>> hello, everyone, good afternoon, and welcome to the aspen institute. i'm vice president for public programs, and i have great good fortune to be involved with this project. over the course of a couple of years, we've been talking about all the issues around the innovation economy, and we've been lucky to have this work underwritten by intel and in partnership with the pbs news hour, boapt of which -- both of which are great privileges. without further adieu, i want to

welcome ambassador kirk and margaret warner and welcome the intel who demonstrated interest over the years and we really appreciate it and everyone does too. aisle pass it to doug, and thank you for being here. >> thank you, jamie, and thank you all for being here this afternoon. a special appreciation, of course, to ambassador kirk and margaret warner for leading the discussion this afternoon. this is the latest of events that intel and the news hour joined to discuss the crucial policies to be addressed if the united states is going to stay at the forefront of the global economy. today's discussion will focus on trade issues. from the perspective of a company like intel, there's

something artificial about thinking of issue the in the conventional way as if they with issues regarding the boundaries between one nation's economy and the economies of other nations, and there's something artificial of referring to nations as trading partners. that's because we already live in a single global economy. inned, for example, manufactures more than half of its manufacturing in the united states, and more than 80% of our sales takes place outside the united states. it's not as if we manufacture products in one country and import them to another, but the manufacturing takes place in multiple countries as facilities in countries contribute to different ways to the single finished product. from our perspective thinking about trade issues, we're not thinking of gains of trade across international borders as much as minimalizing

governmentally created distortions to a single economy. i'm looking forward to the discussion today and hearing from ambassador kirk, and let me turn it over to margaret warner. >> thank you so much, doug. welcome, all. this is part of an ongoing discussion about how we can foster an innovation economy and the topic today really focuses on how do global trades contribute to that, not only focusing to nurturing an innovation economy at home, but the economy that produces high paying good jobs for american employees and workers. our featured guest is special trade representatives ambassador ronald kirk, former mayor of dallas. we had a chat about the dallas mavericks before we come in, but we promise not to quote him. [laughter] he was a long time practicing attorney and secretary of state before serving seven years as

mayor, being elected twice, and president obama appointed him to this job that's was called the best job in washington. i hope you feel that way. right at the outset of the administration, so we're going to start with just sort of 15 minute chat between the two of us to lay the table on these issues, and then i want to invite everybody in with their questions and comments. a couple notes, when you want to speak, press the red button in front of you and so i can know who wants to speak, just put your table card, let's see if this works, on the side, and i'll know. you know, after 10 minutes or so. let me start with you, ambassador kirk by just asking what do you think has been achieved in the last two years with the trade policy and practice that has helped foster and innovate the economy here at home, the kind that does create jobs? >> well, first of all, let my

say thank you to the aspen institute for welcoming me here. i had the opportunity after my career as mayor to spend a summer in aspen in one of their programs that is a fabulous place for exchange of ideas and thinking differently about how we govern and become better leaders, and thank you for giving me the chance to be with you. we've done a couple things i think that may be instructive in terms of this conversation. one, two, i think, protect the idea and the reality that for the united states going forward, we have to come to grips with the fact that we have very much moved up the manufacturing chain to a much more knowledge-based economy, in that our ability to compete and win in the future and play outside of the realm that people with just throw hundreds of thousands of low skilled workers is very much dependent on our ability to continue to do what president

obama described as outinnovating, out educating, outbuilding the rest of the world, and companies like intel and companies like forward and general motors will find their competitive edge comes from innovation. one practice call thing we've done during my tenure at ustr is focus much more on enforcement of those rights within the global trading community. the -- i'll give you one example. the itc estimates that the lost opportunity for u.s. companies in sort of the information age you can value from $48 billion up. now, dan glickman tells you the motion picture industry tells you that number is low. douglas might argue that's low from the software, but the bottom line without negotiating anything else, get other countries to combat online

piracy, that could be a $48 billion opportunity and thousands of those jobs would be gained here in the united states. enforcement is the first leg of the stool. second, we have saw in all the trade agreements that we have either tried to renegotiate in terms of korea, panama, and colombia to have the very strongest intellectual property right chapters that we can negotiate, and in the case of all three of those, we have very strong ip language. we are building in that in what we are looking for going forward in transdlaptic partnership. we worked with the group of like-minded countries to conclude the anti-counterfeiting trade agent which doesn't include all the 150 members of the world trade organization, but of those economies involved and, ben, help me, i think there's 22-24 of us representing probably 60% of trade and information

technology so we're using all of those tools from a practical standpoint to protect what we have and protect our trade policy to spur the growth of trade and information technology by finding new markets, but making sure we don't lose the downstream benefits of that piracy or counterfeiting of that. >> let me ask you of those three free trade agreements which currently you have not submitted to congress for radification, but the total, i think it said that there were 13 billion in exports, and finely doing the math, that's only 78,000 jobs? i'm just -- i just -- give us a context about really how important exports are to our current job situation having lost 7 million jobs. >> well, i guess the mayor in my is always careful not to say only 78,000 jobs.

>> right. >> if your job is one of them, that's a pretty good job first of all. we think adding jobs and frankly using trade as a tool to say to the american public that trade can be a component of job creation for the united states going forward is important, and korea alone accountings for almost 70,000 of those jobs, and interesting thing about korea is that that's pretty evenly districted cruet manufacturing and -- across manufacturing and services and by contrast, korea is more economically compelling than the last nine trade agreements that we did alone, but for me, the opportunity whether it's 70,000 jobs or 700, to gain and keep for american exporters the job creating aspects of korea and

colombia because now americans care about job creation more than anything else. it's counterintuitive for some americans, we are now entering a period of time because our economy is so strong, the more importantly because barriers to entry in the american market have been so long for so long, and sometimes by design. we left the oecd in paris celebrating the 50th anniversary of that, born from our efforts to help build europe after world war i. well, we helped the world grow. going forward, every trade agreement is an opportunity for us to bring very high tariffs and other economies down to a level closer to ours which enhances the value proposition of whatever we manufacture, innovate, grow, here in the united states so i don't think we should discouldn't the job numbers on it. in a bigger picture, trade is

roughly 13%-14% of the country, much less than any other high trading economies like us, but if you think of it in another way, right now trade is contributing almost as much to consumer growth spending. how do you look at the numbers? trade, as we like to say, really punches above its weight, and when we can take more of what we make here and sell it abroad, the economic benefits are fairly compelling. >> how great should be -- should it be or could it be if reasonable trades were reduced to the way to represent equity to what the u.s. allows in the u.s. market? >> well, we use the itc number, for example, just in the information technology area, but one of the things that compel me to take the time to move around the united states rather than just go to gee --

geneva and paris and other places where trade folk gather leads me to think as cynical as americans are about the proposition of trade right now, what i heard from them is they are not against trade, just frustrated. they have a sense everybody else is gaming the system. i'm getting to the point. my point is that if we can get china to comply with everything they said they would do when they entered the world trade organization, if we can even get good friends. like canada, never lose sight of the fact that still two of the largest trading partners are mexico and canada. canada is yet to fully implement the ip requirements of nasa. if we can get our friends in europe to open up their markets for agriculture, i think that $40 billion number -- 40 billion number we talked about approaches 100 billion number of opportunity. >> what level or number are you

using to force them to live up to agreements you already signed? >> we have three tools. one, we have enforcement, and we sort of have the art of persuasion, and two, there's a tool that i send a report to them every spring, and we have to report to congress on the compliance of property rights provisions. some people think it's no more than a chain and game exercise. we found it's a pretty good tool because our trading partners don't want to be singled out as not fully income pliant. that's a fairly effective tool to come up with the plan to get you in compliance. >> let me ask a broader question raised by many, many op-eds lately and referring to a couple recent columns which is how arguable is the premise that

global trade creates an innovation versus the arguments it undercuts it and suddenly in the last ten years there's a market of 400 million workers all over the world, many of them highly skilled who are just as available at a 10th of the wages? i mean, on balance, do you think global trade -- i mean, we're down that track, we're not going to roll it back, but how much of it actually turned into a drain an a problem just talking about this kind of innovative cutting edge industries whether they are intellectual or high-tech manufacturing in new industries, say sew lore or whatever? >> we think it can operate to our benefit if we do what the preponderate's talked about. it's not just enough to have the

strong intellectual property rights regime which we have here in the united states, and perhaps when we get to the open table, and others can speak, but you have to have the work force to be able to drive that and one element of what we talked about is the necessity to protect it, but the others, we have to really look at our investments in education right now more than ever. if you have a knowledge-based economy, frankly you can't drive that and forget the mayor in me, basically every mayor urban area has one thing in common, and there's american and hispanic kids don't finish high school. we are not going to be competitive against india, asia, africa, and that environment. you have to look at education, everything we do to incentivize research and development. we sort of lost in a lot of other news this week in washington, but it was not a small thing, the president and

the national association of manufacturers announced they are going to try to empower half a million of college kids with the skills needed just to help drive our manufacturing engine right now. we have to look at everything from education, training workers for the jobs we have, frankly, i think at some point we have to have a much more honest discussion about visas for workers in math and sciences to take advantage of those skills and up the chape. if we do those, there's much likelihood that american companies will want to retain that knowledge structure here, and, you know, you are not seeing it whole scale, but seeing more and more american countries particularly in china where you can come, but you have to transfer all your licensing you know, and technology to us. many more companies are beginning to say, if that's what we have to give up, i think i'd

rather keep that information here and sell it to the world, but we need to do what we do best first. make sure we provide the necessary environment to have the capital formation that feeds us, the research and development, but we have to get our arms around of what we need in terms of the educational structure. >> if you want to ask questions, put your cards up or make comments, but currently, do you think globalization, hog a factor is globalization in the fact that now for the first time in modern history, you're seeing a divergence between economic growth and job creation? in other words, the congress was the size it was in 2007, $13.5 trillion, but with 7 million fewer jobs. how much of that is because of globalization? >> you know, there are people who are trained as economists who i think can speak toward

hopefully to thatment i think it is becoming a convenient excuse to blame trade for the shrinking of jobs in manufacturing when if you pill it away, some of the research i read on it, they're probably productivity advances in manufacturing that have led or contributed much more to the work force than just globalization in and of itself, but from my perspective, i guess the retail politician in me, that doesn't matter. we have to make a compelling case to the american public that as much as they are worried right now, the trade means essentially we have frankly traded off cheaper t-shirts and laptops for jobs going elsewhere. we have to make a compelling case to them that if we do it right, you have strong enforcement, you have strong not only intellectual property rights, butlabor and environmental precisions that you can reap the job producing

benefits of the trade agreements here rather than seeing those go elsewhere. >> could you turn your card around? so nate herman. >> thank you very much for your comments, and thank you -- >> did you push your red button? there are members of the press here in the back, and this is all on the record. >> ambassador, thank you very much for your comments and for your leadership on trade the last few years. i'm nate herman with the association, and i just want to follow on some of your last few comments you made with the cheap t-shirts and just talk about where we are as an industry and how many people we still employee in the united states. today 99% of all footwear and shoes are imported, yet the industry still employees over 1.5 million u.s. workers, and so we still have major influence.

