scholars to talk about future technologies that could be used to modernize the military. ton general james dunford discuss u.s. defense strategy. on c-span at 8:30 a.m. eastern officials from the military federal agencies and government contractors discuss cyber security, artificial intelligence, and military applications for space. on c-span3 cyber security officers from the military, federal agencies, and private industry on preventing cyber attacks on elections, individuals, and companies at 8:00 a.m. on today's "washington journal" looking at done violence prevention proposals with chris brown from the brady advocacy association. and tim chapman talks about the recent survey on issues

important to conservatives in 2020 and the republican party's future agenda. and later the drug policy alliance's kassandra joins us to discuss the history of the war on drugs. [video clip] more need more prisons, jails, more courts, more prosecutors. i am requesting altogether $1.5 billion in drug-related spending on law enforcement. ♪ former president george h. w. bush on september 5, 1989, what many site as the beginning of the u.s. war on drugs. good morning, this is "washington journal." 30 years later, the fight against drug abuse continues with news yesterday from president trump of another $2 billion in funding for the opioid crisis.

the first hour talking about the legacy of the war on drugs. what experience have you had with it? the numbers to call for those in eastern and central time zones, that is 202-748-8000. the mountain and pacific regions, 202-748-8001. we also welcome your comments on our facebook page, facebook.com/cspan. and send us a tweet at @cspanwj. we will show you momentarily the news yesterday from the oval office from president trump. the reporting in the washington times, trump doles out nearly $2 million for opioid fight is their headline. we want to give you a chance to go back 30 years and hear that notable speech from george h. w. bush about the war on drugs. here is a bit more from that speech. [video clip] >> this is the first time since taking the oath of office i

thought it issue was so threatening that it warranted talking directly with you, the american people. all of us agree the gravest domestic threat is drugs. drugs have strained our faith in our system of justice, our legal system stretched to the breaking point. the social cost of drugs are mounting. in short, drugs are sapping our strength as a nation. turn on the evening news or pick up the evening paper and you will see what some americans know just by stepping out the front door. our most serious problem today is cocaine and in particular, crack. who is responsible? let me tell you, everyone who uses drugs, everyone who sells drugs, and everyone who looks the other way. i will tell you how many americans are using illegal drugs and i will present our

national strategy to deal with this threat and i will ask you to get involved in what promises to be a very difficult fight. this is crack cocaine. seized a few days ago by drug enforcement agents in a park across the street from the white house. it could easily have been heroin or pcp. it is as innocent looking as candy, but it is turning our cities into battle zones and murdering our children. let there be no mistake, this stuff is poison. some call drugs harmless recreation, they are not. they are a real and terribly dangerous threat to our neighborhoods, our friends, and families. us is out of harms way and four-year-olds play in playgrounds strewn with discarded hypodermic needles.

it breaks my heart when cocaine, one of the most deadly and addictive illegal drugs is available to schoolkids, it is an outrage. when hundreds of thousands of a beast are born each year to mothers who use drugs, premature babies born desperately sick and even the most defenseless above us -- among us are at risk. host: we are talking about the legacy of the war on drugs. 202-748-8000 for those in the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 mountain and pacific time zones. the late president there using a prop for probably one of the first times in a presidential speech. where the white house got that prop is an interesting back story. the white house set up a drug buy in the park. government agents lured a drug

dealer in front of the white house for a prop. a move the president the tended act -- defended after the speech . some figures on where we are on the war on drugs, the arrest for drug possession and drug dealing each year, take a look at this chart area here is 1990, 700,000 arrests for a position -- possession in the u.s., 400,000 for distribution. the change to 2017 for sale and manufacture, 200000 and the possession number doubled since 1989. your thoughts. let's hear first from shelby in baltimore, maryland. good morning. caller: i am a trauma surgeon and a critical-care doctor in

the maryland, baltimore, d.c. area. the amount of patients we see that come in under violence because of pcp, heroin, et cetera is astounding. because we work in intensive care units, i have been dumbfounded by how many patients in their young 20's have come in in cardiac arrest because of heroin needing to tell families their loved ones are gone and these are kids who have gone to college and done everything and then slipped up in some ways and you are telling their families their child is dead. wemedical care physicians, see this on a daily basis and it is unreal. amount, hast the number of patients exploded in the last couple years? caller: it is hard to say. i think it has changed. there have been times where i have been in an intensive care unit and there have been times

where you walk in in the morning and there are 7 or 8 patients who are young kids who have had their heart stop because of overdose. that is incredible. host: are you headed into work today? caller: i am and that is one side of things and that does not take into account the trauma surgery side of things, the patients we see again on a daily basis high on pcp or in the war on drugs. in addition to that -- last thing is from a hospital point of view, what is fascinating is we do not have the resources to get them into a place that will fight their addiction. if you get these patients to a point where they can be okay, us trying to get resources to get them into a place where they can fight their addiction is nearly impossible. host: are you saying you don't

have the resources? your facility or the state of maryland? caller: i would not be able to intelligently comment on that, but working at county hospital, we are struggling. we don't have social work, we don't have the support system to necessarily help the people who want to get help. sharingappreciate you your experience. in baltimore, we hear next from robert, good morning. caller: good morning. i pretty much called because of the premise of your question. you were talking about george bush's war on drugs. from the limited research i have done on my own, this whole thing theted when there was marijuana prohibition. nixon.rward 20 years to man, heown right-hand pretty much had this campaign whereby he wanted to associate

marijuana with hippies and heroin with african-americans because even though there was a drug war, it was pretty much a destroy theish, demographic that was diametrically opposing him. host: we talked about that in developing the question this morning. we talked about richard nixon and i think those are valid points in terms of where efforts against -- drug abuse and drug related crime started. it is notable for the date of the speech of george w. bush, particularly the use of the prop was a very different approach for the administration at that time. caller: i also wanted to say when it came to george bush senior, the willie lynch broccoli, a lot of that came -- the impetus behind

the thing was to fund the the privatet of prison industrial complex. all these things coincided with what senator byrd was trying to do. he did not want to start this process for private prisons and when bill clinton did the crime bill thing, everything kind of coincides in this perfect storm. cocaine came about, everybody conveniently forgets the fact it is the federal government, cia phoning these things into the country. they brought drugs here. they further from analyzed whilen-americans all the while they pretty much had --

now you fast-forward to where we are now pretty much the 21st century and you have a situation whereby we are spending $2 trillion on treatment and can't -- people continue to forget we spend money to get people hooked on crack to begin with. that is all i wanted to say, thank you. host: you ring a lot of good points to the conversation. how many people are locked up in the united states? one point -- 1.3 million local jails. federal prisons, jails, 221,000 and a number of smaller figures for immigration and other jails across the country from the prison policy initiative. we go to lewis in florence, in florence,

hello there. caller: i wanted to pick back on what robert said. growing up in the 60's, i saw a lot of it. i see drugs in this area where you don't see no cops. drugs and you go on the others out of the town and you have 15 police over there. when he says war on drugs, it was a war on black people. in alabama, we have prison for profit. they line you up for every little thing so they have to make sure the prisons are full. ,s far as this opioid thing

just say no. like the kid with the crack, just say no. host: president trump continuing u.s. efforts against the opioid .risis the washington times writing president trump said the twin pots of money are exciting and .ill make immediate impact they rightly substance abuse and mental health services administration is giving up $932 million among states, the second round of grants tied to sweeping opioid legislation. here is president trump in the oval office yesterday. [video clip] >> we are doing things other administrations did not focus on at all. nothing is more important than defeating the opioid and addiction crisis. the $1.8 billion in funds we are

awarding today will be .istributed to all 50 states it is very exciting. they will be used to increase access to medication and medication assisted treatment and mental health resources, which are critical for ending homelessness and getting people the help they deserve. so many problems are caused by this problem. these grants will support state and local governments by obtaining comprehensive data so we can help the most people and .ave the most lives my administration is determined ourse every resource at disposal. use -- inagencies to

their arsenal to overcome the deadly plague of opioid abuse. since then, we have secured $6 billion in funding to respond to this emergency. host: getting your thoughts on the legacy of the u.s. war on drugs. the war on drugs cost the united states $1 trillion. in 2015, the federal government spent $1.2 million every day to incarcerate people accused of drug related offenses. in the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001, mountain and pacific. let's go to facebook. joshua post we need to rethink rate fellthe murder dramatically because gangsters don't fight over legal trade.

