they engage in military conflict there and gasoline prices rise. how can gm rally to adjust to the much higher gasoline prices? >> thank you for your service. i was in the navy for five years and did not serve in vietnam. we faced off against the then soviet union. i have unlike a lot of people these days believe in political leadership that they come to the right decision. i think it's a benefit to have served and think those are the folks who are the last to want to go to war. i would think seriously and deeply and hard about commits

our young men and women to combat whether it's iran or vietnam or iraq. that's a citizen in me. i want to restrict my commentary as a role of ceo of general motors. i hold these young men and women in the highest regard. it breaks your heart when you hear they give so much to us and we are a big sponsor of everything to do with veterans. we have 3,000 veterans and we made a choice if someone goes. back in the day as they say, when one of our employees goes away, we still pay them the same. they get paid $3,000 and we will make up the 2,000. we want them to feel like their families are protected.

we in conjunction with the uaw give the wounded warriors and i am very involved with veterans affairs. we have an affinity group that is active. they do food baskets for soldiers. everywhere in the country. we support the wounded. we saw there with the army-navy game that i go to all the time. it's very important that we mead with the wounded veterans. i share your concern and pray for peace. >> we will have to end it there. thanks to dan ackerson. ceo of general motors. thank you all for coming.

>> tonight c-span's road to the white house with live coverage of the alabama and mississippi primaries begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern. it includes speeches by the candidates from their primary headquarters and election results. you can join in the conversation by phone and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span has well as on twitter at twitter.com/c-span. we will have a portion of our road to the white house coverage online at c-span.org's educated site. campaign 2012. david cameron is in town this week. he and president obama are headed toidate dayton ohio to a basketball game. tomorrow the president will host the program and an official dinner at the white house. we will have live coverage of

the prime minister's arrival at the white house as well as the guests attending and toasts from both leaders. c-span.org will screen arrival in their entirety and watch it on c-span at 6:15 eastern. >> c-span's local content vehicle cities tour takes book television and american history programming on the road. the first weekend of each month. march featured shreveport, louisiana with book tv at the noel memorial library. >> it was a local man who was born here and lived here most of his life. he started accumulating books when he was a teenager and continued into his 80s. over his lifetime he accumulated over 200,000 volumes. if we have a gem in the collection, it is probably going to be this one. one of the books we are most proud of. it's in the original binding from 1699. it was once owned by a very

famous scientist. you can see he has written his name, i newton. we are not pulling it out so much because it is starting to flake away on the title page. >> american tft tv looked at medical practices. >> pioneer medicine is a long stretch from what it is today. things like the instruments being as germ he free as possible. or the doctor washed his hands and we use the term loosely. a lot of these doctors were self-taught or worked under somebody else and getting ready to retire. they would learn as they went. >> our cities tour continues the weekend of march 31st and april 1st from little rock, arkansas on c-span 2 and 3.

>> congratulations to all this year's winner on student cam video documentary competition. a record number of students and the constitution and you, showing which part is important to them and why. watch all the videos at our website. student cam.org and join us as we show the top 27 videos on c-span and talk with the winners during washington journal. >> richard bran and the chair of switzerland on changes to the drug policy. both witnesses who serve on the 19-panel global commission on drugs policy recommend the government should treat drug abuse as a health issue and not a crime. they added this approach would reduce drug addiction levels. the comments last about 50 minutes.

>> we advise the witnesses to come in. >> declare any additional interests that are over the members's interests. >> thank you very much for coming to evidence today. this is the committee's first evidence session in our major inquiry into drugs. the last time the committee considered this question was ten years ago. in fact, i think only mr. will action is a survivor of the last report. we made a number of recommendations and normal of

which were accepted by the government then or accepted now. we will be looking at the drug policy over the last ten years. as we know, the number of people who use drugs increased enormously and the work of the commission is of great interest to us. can i start with this question? the color in the daily dell graph, you said that the war on drugs and basically that policy makers all over the world that spent a trillion dollars on fighting this war to no effect. why did say that? >> we wondered whether this 30 seconds is a statement to open up. we would like to thank you and the committee for inviting

myself to give evidence from the findings on the global commission. we understand this is a first hearing for ten years and we welcome them to give evidence and answer questions. the global commission investigated the workings of over 50 years of the existing drug control system. we found that it has totally failed to stop the growth of drug trade. the commission proposed a few principals to see how governments deal with drugs. the first policy should be based on evidence and empirical data. the second should focus on the rights of citizens and protecting public health. third, government should take a flexible approach towards coordination and governments around the world have started to recognize the waste and the human toll of our existing approach. there models to look at like switzerland, germany, the netherlands and portugal where ten years ago it led to a large