these are not just sales clerks working at minimum wage selling clothes and shoes in the stores. these are the high paid jobs in design, marketing, lo gist logistics, this is direct employment in the industry, and not just technology and in terms of trying to speed up and make the most efficient supply chain possible. we have a lot of jobs in our industry, and a lot are up no vattive jobs designs new clothes, 5 lot of the innovative clothing you've seen, and so i agree with you, a trade is not necessarily a bad thing. it can be a good thing. we have a lot of jobs in our industry even though most of the apparel and footwear is assembled overseas. all the knowledge that goes into that footwear is here in the united states so i just want to echo that. >> no, i agree with you, and i

make the decision about after a year into that job is that we were not going to get and move our trade agenda forward with me just being in frankly, geneva, and paris. i've been to detroit, pittsburgh, maine, north carolina, been to the applied research institute. if you have not been, you should go, looking at the next generation. where we win is in the information sector of one of the most productive textile mills in south carolina, and that is a good story to tell, but they made it plain. where we win is in innovation and coming up with that next generation technology, but we have to protect it. if somebody takes it and steals is, it's going to be lost, and what is most compelling to us particularly for small businesses is that it's a bad thing when boeing has to slug it out over something or intel goes at it, but if you're a small to

medium sized company which so much of our information economy comes out of entrepreneurs, you know, three and four and five person firms, the idea of having their work product stolen, and they don't care whether it's mexico, china, asia, or canada, that's the diller of them. we try to seek the strongest antipiracy ray sigh, anticounterfeiting precisions that we can get. >> alan greenspan? >> it's never been clear to me why jobs are the object of trade when historically all the con accept chewable frameworks with respect to trade had to do with the division of labor and the highest standards of living, and

if you take intel, we have to think in terms of maximum division of labor throughout the world if we're thinking of the maximum level of the standard of living, and, indeed, the simpest case is the one in which there is a single currency and no tariff barrierings and competition that at least theoretically generates the highest level of material well-being distributed by market forces, but the issue i'm concerned about is jobs are a secondary consequence created by the process and in effect because of the relationship between productivity and the levels of standards of living, that is the denominator of that

ratio, and one can argue that an endeavor to increase the denominator has you endeavoring on the one hand to increase trade for the purpose of increasing employment, but on the other hand, you're increasing trade to lower the standards of living by allowing productivity, and i always wonder why we do this because what we're looking for at least using the word increasing jobs, at least use the word productive jobs because there is an essential medical contradiction between getting the highest standard of living and the maximum number of jobs. i mean, you can have everybody in the society employed if half the work force digs a hole and the other half throws it in. that's real employment. [laughter] i mean, i say it fee seeshesly, but thing it makes an important

point. i'm frankly curious, i know everybody is talking in terms of jobs, but the question really is trade policy has always been the issue of essentially enforcing agreements and lowering tariff barriers, and essentially all the trade negotiations going back to the kennedy and earlier are all focused on removing barriers to trade which every economist will tell you is a splendid excellent idea. the word "jobs" in my recollection has never been in that discussion, and i don't understand why it is we brought it in in a way which seems to have become more important than rising standards of living and what we find is you're going to do that sort of things, we got

the chinese who are basically manipulating their currency to get low quality labor products produced for maximum use of employment. that's doing great damage to china, and i don't know why we're accepting that general principle. [laughter] >> no one told me i would be in an academic debate with alan greenspan. [laughter] you know, not to be -- i don't think -- >> i'm sorry -- >> no, i'm just completely intimidated. [laughter] i'm just trying to find time to collect my thoughts. [laughter] you know, not to sound flipping, mr. greenspan, i'm not a economist, i'm a retail mayor. economic theory sounds great, but i'm the backdrop of the sort of economic uncertainty that

still grips us and an unemployment rate that is 8 point too high, and the liberalization of all the reasons you articulated if they believe it's not just a approximatey for the transfer of these jobs to somewhere else because there is job growth associated with trade even with the more noble goal of reducing poverty around the world and providing the maximum environment for division of labor and efficiency. americans get that. we understand the consumption benefits of trade. when you look at our trade balance and you look at the reality, and i didn't report it, as recently as last fall, i think the "wall street journal" and maybe one of the news stations polled, all they did was ask americans do you believe that the general proposition, trade is good for america? >> "wall street journal and

nbc. >> when 78% of americans say no and the single largest block moving in their cynicism about trade are now white collar middle class families, i think it would be a huge mistake for us not to speak in language that resinates with the american public in which we help them understand the reality that because we are interwoven with the rest of the world and first of all, the idea of withdrawals from the global economic community is not worth spending time on. we have to go and compete for the 95% of the world's consumers who now live somewhere else than the united states. the way we get them engaged and committed is they have to believe we do it in a way that some of the jobs stay here in the united states and focusing on innovation, recognizing where we're moving to a higher level of manufacturing i think is one where we can build that case so i'm not, you know, far be it for

me to disagree with you. i don't think the inclusion and insertion of jobs with trade to the more notable law of goals which we have done in the country since seeking the highest division of labor. >> can i ask alan greenspan a question? do you think, though, that the "innovation economy" more innovative industries here would, in fact, create higher paying more productive jobs. right now, most of the jobs created have a median is quite the contrary to the jobs created, and if that's the impact of the economic growth of our companies which are doing well in innovating, but somehow, probably because our work force is not, for whatever reason, i don't pipe a reason, i'm the mod

moderator here, but there's a disconnect. >> [inaudible] >> no, no, i'm asking you though. isn't this the first time that economic growth of our leading, you know, our nation as an economy has gone one way, but employment is not following? >> [inaudible] there are many occasions when that has indeed been the case, but remember there's something different going on now, and it's basically we are about to see, and in fact, are in the process of seeing the most productive highly skilled educated part of our labor force retiring. it is being displaced by a cohort of very young workers, very young families, and these are the people who scored so poorly in the international

educational matchups of the last 15 years. more disturbing, the average household income ratio, in other words, the income of households now -- with householders 25 years of age and younger, has been declining relative to the average. this is a reasonably good indication that the productivity of that part of our work force is declining relative to the average or more very specifically to the level of productivity that the baby boomers are phasing out with, and this creates some very major concerns about the quality of the labor force. this is not the subject of the issue today, but i would say

that one of the things we do very poorly is import skilled workers. the h1b restrictions are a disgrace. here we are with a whole bunch of people around this room, all not realizing it, but their incomes are being subsidized by the fact that we protect them from the competition of highly skilled people coming from abroad whom we need to fill in the productive mechanism. in fact, the whole standard of living goes up, and so we're confronted with this terrible problem. if you wanted to take the severe increasing inequality of income which i think is a major factor in the debate on trade, one way of handling it is preferably obviously to bring the lower

level up, but it also works by all various different types of measures from a political point of view to lower the top, and if we opened up, or, in fact, eliminated, my view is that you give a green card to everyone who gets an advanced degree who is not a citizen in the united states when they get their degree, i mean, the proportion of those people who were terrorists is minuscule. [laughter] i heard that argument. it's bizarre. >> rick levin theys you should get a green card right then and there after you are educated. >> exactly. that would have a major effect. the problem i have is that the quality of jobs, grant you are important, but history tells us that to the up no vattive cutting -- innovative cutting edge industries and those who have

the highest technologies go the highest standard of living. that's always been the case. if ours is slipping, it's basically because of our educational system is broken. that's all i have to say. >> ambassador kirk, i'm going to try to not continue the economics seminar quiz for you, but ask the question in more political terms, and that is in your role and for the administration, a lot depends on proper expectations management, and it has been the model of u.s. political dialogue to always talk about us winning, you, yourself, said in your opening remarks we want to outcompete the world, and i would submit that that's an impossibility because probably these days intelligence is

distributed rather evenly including in places in africa that are shooting up in amazing fashion so holding that proposition to americans who are seeming very uncertain at this time that we're here to win again and be number one, you didn't say that, but that's the old political paradigm, to me only extends the misery because it is an improbable proposition that you have, so i'm wondering now that you've been in your job for quite sometime and bring a wonderful mixture of mayor and a federal dc official, don't you think it's really time for some kind of new realism because the ust model since the times has always been to be the cowboy, go into the world, get something from the world because the rest of the world is unfair. my supposition is there's as much up fairness in the united states as in any other country so again this idea to talk about

americans being victimized, now, there's exceptions where there's egregious cases, but talking about my senior economies like in any good marriage, the fault is 50/50, but you propose a different model. i'm wondering strictly talking about what a mayor knows, political community cations and management, whether you want to revise some of your thinking? [laughter] >> you asked me a lot of questions, but i will start with the proposition we're okay that we're not a motivating slogan. that's not going to get people's tapings good or bad. we do know we're in a hobblely competitive environment. we looked at the same results on educational achievement. the chairman greenspan spoke of that, and i think the president in his articulation of what americans need to do to win the future wisely laid out a number of things that have to happen.