the same would happen if we ended drug prohibition. joe king saying war on drugs has become a failure that wasted tax money and cost innocent lives. from wayne, about us successful as johnson's war on poverty or vietnam, for that matter. this is bruce, good morning. caller: how are you doing this morning? i used to be an activist. i did lsd and marijuana when i was 14 in 1968. take it back before reagan. nixon went after marijuana because he wanted to go after tape.ppies, that is on today in michigan because of our efforts, i have been growing marijuana for 10 years, so i don't even pay anything for it.

a couple of comments. on the soft drugs like marijuana, nixon did that because he wanted to arrest the so -- i think it was 1968 and there were only 54,000 people arrested and now it is up to millions. as far as the harder drugs, and -- let's not forget johnson & pushingwho got sued for industrialized -- deindustrialized areas. offshored jobs, they build the prison industrial complex and destroy the black families in detroit. it's all about the money and it sad.l quite

there has really never been a problem with marijuana. that was a political thing. it's all about control and the thing that is interesting is you had bush and i think when he was talking in 91 -- speech was from 1989. caller: and two years later he introduced agenda 21 of the u.n. . they are still against marijuana. it's all about control. the whole thing was about control. the opioids is a problem, it has always been a problem, you can also do that -- blame that on johnson & johnson.

host: in philadelphia, go ahead. been a warhis always -- the term war on drugs, even though nixon, it was pushed bigger by reagan. it was like a federal thing. communisthave these cops and then these prosecutors, it gave people a lot of jobs. host: you are saying the war on drugs gave people a lot of jobs? caller: the prosecutors and judges and so on and so on. toyou could give me time change things -- scrutinize

-- the war on drugs, i am a nutritionist. the war on drugs is like a war on help and information also. you had like opium. people that were not making money, share crop and the opium, they marched to the white house. i think president theodore roosevelt was afraid every dentist -- they were all going to become democrats or whatever. it was always political. hydrated, your heart there is a host of like amino acids and certain herbs that can counter these side effects. host: you are one of a number of

callers that pointed out the historical context of the war on drugs going back many years in history. time magazine has a piece headlined america's war on drugs treated people unequally since its beginning. when prohibition ended, drug enforcers finally had a new agency they could call their own. this launched the career of its first commissioner. the first person to use it and likely the first person outside of any royal family to be referred to as a czar. the standards that continue to serve, the basic tool of the trade for america's drug enforcement. there remain serious --agreement in scholarly and

though he achieved several significant legislative victories -- each of which had its own specific laws. as difficult as passing drug laws is, and forcing them specifically has proven to be virtually impossible. you can read all of that. -- here is one of the comments, joint speeches together to the 1986., this is september [video clip] >> i implore each of you to be unyielding and inflexible in your opposition to drugs. our young people are helping us lead the way. not long ago, i was asked by a group of children what to do if they were offered drugs and i

offered just say no. those children formed a club and now there are over 10,000 such clubs all over the country. their participation and encourage in saying no needs our encouragement. we can use every opportunity to force the issue of not using drugs to the point of making others uncomfortable, even if it means making ourselves unpopular. our job is never easy because drug criminals are ingenious. they work every day to plot a new and better way to steal our children's lives. for every door we close, they open a new door. they prosper on our unwillingness to act, so we must be smarter and stronger and

tougher than we are. it is up to us to change attitudes and simply dry up their markets. host: your thoughts on the legacy of the war on drugs. brian from pennsylvania. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. certifiedired board naturopath. there is a wonderful book. one of the comments was every legislator and judge in every state should do well -- i would encourage your listeners to get that and read it. the war on drugs started when the hypodermic needle was

invented. prior to that, many people received health care from hic and homeopathic medicine. when the needle was invented and opioids could be isolated, it opened a whole range of pharmacology that allowed people to make a lot of money on infusions and isolating active ingredients. healthfulm is the --efits of herbal medicine pharmacology -- pharmacology says the most active ingredient is beneficial, so that is what we are going to isolate. godproblem with that is always puts the answer next to the problem. they isolate away the

protections. one of the callers mentioned johnson & johnson. we have these prescription plans and health care in this country revolves around the use of drugs. 400,000reported over deaths occur over prescription drugs and medical malpractice. the war of drugs should be aimed at the ama and the medical doctor establishment, which are the pusher of these drugs. host: i can tell you, it ain't your grandpa tale of crack

cocaine. i am 99% sure we cover that author and that book on book tv. let's go to jeff in georgia, go ahead with your comment. the air with on us? are you there, jeff? caller: yes, can you hear me? host: we can now, go ahead. caller: i am actively involved with the recovery community and i want to speak to how awesome a community it is. this is absolutely a move in the right direction. i am not a very political person, i will be honest with you. i can speak to this is a crisis and you will notice a lot of this is from early childhood trauma, abuse, and neglect.

that is usually what causes these type of things. any resources these communities winbe given is absolutely a . host: where are you in your progress? caller: i am in personal, longform recovery -- long-term recovery. i prescribe to literature high can't speak on, but it is with a fellowship, it is basically recovery. it makes no difference what fellowship, it is a spiritual organization and when you get involved, it is life changing and i can speak to that personally. the washington times rights the centers for disease control using about 900 million dollars to help state and local governments track overdoses.

, saying the nation faced a 12 month lag time -- it months.own to 6 next is dorothy in hampton, .irginia caller: good morning. i hear everybody talk about the drug epidemic and everything. when i saw nancy reagan, i became irate because ronald iran. sold arms to every time a plane load of supplies went to nicaragua, a plane load of cocaine was dropped off in south-central los angeles. internet and look up

ronald reagan and freeway -- this man was making $3 million a .ay built the industrial complex so he could house all the people using crack cocaine. host: 30 year anniversary from george w. bush's speeches in 1989 and other historic presidential announcements on drug enforcement and fighting drug abuse, including bill clinton. [video clip] >> we must remember drugs are a factor in an enormous percentage of crimes. the crime bill contains more money for drug treatment,

critical addicts, and boot camps defenders.l our administration's budget includes a large increase in funding for drug treatment and drug education. you must pass them both. we need them desperately. theellow americans, violence is an american problem. therefore, i urge you to find ways as quickly as possible. -- bipartisan differences and tough strong, smart, crime bill. [applause]

further, i urge you to consider this. as you demand tougher penalties for those who choose violence, let's also remember how we came to this sad point. in our toughest neighborhoods on our meanest streets in our poorest areas, we have seen a stunning and simultaneous breakdown of community, family, and work. the heart and soul of civilized society. this has created a vast vacuum which has been filled by .iolence and drugs and gangs remember that even as we say no to crime, we must give people, especially our

young people, something to say yes to. host: all of the archival video is available at our website. search what you are looking for. president clinton drug policy and you will find it there. other news this morning, we are keeping our eye on the hurricane bahamas in ruins. front page of usa today and the absolute devastation in marsh harbour. along parts of the u.s. coast, the word is leave now and the track as of last night hasn't changed a whole lot. dorian aims for the east coast and out into the atlantic ocean. 202-748-8000 is the number to call in the eastern or central time zones. 202-748-8001 mountain and pacific. we welcome your comments on

facebook and twitter, we are @cspanwj. dan says i love many people consider the war on drugs a failure. for the citizens discouraged from using it because of this policy, it was a successful read in-- we go not arkansas. good morning. commenti have a quick on the drug issue. i believe the drug issue is terrible. opioidsction rate for is a real big problem. the way it has been implemented is also a big problem. i have severe pain i have to