reduction in other drug use and massive drops in property crime, hiv and violence. i hope this hearing can start a new debate around the policy and we look forward to discussing this with you today. we need obviously to reduce the prime and social problems associated with drug markets in whatever way is most effective. also i will say a couple of words. >> the chairman arestein ask questions. >> i want to say how i can give evidence from my experience and as a woman of the global commission, i was for ten years minster of health and as

witserland. during the time of my responsibility, we introduced a change in the law and introduced new kinds of harm reduction and treatments. i think i can give you evidence you want to hear. >> that's why you are here. to answer questions. and members will have questions. going back to my initial question, why was it lost? they consist of five ex-presidents, a former secretary general and former u.s. secretary and all these people, your fellow commissioners including federal counsellor were in charge of the policy. you are saying it failed. why did it fail? >> most of these feel that they made the wrong decisions when they were in a position to do something about it. that's why they decided to

become members of the commission. this is one of the few exceptions to that. they made a big difference. most of them felt like they made the wrong choice in trying to effectively due to drugs, what was going to alcohol for 20 years in america and try to deal with it as a health problem. what the commission did was looked at countries like portugal and switzerland and other countries. realized that there were better ways. >> thank you for raising portugal. it's different from the united kingdom. consumption of drugs in europe were the three biggest countries. portugal and switzerland are very small countries. when you congratulated the

portuguese for decriminalization, did you see an increase in drug use? you saw an increase or a decrease? >> a decrease. first of all, yes, portugal is a smaller country than britain, but if you break britain up into smaller units, city by city, that gives us no reason why you can't get the same results. what portugal did was years ago they had a massive drug problem. heroin was ramp and aant and th moved drugs from the department and the home office to the health department. they said to the health department, you are now in charge. nobody will be sent to prison and not one person has been sent to prison for taking drugs in the last ten years. they then have either taken heroin or go to get clean

needles and they have helped people who have heroin problems get off heroin. and the amount of people taking heroin dropped by 50%. >> you are a politician. the message that goes out if you decriminalize to a country like switzerland is pretty stark. doesn't it send the wrong message to the public that if you decriminalize, it says you can use the drugs? >> no. the country if you say it is a public health problem, you have to cure people who are ill and dependent of a drug. i think it's a strong message that if you criminalize. i am sure that the young people and they are those who we need to avoid them entering, we don't want to be considered these people. they want to have a kick and

experiment with something of what is allowed. when you medicalize it, it is the thing that can avoid them entering into that. we had no increase in the consumption in switzerland. going 15 years of experimenting and the new policy. the main problem is we are confronted with criminal organization changing the substance and bringing new things and new cakes. this is the problem. >> they carry drugs each

unwittingly and tougher sentences on those who deal in drugs. is that something that you support? the retail trade worth 332 billion pounds. they should be treated more leniently than organized criminals. >> the commission has asked countries to experiment with different scenarios than what they have done in the past. the commission said they feel it should be treated more leniently than the people behind who often resort to violence and major criminal activities and they should be coming down harder on those people. i think for the cost that finds it more appropriate than prison sentences, i suspect that other members have both of that.

>> sir? >> i think have you to have punishments being proportional and efficient and i think you have to have a different kinds for different people and the street deals are not the aim we have really to put our means to criminalize the organization. >> thank you. >> firstly, you referred to the sentencing council. that seems to have said nothing about what works in terms of reducing supply. do you have comments on that? >> i didn't exactly catch that. >> the question that i believe is very important in dealing with what level of sentence is what works in terms of reducing whatever the nuisance is that

you are seeking to address. do you have anything to say on the effectiveness of sentencing? >> yes. i think we have to look at which kind of sentence and what are the harms of such sentence. for instance -- >> that's a different issue. i was asking specifically about what works in terms of reducing supply. if you don't have any -- >> i would say i mean the question of the supply terrible. you take somebody from the street dealer. the day after they have people at the same place. the other thing is what was a summary of condition and i congratulate you on that. they are usually much longer.

they said decriminalization being tried. you referred to hol ant which is often cited as an example. i look to the situation of years ago and they didn't decriminalize drug use. they produced a policy on leasing and enforce am. they moved away from that approach as a result of the city. why do you cite that as an example. >> the decriminalization was as well. portugal is the one country that was decriminalizing all drugs. it's not one person has gone to prison in the last ten years. that saved the country a lot of money in prison costs. >> you went in relation to holland? >> no.