you can't just do any one of them. i mean, we have to continue to invest in research and development and innovation, make our infrastructure competitive with those of our partners. where the president probably has wisely focused much attention is honestly on that issue that the chairman talked about looking at the educational requirements of our work force from grade school from what i reference in terms of community colleges, and we know we have to look at decent reform, but i think if you do all of those things, america can continue to innovate and lead. where we get one in the past is where we get produced a product, the idea, the services that the world was desiring of. now ring where i will completely disagree with you is the notion that somehow the united states has been as protectionists as many people perceive our partners to be, and i'm told i shouldn't draw attention to the trade deficit, but you cannot

look at our trade balance and conclude that the united states is protectionist. if we are, then we're doing a pretty piss-poor job of it. [laughter] we flunked that test marvelously, and i do know, what i am concerned about when i took this job is that more and more americans are beginning to rebel against a proposition who would rather be involved with propositions. you don't change the attitudes by say we can't compete and everybody else is equal loss and we should accept that. no, we should honestly address the concerns we've heard. look, we opened the markets, why can't you get them to do theirs? the reason we have an opportunity now to pass this korea free trade agreement is rather than have a position where the agreements are find the way it is, send it up here, and the other half says you have to be an idiot to think we are opening up our market.

instead, we sat down with those concerned and say what you're most angry about. we sat down with korea and said, you know, you really can't justify this incredible imbalance in terms of access to your automotive market and ours, and we fixed it. instead of letting panama and colombia linger, we listened to those who wanted us to move forward, we listened to those who were concerned and said tell us what you're concerned about, and we fixed them to have agreements that are balanced, allows us to go forward to reap the economic benefits from them with more sales and also in jobs, and that's how we have to move forward, but i think in case after case after case, and i would agree with the united

>> to show how within the clothing and footwear it is the lower-cost items that tend t have the biggest tariffs and maybe it doesn't matter so much to a middle-income unemployed person to have a cheaper t-shirt but a poor family trying to buy an extensive footwear for their kids that could be very important and it's the poorest country in the world most heavily impacted and finally doing something about the tariffs and the context of the duty-free initiative could give a basis to the dough called around next weeks of the will be one of the key things on the

agenda in geneva so i think there will be lots of gains from a addressing those issues and one final to the topic today on the innovation and others to talk about intellectual property and this comes out in my work on development i have some concerns about the highest possible intellectual property protection but also just the same that also is relevant for the american economy because the economy as a whole but if it is not from the patents and copyrights from the broadest possible and that's how the whole economy benefits, so it's a balance, it's not the highest strong goebel possible intellectual property it's got to be a balance between the innovations but also we want those innovations to get to people so we need to have more of a balance i just want to put that on the table. thanks. >> basically to relate to what

has already been said i think it's obvious the world's aging. next, welcome early in september will be the summit as the u.n. on chronic disease which opens up a tremendous amount of markets to our pharmaceutical devices, intellectual property and to build other countries particularly well resource countries, infrastructure, medical and infrastructure we of course do have many pharmaceutical company patent issues and all that go along with it. but i think this is an industry and a technology and something that america is still looked towards as having the finest health care system, and the opportunities with this are staggering if we can do it right and key and acceptance and jump over some of the barriers for acceptance and difficult for low resource country, low-power sources and so i just put that forward as another opportunity.

>> ambassador at the treasure department decades ago we know very well if you mentioned the trade deficit you get your hand slapped but if you mention the exchange rate you get tape across your mouth. [laughter] but you may be a real politician but you know well the trade deficit is closely linked to the jobs issue and the exchange rate is the single most powerful impact most on the deficit and the presidents in addition to the export by 2014. so given those obvious facts in the room, my question to you is whether you feel frustrated by

the monopoly that the treasury has long enjoyed since we were in the treasury on exchange-rate issues. it may be the talk in secret to the fed but otherwise they don't talk to you so whether that frustrates you at all and second, if there is a kernel of frustration whether you think that bring you leave office you might have changed the dynamic on whose appropriate and discussing the exchange rate so that's my question. i do have one comment. you said earlier agriculture is the least protected industry protected to the united states is the service sector cost probably more highly protected and certainly more important to the u.s. position as an export of power in the 21st century.

>> institute we have to be getting close today and if i can i will try to combine some of these. the easiest thing for me to answer is nothing makes me happier than the fact i don't have to deal with exchange rates and i am quite happy that it resides with treasury and i think secretary geithner is doing a fine job. i'm more than happy to defer to him on that. but i will say what i have to say not to make light of that. there is a risk for people to believe if we can just get china to address exchange-rate everything will be okay because when you talk to dan glickman and i talked to the industries they go well when you look at the breadth of what they are doing under the heading of indigenous innovation and some of the things you heard douglas talk about you can change the rate and there are so many other ways to contract to try to manipulate the process to the advantage of their manufacturers

we would still be in a disadvantaged position so i would say the exchange rate is one element, the broader arrangement for us again is allow the government to market dictate those forces rather than others. i think your observation about our ability to make a contribution to the world in terms of helped is laudatory i do think this will feed a little bit into my classmates concerned about the global development, that is one of the balances we try to strike and we look at it. we want to make sure we can share this incredible american advancing technology, the elderly in terms of health care and the world that we also i think have to recognize that if you don't have the way for american businesses to amortize

the extraordinary expense of research and development which for the most part happens in the private sector, not the government, we lose the risk of having those advances and we cannot settle for the world in which the rest of the world gets to hide behind poverty as an excuse to frankly just rip off american innovation and creativity. there's more than a loss of jobs and health care. many people don't know where to end some of the drugs in the economy that are freely ripping off american products. so i think -- i mean i agree it is a matter of balance, but we think and given the importance that innovation plays in our economy, we are coming down on the correct side to make sure we are combating policy,, vetting counterfeiting, having the strongest ip regimes. one of you made an observation about patent reform. it was one of the first things that the secretary and i were struck with when we began to do

round tables around the country. i know secretary lot has challenged first of all to reduce the time i think until right now it's like a three-year wait to get a patent they are trying to get that down to less than a year. one of the practical things we've been asked to do is add another office. i think about two-thirds of the patents filed in this country and told come from west of the mississippi, and if you really'' the come from california and texas and devotee else's coming to washington. that makes no sense so they're looking at everything whether we add additional losses but also trying to attack the backlog realizing the we've got to get those patents into the market sooner. there's a number of comments about retail triet first of all, bill, thank you. i know they'll who is our textile negotiator spend an extraordinary amount of time with your industry. i would say when of the things

we are proud of we had more engagement with stakeholders as we try to develop our positions in this proposed transpacific partnership, and we have put on the table in number of the ideas that you all have brought to us. obviously some of our partners are not quite ready to go but we are committed to have a textile chapter. we had discussed the rule i don't want to add to the assumption that that is a closed issue but it's one that we have had a lot of engagement and with respect to the african food security, it was a huge part of the discussion and the work in the recently concluded a goal. i will tell you i think if you recall the president challenged us about 18 months ago to take a look at all of our aid and development policies. one, recognizing that there were some frustrations, and among the third of our biggest supporters

of aid for trade broadly, but it just felt like the united states for years tried one approach but we were not seeing the results we wanted. but second, recognize and we are not in the world anymore we can go to congress and say give us more money. so one of the things we've realized is that rather than trying to do well in a lot of places, to a little bit here that we have to begin to make much more difficult decisions and weigh in on places we can move the middle. so tanzania, zambia, tanzania is the largest beneficiary of the contact. we are also working on food security the same with his and beah and every element of the competitiveness potentially as a partner to help us address that. >> i want to thank ambassador kirk for engaging with everyone here and for engaging so. [applause]

president nixon first used the phrase war on drugs 40 years ago. the institute of the black world 21st century called for an end to the drug war and hosted the conference about its effect on the african-american community. speakers include jesse jackson and congressman john conyers. this is just over two hours.

>> brothers and sisters, this is a momentous occasion, and to be here with the institute of the black world and all of you is an honor for me. in a sense i represent everybody in the congressional black caucus all 42 other members particularly including congressman jesse jackson jr. and bobby scott, the congressman from virginia. give them a round of applause. [applause] [applause] this is an old subject for us. we've been fighting this whole thing in the name of making the justice system better and we have problems that have

developed. the rate of incarceration has grown even as the crime rate has gone down. one part of the paper you're reading that the crime rate is down, but when you look at the facts with rainbow push or the naacp or the congressional black caucus or the institute of the black rural, the rate of incarceration is going up at the same time. the reason i suggest is that people are being real arrested and incarcerated on technical violations, violations of parole and probation and the whole drug

question is something i'm going to say something here today but i've never said before we ought to decriminalize marijuana as a criminal activity. whitey want to do that? the u.s. is so widespread, as a matter of fact it's going up. it's commonplace, and the medicinal harm has not been established, nor have we connected a necessarily to the use of of their addictive drugs as we mediated in washington and

700,000 people are coming out of our prisons federal and state every single year. 700,000. now, in the states that bar a felon forever voting for the rest of his life, that's something that the reverend dr. jesse jackson is going to comment on to the that means that our voting power is decreased because of the disproportionate number of african-americans that are incarcerated, sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongfully in the first place. and by the way, let us give a round of applause to the men that worked with reverend dr. martin luther king and has

gone on and continued his legacy more accurately and closely than any of the people that surround it dr. king. reverend dr. jesse jackson. [applause] i don't know if our distinguished leader dr. ron daniels are arranged this with of "the new york times" but ex-president jimmy carter published on the editorial page a column entitled call off the global drug war.