back due to an injury and the only thing that .eally stops it is an opioid because of the war on opioids, my doctor can't give me a prescription for an opioid that will stop the pain because he would lose his license. i can't get a prescription for opioids that would stop the pain. the war on opioids has really been implemented incorrectly. host: what is the opioid that your canter -- your doctor cannot prescribe to you? caller: oxycodone. host: why can't he prescribe it? the pressure --

the pressure of the war on strong that it has reached down to the doctor level and they are afraid. i went to one doctor that was a pain management specialist. town, thatifferent was about 50 miles away i had to travel to every week, she would give me an injection in my back wouldweek that a medicine circle my spine and she would also give me oxycodone. was there that, i

probably about four treatments and drug enforcement went in and took her license away from her because she was prescribing oxycodone. host: can your doctor give you short doses for a short period of time and then no longer prescribe it? caller: no, he can't. donormal tactician or cannot it, my family doctor. he is afraid he would lose his license. host: appreciate you calling in on the opioid issue. few callers have referred to the johnson & johnson decision. a federal rule -- district court judge ruled tuesday the claims toinst drug companies can go

trial even as purdue pharma moves toward offering a settlement to those impacted. dan polster, who is overseeing about 2000 opioid lawsuits -- held thee government can try to prove a drugmaker's marketing of prescription painkillers caused --increase good morning. you are asking the legacy of the war on drugs. the legacy is it destroyed black relegated black america to a permanent underclass just like illegal aliens are doing now. nixon announced the war on drug, clintontarted it and

put it on steroids. if you read michelle alexander's book, mass incarceration, the data is clear. clinton is clear that put the war on drugs on steroids and took black men out of homes, black men became fatherless. delivered a speech in front of howard university concerned that two parent homes were black merely 65%. today, two parent families is 27%. in the 40's, black americans had more two parent families than white families. we are going the wrong way and yet all these families keep

calling in talking about how much they love the democrats. when you destroy the family, you destroy the community. there is nothing that can be done. when you take fathers out of the home, you have destroyed the family. host: has the state of california done anything to change that legacy? at least on a state law basis? state ofo, the california is a sanctuary city. black americans have been relegated to a permanent underclass because of liberal policies.liberal first it was a war on drugs and now it is illegal aliens. anything to keep lack americans relegated to an underclass is what liberal ideology does. lack americans that keep calling read, do notdo not

understand ideology -- they don't read history or understand the data. these people are not informed. host: there is some move in congress on changing some of the prison structure in the u.s.. it is called the first step act. the proposed legislation would -- sentencingry nonviolent drug offenders, reduce minimum mandatory sentences, make retroactive the fair sentencing act of 2010 and place federal prisoners closer to home, expand prison employment programs. world's largest prison population. we showed you some of the statistics. 2.2 million behind bars. the property law center says 20%

of those incarcerated are serving time for some sort of drug charge. inhear from bill next tennessee on the legacy of the war on drugs. you are next. caller: hello. i am wondering, i don't know, let me shoot this at you. we ended the war on alcohol by liesel -- legalizing it. up in fellow that growed a dry county and i could go to 6 bootleggers when i was 14. -- puting all this junk a certain amount of control on this and illuminate criminals out of it. then all we will have to deal with is our doctors. what do you think about that,

sir? host: i appreciate you sharing it. in san francisco, california, good morning. amazed that everybody calling up has somebody to blame for everybody becoming addicts. bad families, federal government, doctors, medical system, prison system. i am in my 70's now. 24, my three best friends did not have the self-control to not use it. it is people facilitating personal responsibility. a lot of the blacks who call in talk about the federal prison system destroying black families . the people who destroyed black families were black people.

i was alive, i knew them, i was friends with blacks when i was young. everybody is looking for somebody else to blame. people should take it on tryselves -- i want them to -- i wanted to try opium and heroin, but i knew what it could lead to. morning, wehout the have been showing comments from former presidents who started with -- we started with george h. w. bush. here is barack obama talking up out -- at the national drug abuse and heroin summit. [video clip] cutting off the pathways for these drugs coming in. what we have to recognize his in thatglobal economy of ours

the most important thing we can demand for drugs and the only way we reduce -- think if we reduce about this as health problem and not just a criminal problem. this is a shift that began early on in my administration and --re is a reason why somebody who came not from the criminal justice side, but the treatment side and has been in treatments now. this is something i think we understood fairly early on. i am going to be blunt. i was saying in a speech

yesterday, your last year in office, you get a little loose. this in west virginia as well and i think we have to be honest about this. part of what has made it difficult to emphasize treatment has to do with the fact the population is affected. as poor minorities and as a consequence, the often a was it is character flaw in those individuals who live in those communities and it is not our problem they are being locked up . of the things that has

changed in this opioid debate is the recognition that this reaches everybody. you on theng from legacy of the war on drugs. we will continue taking your calls and comments. it is front page of the new york times. many other websites and papers across the board. parliament stymies johnson in two more votes. he jabbed his finger in the air, shook his head, dared the opposition to back his call for an election and sneered the labor was "chlorinated chicken." by the time boris johnson finished taking questions, he ushered in a new season of political mayhem, one in which -- resolve questions over how and when britain should leave the european union. the spectacle illustrated the obstacles mr. johnson will face

as he tries to leave britain out of the european union. on wednesday, parliament handed the prime minister two defeats. bid bid at least for the moment to call an election for october 15 out of fear he could secure a new majority. we covered a lot of that debate yesterday on c-span and you can find it. go to our website, type brexit and you will see all of that debate and some of our clips, including ones generated from .ome of our viewers yesterday our opening question is the legacy of the war on drugs. 202-748-8000 in the eastern and central time zones. mountain and pacific, 202-748-8001. on twitter we are at @cspanwj. this one says federal drug laws

are unconstitutional. nowhere in the constitution do we give the federal government power to regulate alcohol, marijuana. the war on drugs -- big government entering the individual's home, opening the medicine cabinet and deciding what is good for him or her. like the war against illegal invasion and the trade war, trump's war on drugs is another failed trump war. stephen in illinois, go ahead. caller: yes. to start off with, you heard barack obama saying -- going 1970's,the 1960's and you could not go to rehab. the only way you could go to rehab was if you got arrested and a judge put you in there.

1969.ed pot in inst mistake, they put pot ine if you were doing like if you were doing acid or something. host: did you do jail time for that? caller: yes. host: how long did you serve? days.: just like 30 i got lucky and managed to get my case thrown out. there has been a lack of rehab for people for years. i have seen where 6:30 in the morning i called rehab up and said i need to turn myself in to rehab and they said, we are sorry, there is no beds. i tried to go to rehab in the v.a. 14 years ago. this was in denver and the only

bed they could find was north dakota. host: that was 15 years ago? caller: yeah. it is still that way today. every time -- like now, the partial deaths from opioid's are from heroin overdoses. the016, when i watched congress pretty much blackmail the v.a. telling them if they toted extra money, they had detox the veterans off their opioids. doctor, they are going to start taking our pain pills

away. now the heroin and fentanyl overdoses have jumped up and i talked to one of my doctors hear the other day and he said, what you said was going to happen, happened. methamphetamine problem. in the 1970's, doctors were prescribing diet pills. i could take a diet pill in the goning, go to work, go home, to sleep, and everything was ok. host: how are you doing today? caller: now they took the pain pills away and we are going back to heroin. host: how are you doing today? caller: i am doing pretty good, but days are hard. drug addiction is a disease. the one guy said you have your choice weather you do or you don't, that isn't always that easy for people.