>> may i ask something? >> this was just to be used in order not to have a conflict with neighbor countries, but for their own population. they have the same policy? because they think that this policy is really using the deal and harm of having the open deal in the streets. i know from switzerland, we had really to look with our neighbor countries and how to have a known policy without jepardizing. this is important, i think. >> i want to go back to some of the comments you made about portugal. you said that heroin use was reduced by 50%. therefore there still 50% of people who were previously

using, still using heroin. that presumably had the health department in portugal. who supplies the heroin to those dealers? >> presumably through their supplier. >> that doesn't take out? >> 50% is a great step in the right direction. it's not just a reduction, but a reduction and you all said have not they had the situation and the amount of deaths is over 50% as well. the amount of hiv infections is over 50%. >> that's presumably. >> yes. it's a combination. not regulating and checking on

the drugs, it's three people died in hospitals from taking ecstasy and they were laced with pmma. so at the moment it was unregulated with nobody checking up on what gets the taking. >> there is still surely a criminal element within portugal where people are buying heroin? >> portugal, what the commission said is they would love countries to experiment with new system. the particular system is to say nobody who takes drugs will be put in prison. we are not regulating and taxing drugs. they haven't gone that far. therefore they do have an underground and if they can get

methadone treatment they don't have the need to go to the underworld to get the drugs. instead of them being frightened about them being put in prison, there those who buy them on how to get help. >> may i trust that switzerland, there is legal here. >> right. >> in your article yesterday, they said drugs are dangerous and they need to be regulated. in the uk, we have decriminalization. we still allow the police discretion as to whether they charge or offer diversion programs into treatment. can i ask what specific improvements of the uk

regulation you would recommend. >> from the uk, 100,000 young people are arrested every year and it's growing for taking drugs. 75,000 of those young are criminal records which will mean it might be difficult for them to travel to seven countries. and what they would do is by actually moving drugs into the health department and not into the home office, if people had problems, just like in portugal, they should go in front of the panel of health experts to try to help them. if my brother or sister or children have a drug problem, i do not want the law to get involved and most people wouldn't want the law to get involved.

they want them to get help. >> how do you study the strategy? >> i haven't myself personally. i'm sure the commission has? >> it includes early intervention and intensive support for young people and a number of policies that include education and health. all the different departments which are intended to provide diversion and avoid exactly the criminal roots which you are proposing. on a specific regulator change which would, you think, change the processes at which you are criticizing? >> that may be the case in writing, but there is 100,000. >> this is just structure. >> if next year the 100,000 people are not prosecuted for taking drugs, but they are helped and particularly those

who have series drug problems, the commission would welcome that. what the commission is doing is not saying this is how each country should behave. we are suggesting that the current way has come up with new ways. >> thank you. thanks very much both of you for speaking. for 1971 past the vision was that it eliminates the illegal drug use and we haven't achieved that. are you familiar with the center for drugs and drug addiction that said the uk spend more on drug strategy. .48% and yet in the top few, top for amphetamines and highest for use by young people in the last year. we will probably catch up there.

given that we arether european does that suggest that we ought to have a different strategy? >> yes. brief answer. >> also if i can follow-up on that, as i understand it, you may know more than i do, those are the only two places where the lead agency deal with drugs such as the home or equivalent. everyone else it's a helpful lead. what the lead agency is and whether we start off with a public health problem and whether it's a criminal justice problem. >> if it comes under health, it's a health issue and everything will be -- every bit of concern will be about the individual and making sure they get better and especially those

people who had too much drugs. they should be helped. the commission urges governments to treat them as a health issue and not a criminal issue. >> yes. i think in switzerland, my experience is really that we begin to change our policy because it was an urgency. also because the police force were disappeared. about the job that was endless, we were beginning with the same people and the same activity. i think they were very happy to have the leadership of the health industry, but it was our duty to have a good collaboration between all people working with drug problems and this was the most important thing that they learned to cope

with. they learned to understand also and help each other. to take one example, they took evidence for the crime. you could have a place where you receive challenges and policemen taking them just after this distribution. we have to learn to work together and i think this was an important process in switzerland. under the leads of the authorities. >> with the police agencies dealing with organized crime, they are syphoning up a huge amount of the money. >> i think the police have to concentrate on the organized crime and concentrate on money laundering and concentrate on the group at issue with drug