how many people have seen this in today's paper? quite a few. it's a very instructive because more and more people are realizing that our incarceration of our own citizens exceeds that rate of more than any other country on earth. we all know that. i think it's accurate to say that there are more black young men in prison than there are in college. so i have a very serious problem, and this is what we are here to talk about today.

one of the things i want to do is connect all of the organization's that have been seriously working on this problem starting with the institute that brings us here today but rainbow push starts its conference in chicago tomorrow. i'm going there. can i get about 20% of you to go there with me to chicago? going to chicago? [laughter] you can go to the delta air lines, american and tell them i sent you. if you don't care to fly you could also go to the train station in washington and tell them the same thing.

i've been working with a senior in chicago because i will be there and i wish you good luck. [laughter] knout in addition to rainbow push and the institute for the black world as the congressional black caucus. september 21st at the washington convention center we have our 40th dr. kelsey space, the head of by a foundation give her a round of applause. [applause] the foundation is here. what we're doing those days in september 21st is having workshops and i have a whole day i think it's friday and we will

be doing a workshop on this criminal justice system that is not just. we've got to deal with that, and i've got to begin to organize those people that coming out of prison deride trustees something about you, my brother? here is a brother that has been looking for a job for how long? about a year. he had been working for how long? and they came to him three years they came to him one day and set by the way, we found out that you had one time had been incarcerated. and you know what that means? we've got to let you go. there wasn't anything about coming to work on time or the

quality of his work or the way that he comported himself somebody found out he had the record and he has been out of work ever since. there's many others that don't ever get to get fired for having a record so what we've got to do here with all these organizations i haven't mentioned the naacp and the urban league to and a number of organizations, and there's a lot of local organizations. we've got to do what reverend dr. charles addams at hartford avenue baptist church in detroit has done we have a committee in the church's working with people that have been for formerly incarcerated and the lead in organizing.

do you know how much strength we would add to the struggle for justice, the hook is coming. [laughter] it starts off mice. [laughter] she's been known to get physical. when we are dealing with who controls the microphone. do you know how much power in conclusion that we have if we were to organize everybody that's been sent to prison and recognize and encourage and help them get jobs and help the congressional black caucus change some of these draconian laws at the federal and state level. so i would say to the congress on the floor i will put the rest of my remarks on the record and you can read them from there.

thank you very much. [applause] the honorable john conyers, give it up for him again. [applause] john conyers is a jazzman so that means he can improvise from now on so he is mr. jazz, was the highlight of the congressional black caucus in addition to all the other things that go on he convenes a session on jazz, a workshop in the concert. he goes to the rainbow push but we all know we can be on september 21st at the congressional black caucus. i also have the special privilege of introducing the keynote presenter for this afternoon and we hope everybody is coming to settle in and hang for the entirety of the afternoon because we have an incredible panel here, incredible panel that is going

to in fact lee of the devastating impact on the war on drugs and some of it is not going to be easy. some of it is going to challenge conventional thinking but we didn't get here by our choice, we are in this predicament and now need to find our way out. one of the things for is the honorable john conyers has to catch a train and reverend jackson has to get a plane. it is my honor to introduce one of the foremost leaders of our time, one of the foremost leaders of our time. he is my former boss. i'm honored and privileged to say that for many years. we worked together but i had the privilege of being the executive director of the rainbow coalition and the manager for the 1988 campaign. and that's important. few people have the opportunity to serve at that level. [applause] so many people you see now

whether it is in brazil were others on television so what they got their opportunity. they were elevated through a process to incredible crusades not just campaigns, crusades 1984, 1988. if it hadn't been for the reverend jesse louis jackson, there would be no barack hussein obama in the white house today. let us be clear about that. [applause] some people may be confused, i'm not. but more important, more important than anything else, we argue about this, that and the other, that as a civil rights human-rights leader, on the issue of public policy public policy because this doesn't get changed because we are angry, doesn't get changed because we are frustrated, upset, it's because we organize to impact public policy. and i remember many times jesse jackson talking to ministers

about when the context of the ministry they had to begin to put focus on public policy. as the advocate it, an analyst of public policy he has no peer as a civil rights human rights leader and i don't say that in any way, she is an authentic genius and this capacity to analyze and put forth prescriptions on public policy. he is genuinely a historic figure. he is a historic figure who is still among us still championing the cause and we wanted him to come today because people think of an issue here and there but over and over again for years and years and years its irreverent jesse louis jackson who talked about the issue of investing on the front end instead of praising the to paying the price on the back end. he's been on this for decades talking, going to schools and encouraging people to do better in their lives and avoid the trap of the criminal justice system and all the things out here and also linking it to the

question of the social economic crisis we face in the united states of america. would you please now acknowledge the restaurant, the president of the rainbow push coalition, the reverend jesse louis jackson. [applause] let me express my sincere thanks and appreciation of dr. daniels for his kind and generous introduction, for our attention across the years when he was a youngster in youngstown ohio the feeling is to try to determine if all been blessed and a continuous service of dr. daniels and he is all of that and more and one of the

most consistent was fighting an organized and ohio the right to document for the crusade in the ages. [applause] put your hands together. >> there was an idea that dan conyers could not win. he was running just to kind of make a statement but did not have the power structure dr. king invested for congress. he won by 36 votes. every vote counts. he's the only man dr. king

endorsed. he did a call from a hampshire because there was so much black resistance to a black man and challenge them not to come, they did a call. he campaigned actively for john conyers and both of them one and so did the catcher and john conyers had that legacy. all the guests today who spent so much time in the shadows it seems making this case for 40 years, the only case we think sincerely so much as the rainbow/push coalition starts tomorrow the 18 through 22nd in chicago. we deal with this and other issues tomorrow morning the big focus on now 34 states, the same sought to deny the right to vote and to suppress the vote. 34 states with some scheme on

the impact of the turnout and the victory in 2012. so think about this and allow me to share with you today. 150 years since of a civil war, 40 years since the drug war and we are still targeted. target's for - factions and affirmative action. being black in america is an expensive proposition a high infant mortality rate for the life expectancy and pain in between. the war on drugs has not failed to achieve its purpose.

it was politically inspired to arrive at a given conclusion, the war on drugs failed to stop trucks. it hasn't failed to stop profit. it hasn't failed to stop political disenfranchisement. it's not failed to stop the generation of people. why i focused so much on public policy, i learned all along we live in our faith we live under the law. people of faith must fight for just loll. many of us are stuck on faith and live within the limits. we have faced much prayer and powerful preaching. until the 13th amendment was

passed we can now walk away from the plantation. we have faith in selma alabama. august 6th we didn't have the right to vote. and so i believe in faith as a weapon against the fight for just lock, but the strength without the just law is to be faithful on the back of the bus. the faithful and disenfranchised under the throes of apartheid. the south african americans have been the object of degradation, isolation and despised. the only group that required a civil war and 13th amendment to end the emancipation from slavery within a 100 years of legal government enforced segregation. the patterns of race discrimination and the disparity continue today. most pronounced in the complex

denial of equal education and employment. the tragedy drug war the government took the lead in the race and class discrimination. the struggle we have some relief when there was the government intervention in this big d date between states' rights and the union didn't intervene in 1863. intervened to save to end by the question of slavery to intervene the government had to intervene the voting rights act the government had to intervene to contract compliance and further action of the employment enforcement of the law the government had to intervene. now the state's rights seek to end that intervention and remove

the troops yet again leaving us and the people exposed to something less than full citizenship government intervention so today there is some data on the internet i pray you would get it today. more blacks in prison. it's not the direct object of the war and the african-americans will lack the drug professors than users of drugs and black. the new report by the efficacy group human rights 62% of the drug offenders sent to state prisons nationwide in 1996 the most recent year for which they are available they represent the

u.s. population the percent on drug charges, 13 times the rate of white men under the study that just to protect information put through the seven states to cope with its findings. these exist even though they together by the health and human services should not about five times as many whites as had used cocaine. the drugs transactions among blacks often for police more often than do drug transactions among whites. in particular striking individual states the black men are sent to prison on drug charges at a rate 57 times greater than of their white men. in maryland for example

blacksnake 27% of the population and 9% of those sent to prison on drug charges. a rate that is 20 times greater than black-and-white. in virginia and while blacks are 82% of those sent to prison on drug charges, 10% of the population. women suggested in the human rights watch the report includes repealed amendments for sentencing, the laws for drug offenses, increasing drug treatment and eliminating the racial profiling s tactic because the disparity and the imprisonment of drug offenses blacks are sent to prison at the rate of whites. it doesn't stop. i have several examples in of "the chicago tribune". it explains police allegedly found the way this is in texas many of them black restrict of their property.

charging them in the crime instead the offer the out of town a grim choice voluntarily signed the town based on the charges of money-laundering and other crimes including drug trafficking. another case in texas, of 35 people convicted of drug charges based on the testimony of an undercover agent with perjury. the amended a justice system that is tough but fair in the statement unleashed by the government. more than 25 plight 4 million americans have been arrested on drug charges since 1983 at 25.4. about one-third of them were black. the african-americans make up 12% of the population. in charge of the population of blacks 29%, prism, 64%.

black person as 52%. presents were at 6%. mississippi 36% from a prison, 75%. alabama, 26%, present, 65%. tennessee to a 16%, population,% 53%. kentucky, 7%, prpulation,% 53%. kentucky, 7%, prism, 36%. south carolina, a 30%, a prison population, prison population 69%. 22, prism 64. virginia 20%, prison population, 60%. this is a crime against humanity. the war on drugs is a war on black and brown. it must be challenged by the highest levels of government in this format for justice. several things. one, this is government sponsored terrorism. this is government sponsored

terrorism. number two, this is -- [applause] this has raised the price on black existence, reduced the price of black existence. the attack on the black family, they destroyed the generation, the least users paid the most price because of race. those with money paid the least price remained behind bars today colish of american stock exchange today money as we talk this is not back in the day, this is today, we need a presidential commission, a review in the commission that we can extol truth and reconciliation in south africa and make the cases for peace and

reconciliation that have begun at home. we need a presidential commission on review and remedy and action. let's take our case to the united nations. this is a global crisis against humanity. 5% of the population and 25 of the jail population. 5% of the prison population. we engage in a war in libya against leadership to destroy their own people. we must have a higher sense. [applause] the rationale for the war of libya is we must stop gadhafi reaching a war against islam people and we should. we should have a higher standard. this is a war of the government of black and brown citizens. now that we know better, we should empirical lead to better and act now.