-- little time i come for population 5200 and back in the 1960's, 1970's, we were swamped drugs. anything you could think of, just about. host: is the opioid crisis striking your town? townr: i live in a college . there are problems with opioids. host: appreciate you calling in this morning. the numbers from the nih and bloomberg.com, what the opioid crisis is costing, 400,000 americans over the last 20 years, that includes prescriptions and illicit overdoses. in that year, an estimated 1.7 million people suffered from substance abuse disorders related to prescription opioids

and the total economic burden of opioid misuse is estimated to be $78.5 billion a year from the cdc. matthew next in new york, good morning. caller: yes, good morning. heard a lot of great comments so far. first and foremost, the war on drugs has been a colossal failure by any measure. drug addiction is a symptom, not a problem in and of itself. the one gentleman talked about trauma. the vast majority have suffered some kind of fizzle logical, mental, -- physical, psychological, abuse. back at marijuana in

the 1940's, it was more a war on mexicans. white men were afraid mexican men would steal their women and reeferlayed on that madness. anybody thatrage watches to keep an open mind about this war and the devastation. it is about money. -- during vietnam, money was spent to pay the farmers to grow opium and soldiers brought it back because they didn't have to go through customs. people are making money hand in fist from the prison industrial

complex. host: we will go to michigan and hear from jim. caller: good morning, america. i want to call and say i graduated from high school in 1967. --n i was in high school, there were no drugs in my high school. over the summer between the time i graduated, i went back to a homecoming game at my high school, everybody was stoned. my point is this, there is no way those kids brought those drugs into this country and flooded the country with those drugs, it is people with power and money that did that. the government wanted to control and it is still going on today.

host: thanks for that. this is bill on twitter who says the war on drugs has a nice ring to it. it is time for action, not catchy marketing slogans. we will talk a bit more on drugs in our next segment. i am a program manager decatur,g program in alabama. i was addicted to drugs for 15 years in south florida, went to prison. been running an in-house, one year program. my wife and i live among recovering addicts and we live in the main house surrounded by 12 apartments on 19 acres and we

are having a lot of trouble. we have all the drug tests for cocaine and heroin and methamphetamine, but these synthetic drugs, they call it a supplement that we don't have a test for and it really hurts our program because there is no test, it is legal, and gives you the euphoria of heroin. it,e is nobody dying from --t is why somebody to overcome addiction, you have to get them away from anything altering the mood or giving them euphoria or they can't recover. this gives the euphoria and it hurts us when we are trying to

help them and we don't know they are on it until they are so addicted. we had one man with us 6 months and he was selling it to other members. are: how many people typically on your program and how are you funded? caller: right now, we could handle 21. we have 17 men. we are called project rescue and we are a faith-based program funded through churches of christ throughout america and when the men -- when a man is here 4 months, he begins to support himself in the program. the main side of it is spiritual and scriptural. we help him get a job and be on his feet and be financially independent for his family and have a great job. host: good luck with your program, thanks for calling.

jamie, maryland, hello there. you.r: good morning to i just wanted to say that i think a lot of times we forget the reagan years with the contra. these were high-level government officials that understood exactly what they were doing and they still brought cocaine here to fund the contras. their war over there. there was consent to that. think, our population i you know, you find it hard to believe that our government can do such a thing, right? selling cocaine on the streets. which plagued the black community. you know? this is at the same exact time introduced to the black community and it took off like wildfire.

and you know, it struck the impoverished communities the worst. people already doing bad. you plagued the streets with this and along with that came of course violence, you know? when you make money you have to protect it, right? everything spun out of control. that, that's going to fund that. had the clinton years coming in and the three strikes rules and all of that kind of stuff. these were very small amounts of crack and whatnot, folks are getting life sentences. all the way around the board, these are the things our government was directly participating in and that's the hardest pill to swallow. the streets were torn up, you know? the communities were torn up. host: appreciate your input. we will get back to the jug abuse program -- talk later in

the program. next we will be joined by kris president of brady, formerly the brady campaign to prevent gun violence. he will talk about how washington should respond to the latest shootings. and later on tim chapman will be here to discuss the issues conservatives are pushing for as campaign 2020 kit's into high gear. -- kicks into high gear. ♪ >> this weekend on american history tv, lectures of history, the california gold rush and the environment at 10:00 on "reel

domenici.the film on sunday at 4:30 p.m. eastern, scholars on the history of u.s. policy towards iran and the iranian nuclear program. , historian, albert talks about his book "are we there yet," the american automobile past, present, and driverless. every weekend on c-span3, american history tv. >> this is the story of how the whole new economy was built and i have always been interested, ever since i was working in washington, and how business and government interact with one another. antagonistic relationship but also a collaborative relationship and the real story of american history is one of public-private partnership in many ways, ways that are sometimes unseen. this was -- i think this story is a great way to get into that.

discusses hermero valleyhe code," silicon and the remaking of america, sunday night on "q&a." >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by kris brown, formally of the brady campaign to prevent gun violence, now of rady. welcome to the program this morning. tell us about brady, its background, and your soul or main focus, i should ask. jim brady served as the reagan press secretary shot in the line of duty. he and his wife sarah dedicated the rest of their lives to the enactment of federal legislation to expand background checks. after six years and seven votes, in 1993 they got the brady law enacted. host: your experience with that

goes back to being a senior legislative assistant with congressman moran back in the 1990's. was that a direct path to where you are today with brady? guest: with some breaks in between, yes. i'm a lawyer by trade, that's what i did after capitol hill, but one of the issues i worked on in my time was gun violence prevention. i got to meet jim and sarah brady and i was there when the brady law was enacted. host: we have you this morning for a couple of reasons. yesterday was supposed to be the markup up several pieces of legislation in the house, now likely to happen next week we understand. a particularly notable of the last month, mass shootings in a -- el paso in early august, odessa late in the month. have you -- as you have seen these events unfold, what has your organization been focused what we know is we

have 40,000 people per year dying from gun violence. 100 people every single day. we work with republicans and democrats, to get hr eight, the bill to expand brady background checks past. that passed almost 200 days ago. with the mass shootings we have seen, really we have had as many mass shootings today as days in 2019. we have common sense solutions that will actually save lives and we need to get those enacted. we need background checks expanded, and assault weapons ban and high capacity magazine restrictions with extreme risk laws. host: hra has passed the house. mcconnell says he will bring up any votes on gun measures that president trump won't sign. is this one of those measures? once -- one that the president wouldn't sign?

why hen't imagine wouldn't sign it. it has a companion measure, the bill sitting on mitch mcconnell's desk. 97% of americans in the last poll support this bill. let me explain for a minute by. the brady law, when enacted a quarter century ago said that federally licensed firearms dealers have to conduct background checks before a gun is sold. what they didn't require is private sellers to make sure that there are background checks. now the sales through gun shows and through the internet mean that about one in five guns sold today are sold with no background check at all. these bills fix that and protect lives on the process. -- in the process. mitch mcconnell said "we are in a discussion on what to do in the wake of the surrender shootings. i have said for several weeks that if the resident took a position on a bill so that we

knew we would actually be making law and not just having serial votes, i would be happy to put it on the floor. as we mentioned, the house judiciary committee was supposed to mark of new pieces of legislation. what do we know about what those pieces would do? guest: they would provide incentives to enact these extreme risk laws. those on laws that allow law enforcement or family members to seek a temporary court order to individuals atm risk. 17 states and the district of columbia already have those laws. it would include a package to adopt a high capacity magazine restriction to ensure that high magazines hold more than 10 bullets and are restricted from sale. that package is going forward. on the 25th the judiciary committee is having a separate hearing on the assault weapons ban.

does brady take an active role in helping to develop the legislation? we have long been involved in shaping the policy around gun violence prevention in this country. witnesses athad that hearing. we are in constant contact with members of the judiciary committee and all the members of congress in the gun violence prevention task force to support the measures and make sure that we are reviewing them and signing off on them before they are introduced. ,ost: our guest is kris brown president of brady. we are talking in particular about the legislation being developed to respond to the gun violence in america. (202) 748-8000 is the number to call for democrats. republicans, call (202) 748-8001 . and for independents and others, that's (202) 748-8002. if you are a gun owner, that

