be found in the asset forfeiture chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org. If you have a question for which you need facts, please email them to me at mjborden@drugwarfacts.org. I’ll try to answer your question in an upcoming show.

So, remember, when you need facts about drugs and drug policy, you can get the facts at Drug War Facts.

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DEAN BECKER: Alright, please listen up. One way you can help the Drug Truth Network, we’re seeking volunteers to transcribe maybe 10 or 15 minutes of a show each weekend. I urge you to please email dtnvolunteers@gmail.com.

And, as always, I remind you that because of prohibition, you don’t know what’s in that bag. Please, be careful.
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This show produced at the Pacifica studios of KPFT, Houston.
Transcript provided by: Jo-D Harrison of www.DrugSense.org