it must be aggressive in acting to interracial targeting but must not be a perpetrator of it. treat and heal the sick. education of incarceration, 4,000 pretreatment, 25,000 for incarceration. we must meet with attorney general holder, petitioned the president to relieve a remedy in action now. the most fundamental of all of our rights is their right to vote. a "new york times" editorial last week we are one vote away from the state's right supreme court. that's 1896. of the 34 states are attacking the voting rights act there is a common theme attacked workers' rights to organize, the working people's lobby, reapportioning

people into isolation, attack public education and fire teachers. use the scheme on the impact of the vote not to stop the vote the points. there's a big game between the mavs and the heat. if the referee or a player were to shave points it would corrupt the whole game. now what does this mean in politics? this term is how we're going to end of the war based on the the political will of the country is. beatniks and 112 calls and notes. arguably because to vote in chicago led by congressman paulson, the margin. in '68, dr. king killed, kennedy killed. they got young blacks to organize the campaigns, that is

slick language we lost the 500,000 votes, the margin matters and another bush and dole of not more votes than clinton, more white, black and brown. he won the margin. in 2000, gore won the election by inspiring the black vote and taken away by the intervention of the supreme court. margins really do matter. in 34 states if the user scheme number one seniors must have birth certificates. [inaudible] use an idea but not for voting. you can registration fer i.t. but not student i.t.. drivers license, 5.5 million blacks do not have a driver's license. and so if you have reduced the strength of black and brown by

this scheme and seniors and students, the will determine the outcome of the election in 2012 that every level of government. lastly, my point to you is this, and this remains our civil rights struggle. what is civil rights? the right to have an even playing field. why do we do so well when football? basketball, baseball, golf, tennis -- it's hard to be the best in the world of being a track star. a lot of people can run. hard to be the best in the world basketball, football, the baseball. why be the best at that which is so hard to do? because whenever the playing field is even and the rules for public and the goals are clear, the referee is fair and the rules are transparent we can make it.

in the illinois for the run the congressman, he 11% of the drug users are black. prisons, 61% black. 1% of users are white, 10% are black. let's use healing and engage you and choose hope and healing over fear and division. thank you very much. [applause] [applause] >> greetings, everyone, and think you so much. i'm sorry i was here a little bit late. i'm coming from moderating

another panel let the american constitution society on the issue of the collateral consequences of the criminal conviction sewing glad to be here today with the institute of the 21st century as well as the black family senate, and i'm thrilled to have the opportunity to moderate this distinguished panel at this dynamic event hosted by one of the nation's leading progressive organizations, the institute of the black 21st century. the keynote address we heard earlier from the reverend jesse jackson is expertly lead of the problem and in his words and everything that has gone on proceeding us today including those rejecting her remarks from the human experience have prompted my thinking about the change and moments in history and of the need for the new narrative's. as i reflected, i realize that ever so often a moment occurs in a window of opportunity for a

new of narrative, new way of thinking of the policy opens. ever so often, a glimmer of hope sparks in the possibility of change appears on the horizon and i always say that window opened in 1955 and rosa parks sat down and helped bring about a change of defense which began dismantling of the legal system of injustice. a new narrative opened in 1991 when a videotape exposed an attack on rodney king and a spotlight was shown on police abuse in the united states. a new narrative. it is clear that in the fourth decade of the war on drugs that we are yet another moment today that a perfect storm is forming on a new narrative. that was in the past 40 years. if there has ever been a moment nationally and internationally

when the very real possibility of change has been on the horizon with respect to orienting policy with respect to the war on drugs that quickly became on the black community with selected police practices in the mass incarceration of nearly a million black people where families have been disrupted and communities devastated by drug policy and racism whether overt or institutional fact that time is now. john conyers spoke on that window, jesse jackson opened up, dr. ron daniels open that window but our panel discussion of this afternoon will open that window even further and put flesh on this new narrative triet by discussing what has been the impact of the war on drugs and african-american communities, economically, socially, psychologically. is the drug war the new jim-crow? what alternatives to

incarceration should we export in order to kerf mass incarceration of african-americans? dr. ron daniels says scientifically war ogle war on drugs and vigorously opened discussions, debates, dialogues in the black community to explore just and humane alternatives to a failed strategy. it's the regulation of drug a viable option and alternative to the constitution and incarceration? time for a conversation, just a discussion. i have the privilege and the honor and i know they've been sitting up here for a while but to introduce our distinguished panel and by not quite sure here but the order that i introduce them on will be the order that they will begin responding to read this will be in the format of what we call a guided discretion. there are questions to the specific panelist for five minutes and we will do a little bit of back-and-forth and then open up to you at the community.

is that okay? okay. all, the deputy director of the national affairs of the drug policy alliance, the nation's leading organization promoting alternatives to drugs that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. jazzman has been for a very long time is very ardent supporter, ardent advocate of policies that reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system and increase access to social and health services and treat people with drug addictions with dignity and. hillary shelton, director of the naacp washington bureau senior vice president for advocacy and policy has the responsibility for educating the federal public policy issue agenda in the naacp, the country's oldest and largest and perhaps rightly recognized civil rights organization to read the portfolio is ranging from affirmative action to employment protection to education,

stopping the gun violence, federal sentencing reform, ending racial profiling and the list goes on and on. dr. edwin chatman, a practitioner, medical director of the united planning organization comprehensive treatment programs which focuses on taking a whole patient approach to treatment of addiction who's also an active member of the national leadership commission on aids at the king for public policies that break the vicious cycle of illicit drugs crimes and incarceration in exacerbating the hiv/aids and hepatitis c epidemic. judge burnett, founding executive tenet of the national law african-american drug policy coalition. he senior judge on the superior court for the district of columbia, but as the national executive stricter, josh burnett six options to incarceration including the use of drug courts and treatment instead of incarceration, and his organization is a collaborative

initiative to issues of drug abuse and the african-american community. deborah small, executive director and founder the communities in the war on drugs she became an ardent supporter she became increasingly aware of the grossly disproportionate number of people of color incarcerated for drug offenses. she regularly speaks to the public on these issues and on the government failed drug policies. kneal frankland, executive director, law enforcement against prohibition, a 32 year law enforcement veteran and retired from the maryland state police in 1999. during the time of the foresee held the position of the commander for education and training division in the bureau of drugs and criminal law enforcement. as a speaker of the law enforcement against prohibition, she's my defeated by the high number of civilian lives lost and police officers who gave

their lives in this unnecessary war on drugs. and the fellow director of the drug policy project at the institute for policy studies the policy to end the domestic and international war on drugs and replace it with policies that promote public health and safety as well as economic alternatives in the prohibition drugs economy. welcome, panel. [applause] we want to get the ball rolling and start with jasmine over there. we've been in the trenches together for a long time for sentencing reform and other issues evolving the criminal-justice system and i remember back to the early 2000 guess you could say as advocates we were equating the drug war with a system of jim crow in the country and the same during

jim-crow and we can see the criminal justice system today. today our colleague michelin alexander offered maddock a very thought-provoking book sweeping the country, equating mess incarceration as the new jim crow. jasmine, what is this new jim-crow we are talking about? what are the collateral consequences to the office upon the relief of imprisonment, just what is the war cost, tell us about this jim-crow drug war. >> i'm delighted to be here with you this afternoon. i'm very said it has to be because the last 40 years our tax dollars have been spent waging the war on drugs. ..

the drug war is tantamount to the new jim crow. she does a fantastic job in the new jim crow massive incarceration and the age of colorblindness i believe. she does a phenomenal job of analyzing how policies in the media have really been shaped in the last 40 years and created second-class citizenship for african-americans. she found that there are more blacks actually incarcerated today and were slaves 100 feet d., 200 years ago. the african-american community no doubt has borne the brunt of

the stryker s. because of hyper surveillance and militarized policing type geeks that have been deployed in black communities and communities of color in the country. and i think i may know, building on the frame, it's a new jim crow, it's imperative we understand the drug were actually undoes the gains in the 60s from the civil rights movement. today we have 5 million give or take americans who are unable to vote because of felony convictions. for african-americans, that number is 2 million. 2 million african-americans cannot vote. the majority of those convictions are because of drug convictions. as reverend jackson said, with cody generation and we certainly took their political viability. it's not to say that the impact is so was born on those individual shoulders who had been convicted for what they

may, or as mr. garrison shared with us, may have not been done what they were accused of. the burden really falls on these families and offline communities who have had these individuals stripped out of those communities. you know, there are whole community is where can ask, either in an in african-american men between the ages of 18 and 35 there to help raise the community's children in some communities there are none. they're just simply are none. the voting rights is not the only area in which this problem occurs. there are a number of other bands. people have a difficult time accessing public housing. public essays such as food stamps. they also have a hard time accessing federal student aid for higher education, which has proven to give people better shots than have them participate in higher levels of society and ensure their civic condition as

well. we're really doing a disservice to our community, especially the criminal justice system. there's also consequences because of these policies. our community a lot of times focuses on the incarceration because it is such a visual issue that we can see people are actually missing from our communities. i want to let you know that overdose fatalities are the second-leading pass of accidental death in the united states. second two-car accident, third his handgun discharges. african-americans have one and a half times more likely to die from a drug overdose. there also, as you heard earlier, five times by likely to be infected with hiv and developed full-blown aids. and this is a much prior teaching the fact that syringe exchange funding was blocked for about a decade, a proven method that decreases the spread of