202-7 48-8003. the president pointed the finger hatred,l miss and saying that pulled the trigger, not the gun. what's your take on the talk about mental illness? look, i think the facts bear out the solution. the united states doesn't experience any more mental miss than any other industrialized country in the world. we experience a lot more gun violence because we have among the most >> rules with respect to who can own a gun and how the gun is used. we need to really look at that if we want to be serious about reducing gun violence. , we absolutely need to invest more and better in appropriate mental health treatment, but if you are experiencing a mental illness, it's much more likely, based on all the studies we have done,

that you will be the victim of gun violence then you will actually perpetrate gun violence , so we shouldn't use mental miss as a way to vilify people experiencing these kinds of issues. we need to focus on the gun. host: we spent an hour yesterday talking about the walmart decision to end or limit sales on certain firearms and ammunition. the column in the business section of "the new york times," big business gets a lesson from the chief of walmart. what's your reaction? i applaud the decision. they had already taken a decision in 2015 to stop selling high-capacity magazines and assault style weapons. the fact that they are no longer allowing open carry in their stores and say that they are not selling certain kinds of ammunition is really a response to the fact that they have had to and mass shootings on their properties within the last couple of weeks. it's also a repudiation of the nra talking point that clearly

what we need is more guns, more guns make us safer, that's the bottom line of their talking point and that good guys with guns will save us. the walmart ceo is basically saying that's just not the case. he's looking out for his employees and consumers by saying that he once reasonable restrictions and appropriate measures to ensure that his shoppers and employees are safe. let's got's -- host: to home, we have got them waiting. appleton, minnesota, frank on the republican line. caller: i have too been quick questions. been deniedons have the ability to purchase a firearm within the last year question mark the second felonsn is how many gun have been returned to prison for attempting to purchase the firearm? thank you. the questions are how many felons were prohibited from purchasing firearms over the last year and how many of those were returned to prison.

so since the brady law was 3acted, there have been over million purchases denied to individuals who are prohibited purchasers. on average annually that means about 200,000 background checks are denied to prohibited convicted, including felons and certain kinds of convicted domestic abusers. the issue around how many of tose felons for attempting purchase guns being sent to prison is an interesting question. we certainly need much more money and focus around enforcement. the fbi runs the background check system. in many cases the background checks that come back indicating that someone is a felon or a prohibited purchaser are not necessarily followed up by police. brady supports and has long supported more enforcement dollars to ensure that individuals who unlawfully attempted to purchase guns because they are a prohibited

purchaser are prosecuted for those unlawful activities. guest: let's hear from maliki, arlington, texas, democratic line. caller: i complete joke, it black andner-city hispanic males. most of the time those felony convictions will be towards those individuals. so we disarm those people. it's absolutely laughable to think that we are going to disarm someone who stole a car at 21 and now they are 50 and they can't buy a firearm? the overwhelming majority of these mass shootings are areitted by white males who not mentally ill. the mental illness argument comes in because you don't want criminallyite men is deviant. let's be honest here. the brady bill has no chance of stopping mass killings in this country. white supremacists can purchase guns at any point in time. who stole a car at 21 can't? it's strictly aimed at putting felons in prison and denying

them the ability to carry firearms. who's to say that person is a danger right now? no one can foresee what that person does. people have gotten life sentences because they have gotten one felony conviction in the early 20's and now they are still being castigated by their one felony conviction that has one -- no victim, one drug involved. everyone should have the ability to protect their family. guest: let's get a response from -- host: let's get a response from kris brown. brady law isthe supported by 90% of americans and the decision our society made order century ago with respect to the law was we wanted to ensure that guns could not easily get into dangerous hands. we can debate the various categories, but i think most americans would say that they want to ensure that convicted domestic abusers, felons, don't have easy access to guns. ultimately, i just want to point recent massy

shooting that we have on the record here, odessa, that individual was a prohibited purchaser. that individual was still able to obtain his gun because he thated a private sale would have been stopped if hr eight or s 42 was the law. i don't appreciate the talking point that somehow the background check system hasn't saved lives. the system as expanded would have stopped the sale of the gun that the shooter used in odessa. as i said, it has already stopped in the quarter century since it was enacted more than 3 million sales of guns to prohibited purchasers. it is the life-saving infrastructure that we have to protect ourselves from dangerous people. in the case of dylan ruth, is of the failure of the background check system not catching him being allowed in

that court case in the charleston shooting? yes, and i mentioned we are active in congress, community and the courts. we are the organization that helped to bring the case and what we are saying there is look, the fault rule that we have in place right now in the background check system is that if a background check does not come back after three days, the sale proceeds anyway. the issue in the charleston ame shooting is that that is how dylan ruth got his gun. so, we want to make sure that there is appropriate time for background checks to be finished before the sale proceeds. many states have expanded that time. one of the things walmart has done is to say that no sale will go forward, no matter how many days at the background check takes, before the background check comes back. we applaud that and we want congress to require that and more states to do that. host: is that a new policy? guest: it's been in effect for

some time. on the assault weapons ban, data from "the new york times," want to get your reaction to this, a stanford university study. "we find that public mass shootings, incidents in which a gunman killed six people in public -- more than six people in public, it dropped during the federal ban and the dramatic increase upward since has tracked in the ownership of ministering -- military style weapons.

it's: look, i mean horrible to see those statistics, in fact. all of those deaths are real, live individuals who are not with us today because we haven't had the courage to take the action that we need. we are really the only country that says weapons of war can be bought by anyone and use four masked gun violence in america. these are the kinds of weapons soldiers are using in combat and there's a reason for it. they were designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible, often at a very long range. we don't need these kinds of weapons on our streets and what this article is saying i think, and i read it this morning as well is let's reinstate the assault weapons ban. looking back on the 10 year prior history when the assault weapons ban was in effect, 1994 to 2004, saying this huge surge

in mass gun violence happened band wentlapse of the assault weapons were back on the streets of america for sale. host: louisville, kentucky, good morning to arnold, republican line. caller: good morning. i think the brady group is very important and it's only one in a three-pronged effort we should have. bit about myou a background. i'm 90 years old and i worked 16 years as a scientist for the -- topy, talk secret secret intelligence, nasa, nsa. anyway, brady, it's an important part of the picture. but there's also the other part. there are other deadly devices that we train for and we get licensed for and so on.

beforee to be trained you take that automobile out on the road. you can buy one, keep it in your garage, but you had better not take it out there until you are trained. i have a is, over time field carry license in new york, florida, and kentucky. the thing is now in kentucky they are talking about field weapons without the training. my goodness. what could happen to people that don't know how to handle a gun at home? the children could get shot. a person cleaning their gun doesn't know how to handle that? they should have training before they can take a gun out on the streets. i think it's a terrible thing. but as i said, it's a three-pronged effort and i think that the brady effort is great. we should have training. but the other thing is we should have a society against the violent entertainment. i call it save.

we should have, you know, people that can -- did you see -- if you see a violent movie -- you know, there are people with mental problems they can easily fall into thinking i can do what they did in the movie. it's that kind of thing. but at least they don't have to be like officially a mental problem. but they might have some weakness in their lives and what not, you know, seeing violence is a terrible thing. let's start with his point about violent media. does brady take a position on that influence? look, ultimately in the united states, the market for video games which trump also mentioned in his speech when he first reacted to el paso as the cause of this kind of gun violence, there's a global market for gun -- for video games, not just in the united states. similar to the analogy i gave before on the mental health issue, the united states

experiences significantly more gun violence and brady is focused on the solutions that relate to reasonable and sensible measures to protect lives that regular guns. i appreciate everything arnold had to say. i think that what he is pointing to is something that brady has long known, we face an epidemic of gun violence and it can't just be policy enactment, although that is very important. we also have to focus on in fermentation and make sure that organizations, entities, agencies like the bureau of our hall, tobacco, and firearms, which regulates the gun dealers in this country, have appropriate resources to do that. and that we focus on our communities as well. we have 300 million guns in this country. eight kids per day are killed or injured with guns in their own home. we have to reinvigorate the ideal that jim and sarah brady stood for as gun owners, which is responsible gun ownership and

safe storage of guns saves lives. we need to end family fire. we need to end the death and injury of kids in their very own homes. by doing that, i just want to give a link that's profound. why is this so important? we have a huge increase of suicide in this country. , theeaths in this country 40,000 we experience every year, two thirds of those are suicides. if you have a gun, and unsecured gun in the home, you are five times more likely to experience a suicide and 75% of school shooters get their gun from the home. we have to reinvigorate responsible gun ownership, safe storage, and we have to end family fire in this country and brady has programs around all of those things because we think a comprehensive solution to gun violence is critical. i wanted to play you the

comments of presidential candidate that o'rourke and his approach to it and get your reaction. a recent appearance on cnn. [video clip] >> one of the parts of your solution includes mandatory buybacks. -- usa todayal editorial board argued against that, saying you're playing into the hands of the nra and here was a part of the editorial -- the legislation would be doomed if it included mandatory buyback provisions. anything smacking of confiscation would breathe life and energy into the not from my cold dead hands crowd, endangering law enforcement, likely putting a. to any further gun safety measures. what's your response? >> more than i worry about the politics or the polling or what the nra has to say about this, i care for my kids. and for this country. and the people that live in terror every day. people in el paso, mexican

americans who say they have a target on their back, that they are afraid to go out in public. kids afraid of going to school tomorrow, having gone through active shooter drills, knowing which window they are going to jump out of. right, we shouldn't accept it, we should be honest with ourselves, universal background checks will help, ending gun sales will help, but if millions are on the streets they will still be instruments of terror that terrify us and take our lives and i won't accept that. , president ofwn brady, your thoughts on the mandatory buyback proposal? look, there are a lot of different alternatives we could take in respect to abandon, but we have look at them in the states that have them and there's an approach that says of's ban the future sale assault weapons and if a state wants to not require a mandatory buyback, let's ensure that there are tighter restrictions, similar to the kinds of

restrictions we have under the national firearms act for certain kinds of guns. it will be higher scrutiny, a much deeper background check required before a trade in the we, over time, so that the inventory diminishes and we are not completely stopping the sale of the guns going forward. kevin, gun owner, sycamore, ohio. caller: good morning. first of all, i'm a federal firearms licensed dealer and i would like to know how the red flag law would work. my concern is that if your neighbor, your wife, or somebody what stops them from going to the local police and saying that the threatening you get were not and your guns confiscated. another question is, you're saying weapons of work. ar-15 is a semi automatic rifle. m-16 is a full automatic rifle

that they used in the war. these are used in competitive shooting around the country. if you ban them, competitive shooters will be able to shoot them anymore. i have another question for her, she said 4000 gun deaths per year. a 16-year-old daughter killed in a car accident. how many children and people are killed in car accidents every year? i think the gun death was more like 40,000 -- host: i think the gun death was more like 40,000? $40,000 -- 40,000 people your. extreme wrasse -- extreme risk laws, how would it work? could it be true that someone disgruntled with her neighbor calls the police and that persons guns are confiscated? no, not under any standard that riskeen set for extreme laws in the 17 states that have adopted those.

it does require is evidence that the person is emmett -- an imminent danger to himself or others. it requires the kind of evidence that you would put together in an affidavit that has to go to court. a judge has to review the evidence. only when there is the -- substantial evidence to support the idea that the person is an imminent risk with the court issue an order. i want to be clear, the order is temporary in nature. across all states that have adopted it, the order is typically for 30 days. although if the risk factors continue, the order can be extended for up to a year. i want to note that this is not a new idea. the state of connecticut has had a red flag extreme risk law in effect since after sandy hook. research has been done about the impact of the law. what they have found is that controlling all other factors, there has been a 40% reduction in suicide in the state of connecticut as a result of having these laws in effect.

i think the life-saving elements of this are very, very clear. we also saw in odessa that neighbors and friends complained about the behaviors of this individual. ,t's the kind of behaviors that if the evidence had gone to the court, would potentially have caused extreme risk laws to go into effect. one more call here from marcus, somerset, california. hey there, go ahead. caller: hey, how you doing question mark i'm coming at this from a completely different angle. seems to me that we can send somebody to the moon, we can create cell phones, look at all the technology we have. in my viewpoint, the gun is going to go the way of the bow and arrow and we will have to invent some thing else, a different kind of self-defense mechanism that is nonlethal but still protects us. we are living like it's 200 years ago. it's old technology. we are living in the land of gun

smoke the culture itself is so .nfiltrated with the violence we are in wars no one was connected to. my dad was in world war ii. you couldn't bring home a machine gun, you would go to prison for five years. the world war ii people had seen so much violence, they were sick of guns. in my viewpoint the second amendment will have to be challenged on a lot of different levels. on the level of the militia situation as far as a right to bear arms under the guise of being with an armed militia. and we will really seriously have to look at technology host: . we will let you go there. final thoughts from chris brown? i think her is a real role --kris brown guest: i think there is --kris brown. guest: i think there is a real role for technology. there is technology that could be deployed to make sure only the owner of the gun can shoot the gun. there needs to be much more effort and expenditure in that area, i completely agree.

i do think that in this country today we have more guns than people. we have to put a reasonable provisions and protections in place to make sure that dangerous people don't have easy access to guns and that we feel safe where we live, where we work, and where we go to school. that's why brady is supporting the policy measures that we are with community engagement around responsible gun ownership. ,ost: our thanks to kris brown president of brady. guest: thank you for having me. host: there is more ahead here on "washington journal," heritage's tim chapman is here to talk about the issues conservatives are pushing for the 2020 campaign. 30 years ago president george h.w. bush gave his famous war on drugs speech. we will talk about that effort with a member of the drug policy alliance. ♪

saturday, 9 p.m. eastern, our germa,ew with habin detailing becoming the first deafblind graduate -- deaf and blind student at harvard. >> i'm a student that goes to areol with teachers that expected to teach. i couldn't do that. i had to think about what i might be missing, what are the potential unknowns? how can i find the unknowns? all my life has been this process of trying to identify unknowns and figure them out and come up with solutions.

"afterwards,"on kindi. collects i don't think even well-meaning people, people who are trying to be part of the movement against racism recognize really that the history of this term. when the eugenicists were classified as racist, they said i'm not racist. when jim crow segregationists were charged with being racist, they set of not racist. today, even white nationalists say i'm not racist. no matter whether they are in the white house or planning the next mass shooting. at 11 p.m. -- >> at 11:00 p.m., jim mattis recounts his military career and his thoughts on leadership in his book "callsign chaos, learning to

lead." watchable tv every weekend on c-span 2. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by tim chapman, here in particular to talk about your recent survey of the top issues you are pulling that voters are interested in in 2020. and we will get to some of those in a moment, but i wanted to pick up on the last issue that .e talked about, the guns issue the president has gone in many different ways on this. is it an issue at all in 2020 that the president can find a place of some victory? something to boast about? no doubt that millions of americans are worried about their second amendment rights. looking at states like pennsylvania, wisconsin, ohio, those are states with a huge population of gun owners and

sporting folks who will go out and do hunting and use their guns for all sorts of recreational use. i think there will be an element there that there is concerned that the left might overreach. that is not to say that the president is not concerned about what's happening right now in terms of gun violence or that republicans are not. a lot of republicans are taking serious steps in the house and the senate to seriously address this. but i think what you will see is that the democratic party, as the democratic -- as rahm emanuel always said, don't let a crisis go to waste. i don't think overreaching works for them in the electoral map coming into 2020 the way they think it does. host: looking at the large overall view of your survey from heritage action in terms of what the key issues are, things that voters are concerned about in your survey, how many folks did you survey? surveys,ur different 1500 per survey than closer to