blood born diseases, increases access to treatment and does not increase drug use. so these are some of the consequences that they struck policies. >> thank you very much coverage as men. i want to go to shelton right now. hillary come at the naacp has always been in the forefront of civil rights issues in an organization that you all remember if, want to see that eradicating from the criminal justice system could be redefining civil rights issues for the 21st century. question. has the war on tracks in my teenage been good to people of color communities. and if so, what is the impact? >> absolutely. a couple things. one, what they say now very well mirrors what wap to boy said at the beginning about organization. the major challenge of the 20th century is the issue of

law enforcement and policing in our community. we talk in those terms to warrant drugs and especially the war 40 years ago that makes us question a couple things. first thing affixes questions is why do we declare war on ourselves and what war is. a policy set from the very beginning to stop or block, transmission of drugs in the country to transportation. were we supposed to be at the u.s. from coming in. we turn the line for us and i communities. wouldn't that have meaning is a system where belief ossetian our communities. part of that begins at what happens when you have less to employers, many law enforcement officials don't think they're fair. we tested law-enforcement officials and people who work in a community saturday. is that hillary, we don't even want to force the slot. we just want to do it. we swore in as we passed our exams to enforce laws regardless

that they are. our job is to enforce them. the thing that much more difficult, even police officers not funny to live in a communities for which they serve. washington d.c. is one of those places. the vast majority of police officers in washington d.c. do not have been the same. as such, has created a scenario that those who come in every day to provide protection in our neighborhoods, but they have these every night and this is not my quote, that a quote from some some of her other friends came, it's as if they're some kind of occupying force. as such it is created that distress. what that means that a couple different levels as this. i've had the opportunity to meet with the attorney general's from junior at today. even as we had during the bush administration and opportunities to sit face-to-face to talk to. as much as we agree on trade disagree on issues, they all agree on one thing. you cannot be as in enforcing laws and protecting communities

if you do not have the trust and integrity and perception of integrity very communities they serve. the trust of those people you cannot to crime foresaw the. those who serve don't trust you. so did the system has created a scenario in which the car can make a u-turn in the street and those that may be selling drugs on the corner become so paranoid they open fire on a car family of four. the situation which he could another skin in her house at her stove cookies and law-enforcement officials kicked on the doors to be able to enforce the drug weren't, first went to the wrong place and secondly shooting at grandmother's. and if we talk about the war on drugs has created a scenario in which there is a lack of trust. for all practical purposes, we have become a dysfunctional community because of those put

in place for preventing protection for us. it's a long struggle we have to address, but a scenario which cannot continue to address. one of the reasons is because those distinctions. that is the sentences were given. we attacked a lot about time in prison and that's important. we're a country in which the u.s. makes up 5% of the world population and we make up 25% of the worlds prisons. as such, there is always the inertia to keep those prisons built. don't miss the point that when you have a situation in which money is spent those in the public or in the dirt, they're not as they would you say to create an incentive to protect their economic interests. the economic interest of a private prison is to keep their jail cells old. a scenario in which the lack of trust is also there because we took a look at some of those who

actually have stopped insanities private prisons and turned out to be some of the same people making decisions to create by mandatory minimum sentences. if i protected my investment from retirement, i can't think of a better scan quite frankly. but that is the way it play now. sadly and four shininess let us to a point where we have this lack of support for the system to make it work for us, to create the communities in which we envision, safety and security. finally, let's not forget the talk of the debt amounts in our country. we talk about incarceration, particular people as well. image by likely to receive debt penalty if the victim of your kindness fights and if the perpetrator is black. that is still true in america today. 70% of those on death row right now are african-american. the lowest rates on the bus by being able to push somebody that looks like someone everyone would not oppose. anyone would have a hard time opposing being executed here for

instance, the begin the execution process with timothy mcveigh or killed hundreds of people in oklahoma city oklahoma. behind timothy mcveigh is mr. jones. mr. jones is there for a conspiracy. nobody found, but we're going to kill them anyway. behind him is 6% of the rest of the population that's also going to be there to be sentenced to die. we got to talk about this whole system and how is the fact is actually creating this kind of problem in our communities and costing us more and more. the last thing i will make finally is because they're spending so much on the criminal justice system come you're not spending money in the education system. if we look at the increase of funding for criminal justice, it is grown 125% over the last 20 years. 125%. if you look at our education

system over the same period of time is increased by 20%. we have a problem in america and it's affecting our communities in the way they we're going to have a hard time incorporating, the recuperation is what we must do. >> thank you so much. [laughter] >> , to move to.or chatman. dr. chatman, the national black leadership on aids corliss and various leaders in the african-american community aids so that they are prepared to work effectively with those on the front lines, et cetera, et cetera it. tell us, how has incarceration for drug addiction as part of the warring tribes accelerated the aids epidemic in the african-american community and bison. the groups on the commissioner in a partner with the medical community in combating aids, hepatitis c and drug addiction?

>> yes -- >> speak directly into the microphone. >> thank you for inviting me. i make it a little background. my office -- a practice in the district for 31 years is in northeast washington, near the neighborhood of trinidad and rosedale. trinidad is the neighborhood is somewhat down last year or the year before. over the past 31 years i've had the opportunity to see, look out of my window and see activities they are. not only that, the patients that i've had the opportunity to treat. what we found in their studies -- there is a study at the university of california and her clique that actually showed that the rise in incarceration

of black males corresponded or paralleled the rise in aids in african american women. and we think about it, it makes sense. the milk is in the prison, gets very little treatment, mental health aspect for physical health. there's just been an article published in the new england journal of medicine on june 2nd. an editorial that says only 7% of people who are incarcerated see a psychiatrist and a chill setting. in the state prison only 22%. we know over 50% of people incarcerated have some dsm criteria for mental illness set the incarceration becomes the revolving door. males going to prison,, hot unemployed. their functional capacity with

their family is impaired. their relationships that occur in the prisons, drugs and the prison. males come out, go back home and it makes sense that we would see a rise in aids in african american women. and i actually have a site that demonstrates that. this was in the "washington post" maybe six, seven years ago and it actually shows that in the mid-1980s, roughly for eight mbytes for men and women, today black men are seven times as likely as white men to develop a. the physical and mental health

are connected and we can't separate the two. the new england journal article shows for product was ever chronic disease, those in prison, the incidence of those in prison is much higher than the general population. so we have transferred -- and i don't know if you can remember when the mental health hospitals started closing their doors and putting people out, basically saying it is more humane to put them on the street. the problem is the money did not follow that model soviet teeple who are mentally ill, who have to navigate this very complex health care system, most of whom don't have health insurance so they don't have the opportunity to access the health care system for simple things, that they then have to navigate the very

complex system without getting care so coming out of prison -- there's no doubt in the studies have shown that health care, whether it's physical or mental in prison is not adequate. they are discharged for two weeks of whatever medication and have to send for themselves. so obviously they don't get treatment. so hopefully, with the new model and with the president health care bill, we are now beginning to see people who do not have health insurance in the past field to access health care through medicaid and that has been a testament to my office and that is one of the ways that cassandra got to my office is that she was able to get medicare -- well, she had medicare and medicaid, but she was able to then access

medications she needed. >> thank you. [applause] i know a lot of people were put on the streets as a result of the deinstitutionalization of the mental health system really blend into the criminal justice system as well. i want to turn to judge burnett right now. judge burnett, you're often can tittered legendary shall i say as there is altogether long-standing presence in the judiciary. hilary shelton spoke briefly about some thing. i want you to follow-up on that because one of the key reasons for this massive explosion in incarceration as a result of mandatory minimum sentence been about in the wake of the poor projects. lawrence garrison spoke about 15 years, 19 years, first-time ever been involved. should they be reduced, abolish

for drug offenses? >> you asked a number of questions. thank you for inviting me to be on this panel. i represent the national african-american drug policy coalition, which is a coalition of 25 other organizations under an umbrella organization to address the issues of unlawful treatment of african-americans in the criminal justice system and availability of health care and treatment for substance abuse. the very bedrock of our creation back in 2004 was the idea that drug addiction and dependency should be treated as a disease. and if it is treated as a disease, it's like any other -- a thick mental illness. a person who possesses a small quantity of drugs for a person

who may even incidentally get their own supply, we should treat it as insanity defense and they shouldn't even go in the criminal justice system. we talk about diverting them from the criminal justice system to drug courts, victor crist only deal with 13 or 15% of the people any day. so opposition and we hope that health care reform act that a person who possesses a small quantity of drugs will sell the small quantity because of a compulsion to use tags, even if given a citation or intercepted a enforcement power refers to the community help planning board to a health care facility for substance abuse treatment of sick mission duration to affect the care and never even enter the criminal justice system. so that was their number one goal, was to make substance abuse treatment and mental health treatments to occur with

available on demand. a person has to commit a crime to get into drug court and wait and see the prosecutor will be benevolent and then dismiss the jobs. also, the african-american drug coalition has been a strong supporter of senator webb's bill, which created the national crime commission to look at the whole picture of not only the death penalty, but integration of charter fares on whether or not we have overly impose mandatory sentences for politicians to be a did and indeed, look up certain european countries, where drug offenses in most countries and much less in duration and money. mandatory sentences should be abolished and judges take oath

to support the constitution. they are to be trusted to exercise session based on an individualized determination of what sentence is appropriate for this person and none of and a conspiracy and how much drugs was involved and pulled the unlike a vacuum cleaner. so the whole point was -- [applause] judicial discretion in sentencing should be 100% prerogative of a judge and we ought to look at the length of sentences in duration. this gets back to the economic issue. indeed i worked with senator webb asked congress and even testified at george mason university in the initial opening. i then look at that issue as to the complications involved in a slinky and long sentences. the imported myers and believe it or not, law enforcement support the bill and passed in