2000. two of them were nationwide surveys. one was nationwide of just republicans, the other was nationwide of all registered voters. and then we did a battleground district survey looking at 15 different battleground house districts going into 2020. and then we did a five state battleground. host: looking at the battleground one, polling and victory in 2020, those who reject a single-payer plan. the president, interested in a new approach to health care, opposing socialism. 65% agree with that question. fixing immigration, 63% agree with that. protecting life, pro-life issues, 76%. rejecting political correctness, 73%. in terms of job automation, outsourcing, this one in particular, let's start with that. 83% agree, what was the question you asked about that? guest: we had a constant theme

that we found in these when we asked about economic issues and workforce issues. the theme was a positive thought right now about wages and where wages are, but a kind of anxiety about the future. so what we asked folks there was -- first, do you think that your job will be around 10 to 15 years from now. we were talking to people about these working-class jobs. the previous question was what do you think about your wages? people were satisfied and hopeful they would continue to tick up. then the second question was will a lot of these jobs be here and 83% of people said the jobs would be automated out of the workforce. that presents a challenge and an opportunity for republicans. i think what the president did in 2016 that a lot of republicans have been trying to do since ronald reagan, but not very successfully, the president brought working-class americans into the republican coalition and when he brought them in, he

brought them in in no small part because he talked about issues that a lot of republicans didn't talk about in the 2016 primary. the you talk about hollowing out of manufacturing, the economic anxieties and things like that, the trade issue, it allowed them to bring them in there. now if you have so many people anxious about the future, you have to present a plan, right? that's the opportunity for the republican party. the party has to put out policies that will work for working-class americans front and center. it can't just be about personalities, the president and the lever the president is running against. it needs to be about what the party will do. guest: so not strong enough to just run on the increase in jobs in manufacturing and elsewhere. yeah, i think that the electorate has baked that in,

but the worry about the future, you need to have policies up front that are going to help to alleviate the worry and anxiety. congressional battleground states, you look at 15 states? >> 15 districts. including questions this one, tell me which of the following comes closest to your opinion on the 2020 election in terms of supporting president trump? trump.d support 21% -- so, a total of 53% in battleground states do not support the president and when i over them, 42% wilma. guest: i think what you're seeing there, this is really important as a point for republicans, conservatives, folks who want to have their ideas win in the next cycle. that 12% -- sorry, you had 32% and 21%, yeah.

you have got this middle ground of people that may be able to shift over. we asked a separate question and what it was was straight up, the president's approval rating and the president's approval rating i like approve, 12% said the president's policies and i may vote for him. 48% said they didn't approve. the 12% in the middle is the key . you have got -- we believe that the way the you win those people over is the policies. we've got to say -- they have artie volunteered that they like some of the president's policies . they might be an comfortable with certain things like the style or the national political scene or how vitriolic it is becoming. but if you put the policies front and center we think you can get that 12%. tim chapman is our guest, talking about the conservative agenda for 2020 and in particular their recent congressional battleground and

swing state surveys. we welcome your calls and comments. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. for independents and others, that's (202) 748-8002. times," has york the headline "no clear policy agenda heading into election, but it were -- may not matter." host: you talked about the republicans and the president needing an economic plan or policy. where else do you think that residential platform or the toues that he runs and needs make clear will be for 2020? tost: i think he's going

have an opportunity pretty soon here, the democratic field is going to start the window in itself. democrats to their credit are doing a pretty good job of focusing on issues. elizabeth warren, i think one of the reasons she has become ascendant in the primary is because she has been almost myopically focused on issues. now look, her issues are issues that we think are wildly too far to the left, but she is proposing ideas. now, as the democratic party winnows down and they start debating these things, i think you see things like the democratic plans for higher education reform coming full front and center, providing an opportunity for the president to provide a counterbalance to that and one of the things that we picked up in our polling is that there is a huge opportunity for republicans on issues of vocational training. well mainly in the electorate to see 80% of the american voters

feel it's not a good cost. they don't have a degree that gives them a job right away. there is an opportunity for republicans to push these reforms. mike lee in the senate has good reform and basically his reform does one thing, it says you can take the money we are spending right now on federal student loans and if you don't feel like a four-year college education is exactly what you need to be successful and achieve the american dream, we will allow you to access your funds and do vocational or apprenticeship training. to me that's a great reform because there are so many jobs out there people don't have the skills for and we need to be training the next generation of the american workforce. is timur guest here chapman, we welcome your calls and comments and we are a week away from the houston debate for democrats, the next debate on

september the 12th. a quick snapshot poll, one of many in where they stand in the sandersic race, bernie 16%, elizabeth warren 13%, kamala harris 13%. the jump for elizabeth warren, five points since the last hole. let's get the calls. bill is waiting on the republican line in patriot, ohio. caller: good morning. i have a couple of comments. i'm a conservative, retired military. theset support any of so-called gun laws being proposed right now. two, i don't understand why c-span does not have a counterbalance to the guest you had previously. ore -- someone like dr. lott eric pratt to counter some of the falsehoods that the brady campaign puts out there. i wish c-span would do a little forth with the people on our side of the issue. bill, i should say to you

and to tomorrow's program, i think you will appreciate the guest. john lott was on recently on "book tv." tim chapman? guest: thank you for the call. we hear you, at the heritage foundation we are definite of defenders of the second amendment. our concern over what may be coming down the pike. we definitely want to make sure that there are no grand bargains struck on this kind of thing. at the same time, we are doing a lot of work to make sure that we understand what's going on in the gun violence that has occurred across the country. we look at it as the deep underbelly of this is a cultural issue. a cultural issue and a mental health issue and it is tragic and one that is a major challenge for the nation. we hear you on the second amendment. host: ron, independent line, south dakota. caller: i'd like to talk to here in south dakota they just closed

the democratic offices. this is a red state. but it appears to me when you talk about the conservative agenda -- i'm independent -- they only go so far. what't really understand the farm bailouts have anything to do with the farm agenda. i don't understand the tax situation where it appears like corporations and rich people pay less in taxes than i do. genuinely speaking i'd say it's probably a great deal for them, but it's not a very good deal at all for me. .mmigration is another issue it seems like they only want to take it so far. as long as they can hire somebody and they do around here on the farms, that's an illegal immigrant and pay them a fraction of what a citizen would make, that part of immigration therefore. but when it comes to the immigrants coming across the border and going to schools and getting medical services, that against.on they are

my question is i don't really understand the conservative agenda. yeah, we are conservative but only to a point. maybe you can help me understand that. guest: all right, ron. thanks for the call. i think we what you are getting at there is something we have been trying to promote a lot. we think that the conservative agenda needs to do as much as possible for middle-class and working class americans. to the extent that the tax cut will, you know, i think that the problem with the tax cut a little is that it was perceived as a major kind of windfall for corporate america. in reality, the tax bill actually has increased wages for working class americans. there is more than the conservative movement and republican party should be doing for working class americans. i mentioned earlier just a few minutes ago pieces of legislation that will help on vocational training and train up the next generation of the workforce. i think it's important. i think it's important on

immigration reform that we get immigration reform right so that we are bringing people into this country who are coming in on a skills-based platform rather than on a family-based platform or something like that. we don't want to bring in people who will be competing with our own workers for jobs, we want to bring in people that we need for jobs that are open right now. i thinkou on that, that's the next wave for republicans, to kind of put forward a working-class agenda that makes sense and can help folks in your community more identify with the republican party and conservative movement host:. these were just a couple of questions in the survey on immigration. do you agree with or disagree with this statement -- illegal immigration affects my life. 54% said yes. you asked if you support or oppose ruling a wall on the border with mexico to prevent illegal immigration. 50/50 split there. pretty even. one more immigration question