the house flashier with some senator in the senate. maybe have a protected interest, the bill did not get through the senate last time. the bill was introduced this year in february at eight. senate 306 in addition to the naacp, the national association for international association teach the police and the american bar association have heard endorsed it. we've endorsed the bill and we hope that republicans control an emphasis on current and, they will see the wisdom of having this commission created to cut the cost of excessive incarceration in america. most importantly of course is we need to give emphasis to this commission is equivalent to the depths that commission. we have 20% to 25% of our people

affected in this country and we have to give it the level of consideration that would get the deficit commission by way of human impact. number two, we have to make sure they have people with open minds and not predetermined agendas. people who are willing to listen to the actual evidence, whether renate criminal law enforcement tracks are whether we can educate her way. we looked at the prohibition period. the question is, are we better off now with the law as it is that people using their own judgment. we've educated people. can we educate our people with a lot less cost and a lot less human damage. >> thank you. [applause] >> and i think that is a good segue to a next speaker, deborah

small. now without a doubt, it really is the most articulated, passionate person on issues dealing with policy and more and tracks worldwide. i just have to say that. but can he talk to us about just how we got where we are, some of the history and connections in parallel is you see between alcohol prohibition of yesterday and tried prohibition today as well as the politics around those. >> thank you all for being here and thank you judge burnett. does a perfect segue to what i want to talk about. >> we've done this before. [laughter] >> it's been a long time i tell you. i'll let to go back to jesse jackson's remarks at the very beginning of his he challenged us by saying that even thinking of the drug war is a failure, but in fact it's a success. it is a success of things in the

senate to do, which was about not reducing drugs, but policing poor people. i think we have to remember that because if you think about it, we are to have a time in our country where we experimented with the idea of controlling people's behavior and access to something that they wanted. it was called alcohol prohibition. what did that produce? a lot of crime, a lot of violent. with the people who were arrested? it wasn't a big guys who were smuggling the koran, the speaker manufacturers, et cetera. now, it was the immigrants, the poor people. the working class people in cities all over the country with the law was designed for in the first place. it is if you go back and look at the history, you see the people who put for these proposals today specifically with the idea and intention of using it to control the poor, the marginalized and the powerless. and martin luther king said one of the ways that you know a lot inside just as if it was enacted

by the majority to be imposed on the minority. so we need to actually ask ourselves, where all the way joe juicers, the ones we see an intervention and breaking god and all the other programs on tv telling us white folks are using drugs every day. how come we don't see them behind ours? why is that? because the goal of chart prohibition was never about control and the turkeys that the majority population. it was always to be about controlling us. and for me, the most important thing for us to think about is two things. one, the context of declaring the war and tracks, was just before that? ueda civil rights movement of black people have reached a point where they said were tired of being psychic class with respect to the law. we want something different. when we moved from demanding our basic civil rights to demanding

human rights and economic rights, that is when we became a threat. the drug war was about killing black nationalist movements and also about killing the peace movement, anti-or movement, movement of white people who decided they didn't want to become corporate and that criminalizing them and using the issue of tracks, you no longer had to do a substance of what they were doing. you cannot focus on them as criminals and lock them up and thereby shut their voices. so brother garrison who talked earlier about the hundreds and thousands of our men who should be in our community bandleaders, and their voices were intentionally shut. they're intentionally put there in order to deprive us of the leadership and strong family structure we need. for me, and the other thing i feel is important for us to talk about today is where we are is the community about this. the reality is the system would not appeal to do it to us if we didn't tolerate it.

so for me, one of the conversations that we really need to have in our community is where we are in the punishment paradigm. we know america was built on punishment. the people came here came here because they were fleeing punishment. many were convicts who was sent here as felons. we shouldn't be surprised they brought with them propensity for punishment and also brought us and for 400 years we were subject to the idea of punishment as a form of behavior modification. but now we need to look at where we've internalized that. where is that we not only have become so inured to it, do we do it for yourself because we're the ones who allowed the police to keep snatching our young men and women away for things they are not doing any other community. i just read an article in "the new york times," where mayor lugar and challenged him the reason why so many minority youths are being arrested for marijuana possession, an offense

decriminalized 40 years ago in order to protect white youths is now the principal reason why young black and latino men are arrested in which he said is this was in effect to his crime-fighting tool and the fact these kids ended up having to spend two days in jail being booked, fingerprinted and there was no big deal to reduce crime. as you ask me whether he would say that in westchester or any of the way communities in new york city, then you would have the nerve to stand and say to people that are public safety depends on my humiliating your children, my putting them through something and would never want to go through my cells. but it's okay because after all i'm doing it for your own good. when are we as a community going to start saying no to that, saying no to that? [applause] so -- [applause] i'm really happy to be here, but

frankly i'm not in the conversation about reforming drug laws for fixing drug attics because quite frankly, we are much more willing and our community to focus on fixing people than six institutions. it's the institutions that have been hurting our people since the day we arrived here in massachusetts. so we need to get off of that and really start focusing on that, which means we need to enter prohibition, not and reduce sentences, not put people into drug courts. we need to end prohibition. if we in drug prohibition, find ourselves at the same set of circumstances we did when we ended up a whole prohibition. it didn't get rid of alcohol prohibition or people beating folks when they were using alcohol, but did give us the opportunity to spend her money in a better way, take it away from the criminal element. i don't know how many black folks i know who made money by running liquor stores.

i mean, luscious be real about it. it gave us the opportunity to take an egg a day then reduce negativity associated, not necessarily eliminate completely. i must have a conversation about the ability for us to regulate and control drugs on which is what we did prior to 1914. let's not pretend this is some radical thing. there is a time and all the tracks illicit were legal, when they were controlled by doctors come you got them from premises and in the first early years of drug prohibition, we had hair when maintenance clinics in the u.s. -- and the u.s. don't let anyone tell you it can't do these things. now, it can happen here. >> thank you, deborah. what did i tell you? neil, don't go too far because that was exactly to you. [laughter] neil franklin. now, my goodness, you spent law

enforcement with the vast majority of those years involved in aggressive enforcement of drug laws, arresting people, mainly black folks, seizing money, seizing property. indeed, i'm not too long ago nearly saw you in tears when you are reminiscing the level of your past involvement in the war on drugs. so how does it form a lot of fish and make a 180-degree turn to where you have not dedicated your life to ending prohibition? >> before i start on that question, a couple quick comments. if you've never seen god at work, look around. look around. and i have to acknowledge bishop ron allen. this has got to work. he and i have in the past been on opposite respect to its, but

i guarantee you, we will find common ground. no doubt whatsoever. [applause] so how did i get here after spending so much time to manage our task forces undercover, being one of the most aggressive drug prohibition itself they are in a law enforcement community? and i wished it mayor curt, currently the dean of howard law school is here because he was a great influence to me. being a baltimore native, when he was mayor of that city. and you know, he had the courage to step forward after being the prosecutor and mayor prosecuting from a cramped respect. as mayor sought help perspective

with aids and hepatitis and you've heard about that today. as a lieutenant, i had the pleasure to sit on the exchange force and i got to listen to the conversation and fellowship with him. but when i left, after i got promoted them back into drug enforcement, it was there. the associate planet or didn't bustamante. needed some water in. so i went back into narcotics commanding taskforces on the eastern shore of maryland and ended my career there as a commander of the training division for the maryland state police, but the very year afterward, this was the water --

i don't know if you can see that, but that is a photograph of that holy at my retirement just a few months before he was assassinated. and he was presenting the shadow box to me, which encompasses my career. a few months after that, he and i had a conversation. now, and it was one of the best narcotics agents the state of maryland have ever seen. and the only time i ever saw him in uniform was twice, shortly after he graduated from the police academy in about 14 years later when we put them in a scoffing. october, just after, what you

see here he was assigned to the fbi and narcotics task force and that's interesting of itself because the mob for a snack we recruit these young black police officers raping they come in, to go into narcotics. why is that? you've heard wife from hillary and temporary you've wife. and not only do we recruit them into narcotics, but then we find them not to other law enforcement agencies to work communities of color, black communities. now, he was working with the fbi in washington d.c., black communities. and ed and i just a couple weeks before he was assassinated were having conversations about this case he was working, buying from a mid-level dealer where he would make this final purchase of and wrapped up the case, as

we do. doesn't usually go much further than that. and one night i get a call in the middle of the night -- my wife and i get in the car. it was a coworker said it had been shot october 30, 2000. i know exactly what it was. we get in the car and drive down to pg general hospital, but it's too late. so, that's the water for me. it's that feed. it was shortly after that that i

started doing research and then i started finding the information the u.s. and been given today. you know, when your eyes are finally open, pause and look around. so for those of you whose eyes are opened today, pause for a moment and learn when taken all this information every day, every week of in some they knew about the devastating impact of these policies. in denver, thank you so much. judge iconic thank you so much because we have to dismantle the system of drug prohibition. it needs to go. there is no tinkering with it. no trying to fix it. it needs to be dismantled.

[applause] it needs to be dismantled i'll close with this. it's not just about cops, folks. every day they drive by shootings, running gun battles, innocent people. this year from baltimore, just remember that dawson family of seven who was murdered a couple years after ad, all seven in their home by the neighborhood drug dealer. [applause] >> many politicians have tried to offer easy answers to the drug problem by targeting the peasant armors to produce them. they say we know what drugs are coming from, so why don't we go down there and destroy those drugs before they can impact our communities in the u.s. the know, we've been doing that for a decade and nothing seems

to change. so what is wrong with that kind of approach? >> well, first of all, thank you for inviting me here. those of you more observant in the audience might realize one of us doesn't look quite like the others on this panel. [laughter] , but i assure you i am part of the original dias brad from africa. my charges have been to leave 30,000 years earlier. but all of the sinister than an idea watching television connected to africa. we are all part of the same human family and their other commonalities between the drug producing countries and the turkmens that i want to dwell on because that reflects common humanity and as you see the inhumanity and want to talk about what we do there in those countries.

and so, the countries that -- what unites these communities is what i call the pda problem. i don't mean personal digital assistant. i mean poverty, despair and alienation. that is what connects people who consume drugs or victims of the drug were in the united states and also the peasant farmers who grow these crops and are marginalized in their own countries. just to give you some sense of the realities, and countries like colombia, peru, bolivia were a lot of a lot of is grown for afghanistan with the poppies and are produced, were talking about people who live in extreme poverty. it's not uncommon for people to live below the official poverty line about $2 a day. so these are people who happen to live in very remote areas also come what there's not a lot of state prisons, not a lot of

grosser markets or electricity, but no police, no military should tell that he cannot come up with a better way of feeding your family. when you combine that with the high demand of the united states and other drug consuming countries plus the policies of prohibition and its prohibition that is the engine that drives this monster. but these peasant farmers are producing are essentially mentally processed agricultural oddities, things like. these are easy to produce, cheap to produce. it is our policies of prohibition that though the profit, the price supported the system. that is why people kill each other. that's why people continue to do this year after year, decade after decade. and so, we make these things more valuable than gold and wonder why they don't disappear. the more we escalate law enforcement, the higher the possibility of someone getting captured in the smuggling chain and the longer the prison

sentence they may have to serve in the higher likelihood syndicate killed by the smuggling. they are making extreme profits off of things that i too have no value. these drugs often cost pennies per dose and yet we have this incredible price. the last people we want to drug courts and are the kingpins, smugglers because that is their profit. we give them support your drug were. [applause] so, when you combine these factors together, extreme poverty, high demand in the amount of land, keep in mind, colombia's bigger than texas and california combined. peru the same. these are usually in assets. you cannot police this kind of territory and stop people from doing these things when they have no other options. they live in remote areas and

going alyssa cops makes good economic sense because it's easy to transport a little opium for. imagine if you are living far away from many pros, he said was haitian until the meat or something else, pineapples and bananas. to transport vehicles you don't have over rows that literally don't exist, to sell and market you can't get access to it if you could, could you be against cheap business imports often subsidized by our tax dollars against which these peasant farmers don't stand a chance. [applause] that's why these things don't work. >> just give all of our cameras a big applause right now. [applause] i was prepared to do another round, but what we're going to do is open it up to you right now for questions. there's about four or five questions before you bring it the executive tour, ron daniels to close this out. so mary daniels or someone is going to come around with a

microphone. before, communications formerly with the national newspaper publishers association just really want to thank for this effort. [applause] okay, okay, let's go to quasi. >> i'd like to respond. thank you. you put a dead on point. we talk about -- you know cool we had the discussion along time ago where we collect racial disparity. we need to call it what it is. it's racism. it's institutional racism. the drug policy is institutional racism, jim crow revived after 68, the sister pointed out. nothing has changed. just like between 1865 in 1875 come at the end reconstruction

would read it back into slavery. does the same thing they did. they put us right back where we started. and we continue to do this. it's about the community. what are we saying? we need to stop impolite names on this. we need to collect that it is an understand that i mind this is a war and as. i may not just use that as some kind of a banner. >> to the specific question? thank you. [applause] >> thank you. in the course of responding to questions, someone hopefully will address the global commission on drug policy, we go from here and of course the question. >> introduce yourself. >> and carry with the regional justice initiatives. want to push back a little bit about what was taught today because to a certain extent were speaking to the choir. none of this year are typically in any disagreement.

we need to change the narrative into me the biggest narrative we have difficulty in changing is the media narrative. what we know here is true and the facts are out out here in the system we see isn't sanity. i want to ask you out, what is your vision of changing the narrative? thank you. [applause] >> who would like to respond? >> i probably represent one of the most conservative in the state. we claim that we are and recognize we have every cd, every state in the united states, but also military bases, korea and japan. the narrative has to change too in that kind of programs we have right now. also importantly as judge burnett laid out, we've got to pass the justice commission act. let me tell you i say that. we have this kind of conversations and discussions some kind of marginalize small community fringe thinkers than what we need is to secure

communities. if we create this federal criminal justice commission, indians were able to bring all of these issues to the forefront, to the light. we'll be holding hearings across the country where we can talk about these disparities, the racism in the process. most americans are not aware of what the actual outcome or result has been that these deeply troubling and deeply problematic policies. they don't know. most people don't know when we talk about disaffected i'm not crack cocaine issue, we made history you'll hear from bobby scott back away from the whole delivery system to just a little bit of racism. but we did is we change the policies from 100.18 to one. african-americans made up 84% of those convicted of crack usage, but only make up about 12% of

those that actually use crack. that kind of data most people are not of words and we've got to share that. let's talk about why everybody's using drugs at the same rate. the enforcement is one so detrimental and problematic that it has the effect we've seen at destabilizing the entire communities. we have african american males. one third of african-american males get caught up in the criminal justice system by the 10 or 20 for years old. what that means is they eliminated a whole lot of opportunities to be with the a vote. most people not connecting the law just passed in florida and in five years to rehabilitating your franchise, you're right to vote for those who pay their tattoos sadie are back on the streets. they have to fight for years before they can vote. well, it effects our folks. they want to be -- as innocuous

as it sounds, the criminal justice system talking about things like photo ids. photo ideas to be able to vote. i've got a drivers license. i can use that. well, he did statistical as well. we found out only -- the 25%, one quarter of all voting age african-americans will not be able to vote under the present photo i.d. system. we do not have the expected level of photo ideas. we have to go to the polls in november. guess who that's going to affect? indeed we had to tie all this together. it's good to see senator webb has reintroduced the bill in the senate. we passed in the house last year and we've got to do it again. >> thank you, hillary. were going to coach our next

question to keep our response is kind of grief. >> i want to respond briefly on the media, which is quite frankly that we need to accept the fact we have a corporate media now. we no longer have to stay committed to informing the populace. as a result of that, we actually have a democracy very much compromise. i want to just make the point of the civil rights movement didn't come about because we were able to change the media conversation about white people that have been believed they needed to change the laws. it changed when we as a community decided we wanted something different. and we're at a place in this country where that's going to be true not just with respect to the narrative or on criminal justice. look at the narrative around labor. look at the narrative around work. that's intentional. it's intentional in order to keep a status that group, as a

country. we need to stop having us believe the media is going to change because as long as it is done by people like rupert urbach and all the other corporatists come it's going to kid you to kid you need his garbage. if we want something real, we have to create our own media. we have to start having their own communication amongst ourselves. we need to take a page out of the book was happening in the middle east start doing that here. [applause] >> i will just say, it's important for us to embrace the reentry move because the hundreds of thousands of americans coming home every year from prisons in their successful stories of reentering society in rebuilding their lives need to be shared because it is proof. it's absolute truth noah needs to spend as long in prison if at all as is currently happening. >> good afternoon. i'd like to thank all the guests

on the panel. the question that hopefully many of you can respond to. we've heard a number of drivers, everything from crying to poverty, race of course. i might just mention to the 2 million veterans served in iraq and afghanistan and conservatively speaking, 25% of those people have been diagnosed with some form of mental health impairments, including ptsd, military, for much of the imagery. i'd like to get your opinion about those who suffers violence, that are going to represent the next democratic because drug users and alcohol abusers et cetera in your opinion on proactive intervention support and other programs to go to african-americans, particularly who have served in iraq and afghanistan. >> i think that's a great question and there is no doubt that our veterans have been

underserved as they come home and that is true for every war we've had. my own brother fought in desert storm and instead now from a cocaine overdose on his 37th ward. he literally came back not right. he suffered from alcoholism addiction for a long time and eventually graduated onto using cocaine. but you're right it's a crisis. there's increasing numbers of veterans using substances and honor higher risk. i mentioned earlier the second leading cause of accidental deaths, but also try to cater, health care insurance for veterans and active duty does not provide replacement therapy coverage. for individuals who have addiction to hear what her pain medication, they're unable to have their method uncovered by insurance to use replacement therapies that have been widely,

widely successful. >> okay -- okay, i'm sorry. >> coming from the medical community, i think this really explains by i had a revelation and over the past 15 years and began to see that it was extremely important as an individual practitioner and as part of the medical community to join forces with the most structured organization in our community and that is the african-american church sellout of that -- are the seven years, backup was created 22 years ago in new york. we developed a chapter here under the leadership of reverend dr. frank tucker three years ago so understanding that the model for health care is a spiritual, mental and physical model.

reverend catherine bickle was one of my mentors when i first started doing drug treatment. in her acronym was always this you have to have compassion, commitment and competence. there is no place in our community that's stronger than the african-american church in terms of compassion, commitment and competence. by joining forces with the medical community, we bring science that we educate the past reason the board of the affiliated churches. this is a massive undertaking. it's difficult to get eight or nine different denominations to work together and agree on anything. these are not just christian churches. we have been on in our organization, so that -- drug

addiction has no racial barriers, no economic barriers. you're just likely to see a child in the suburbs. we can talk about suburban kids going to the medicine cabinet is now commit getting grandmas oxycontin. for the children in our communities who also suffer from ptsd because of the trauma they see everyday. so it is not just returning veterans. it is all of our community and we are getting bombarded from multiple sources. i'm glad you mentioned replacement. p. that was an evolutionary process for me. when i was in medical school in the late 70s, almost got a moment to alzheimer's. couldn't even get my motor run when i graduated. the point was to use methadone for use replacement therapy was

considered replacing one with another. that was before we knew anything about aids. that was before we even identified hepatitis c. we called at 98, nine p. now we have these plagues associated with drug use also upon us, so one has to grow. one has to learn. it's about reading the science to service, bringing science to service. my job is burning the science to the religious community and they are the ones that have the closest contact with the community. so that saves us a lot of time and energy if they sit down and listen and they are listening. disconnected -- midi connection