that you asked -- if more legal immigrants are admitted, should priority beginning to immigrants based on skills. 51% said yes. no and that category. did any of the results surprise you in this? guest: the result that -- it didn't surprise me, but it's a frustrating result, 50-50 on the wall. i don't believe it. the reason i don't believe it is because i think the wall has become a proxy for the president and the country is so divided. it's the president's signature issue and i think that when people hear the wall, they hear president trump. .o that's just it i actually believe that on all three of those there is a market out there for immigration reform that is, you know, very targeted pieces of legislation on separate issues. and on these issues, the ones that we just pulled, i think

there is a market for them and it's a majority market in the 50% range. it's common sense stuff. the wall did surprise me. it just showed me how polarized this has become because it is about politics. in this piece from late july in politico, don't make the gop challenge of 2020 about trump." marvin, good morning, democratic lines. i'm retired, i watch news 24/7, all the time. everything goes back to this and how it's related, a while back the book channel about the left, i wrote about the left and how it was taking over journalism. colleges and other things. mark levine just came out with a know,bout the press, you

the press is very unfair and bit -- biased against our president. he was on this morning, geraldo says that he has been battered more than any president in history. if you watch the other channels, american news, newsmax, they are unbiased, you get their opinion. american news it comes on and it shows the death, it's like a debt clock, it cost way more than the wall. my very concern is how i don't the gets fair, even as a democrat i voted for trump and i , ont think my vote counts msnbc news, c-span, it's on 356. the coal wallace, o'donnell right now. if you turn the channel right now, normally they are on this morning show at the same time and they continually bash the press and make fun of him.

20 47. it really irritates me. i get so upset and i feel they are trying to take -- marvin, we are glad you tuned into us this morning. tim chapman? look, there are millions of americans that feel the same frustration. the 24/7 vitriol on cable news right now is to the point where people just want to tune out and maybe it would be good to tune out, frankly. that said, look to use a real issue of the elites kind of commanding the heights of our biased towards conservatives and people with a conservative worldview, particularly in colleges as you let off with. that's one of the reasons a lot of the people are starting to sour on the idea of a college education. now a college education is a wonderful thing, but you should be exposed to all different ideas when you go and get the second level of education, so we

are working hard to try to expose the bias and push back against it. i think it's incredibly important. host: raymond, silver spring. caller: thank you for taking my call. heard your plans to repeal and replace of obamacare since what, 2010? where is that? there was never a plan for the replacement portion of it. .nly a plan to repeal several lawsuits, repeal, repeal, 70 votes, if it came up ,ith a plan it was so terrible no health care plan. said oh, 20 20. people have to die before their is a plan?

every election they promise to repeal obama care. when you take control of the government, you spend more money than the democrats. for the is the plan deficit question mark the tax cuts went to the wealthy. now you are talking about cutting medicare and social security to pay for it. thank you, raymond. i could agree with you more. on health care. first, our colleagues at heritage foundation have developed in concert with a broad coalition of groups here in washington and across the country, they have developed a -- healthd the help care choices proposal that provides greater access and better care for americans across the country. i commend that to you, you can look it up on heritage.org. i think it is a fantastic plan.

we are working with the administration and with republicans in congress to prepare or action on the plan. backing up for a second to the great failure that you mentioned of failing to repeal and replace obamacare in 2017. the reason that we did not opinion,n that, in my was because the conservative movement and the republican party did a lot of work on getting people to understand that we wanted to repeal obama care. we did that work ahead of the election. we did it over and over again and we won elections on it starting in 2010 and all the way through 16. what we didn't do, and this was the big problem, we did not come to a consensus about what we wanted to replace the repeal obamacare with. that was a failure of the conservative movement and a failure of the republican party. the only way you address this stuff is by doing it before elections and it should -- and then injecting it into the election. that's why we are working now, my colleagues at their digital foundation right now are working to get people bought around this

proposal. it needs to be something that you settle on before an election and and get a mandate for after the election. on the debts and deficits, i couldn't agree more. all i can tell you is that this is something that we at heritage action and heritage have been fighting for decades. we are pretty frustrated on it right now. we are being told that people want to make big actions on this after that 2020 election, but promises are one thing and action is another, we will continue to push for it. in "newong the pieces york times," u.s. voters agree with conservative police according to heritage action surveys. republican line, georgia. caller: good morning, how are you today? my concern is the amount of treason taking place in this country and the m and number of people going along with it. how do you defend yourself in court? you literally put a noose around your neck? example, there,

dennis, treason, what are you talking about? there are so many i don't know where to start, it's just ridiculous. host: all right, we will go to the independent line and hear from susan. go ahead. caller: we keep trying to solve these problems when the real problem is a societal problem. people that don't realize the whole gun issue problem is because back in the old days when we were young, we didn't have people running around with their guns, shooting at school after skill killing each other. has made anmovement incredible mess out of this. the democrats want to put more regulations and more of a boot jack on your neck to stop people from being self-reliant. we have got way too much government. the insurance problem could be handled simply by having tort reform. 95% of the lawyers in the world are in america, that should tell you something.

insurance should be open in every state so they all have to compete like the rest of us. these things are so simply handled by common sense and nobody out there in the female voting population except for conservative women seems to get it. the heritage foundation does a great job because they are conservative but apparently republicans are not conservative in congress and that's how come they are falling short on most of us. we are republican to the hilt and we are no longer happy with who they represent as usk because they don't represent us at all. guest: thank you for the call, susan. look, i completely agree. i just think it's a tragedy where we are culturally. it's a tragedy that we have a significant breakdown in the family, a tragedy that our community are no longer is what it once was. a tragedy that our institutions of civil society are no longer what they once were. if you can't see that all of that contributes to the violence we have is a culture, you are

willfully looking the other way. so look, i agree with you, frankly we need more moms like yourself, who are willing to engage in the political process at heritage kind ofand we are g action to build a grassroots network across the country and for people potentially like you who say that in their communities. , only one pollet that counts and that is the one taken on november 3, 2020. i washington examiner piece from earlier this year where you were quoted as saying joe biden keeps me up at night. does he still keep you up at night? guest: not as much. unfortunately, the vice president looks like he has lost a step. that said, i still think he is the most viable of the candidates.

i think the country is not ideological leftist. 25%, 30% oftainly a the democratic base hard-core leftists but the rest of the democratic base and independence are broadly nonbiological. that goes for center-right republicans beard -- republicans beard -- republicans. joe biden says count on me to be the moderate force and i think he looks like that is what you need in the general election, but i do not know key can get out of the democratic primary as i think the energy is around the more liberal candidates and he does not have a lot of energy himself. he is not drawing the crowds the others are drawing and is not as lively on the debate stage. host: a couple of more calls. fort worth, texas, democrat line, james.

caller: my problem with the conservative virginia -- agenda is economics, cut taxes at the top but at the same time you destroyed collective-bargaining which created a middle-class income, a middle-class hope for a future is gone in america. we had the greatest income and ownership wealth gap in the free world. fromyou turn people homeowners and small business ,wners to renters and employees people leave town and now you have an investor economy and not a production economy. every republican and conservative has cut taxes for wages andy and cut middle-class income and that cannot be denied. google it appeared -- google it. , this a couple of things

is why it is important for the party to adopt the working class , middle class agenda. will differ from the democratic approach but it can be successful. and more successful. i liked that the president floated the idea of a middle-class tax cut before the 2018 midterms and i wish he would do it again. there are some thoughts about that and i think it is important. middle-class taxes are something that can help revitalize that portion of the country. i think this was a policy adopted now are revitalizing that portion of the country. i mentioned the wage growth occurring and occurred because of the tax cut and jobs act. that is a good site but not enough. -- good sign but not enough. you can differ with the president on the tariff strategy

but the broader thing he wants is to protect the middle class, the working class in this country. the impulse is the right one. i hear you and that is why i think it is important that republicans adopt a strategy that looks more like that. host: larry, maryland, republican line. , they: the democrats pushed policy gabbert out. out.lsi gabbard the major problem for america is that. -- debt. interest on that is $22 trillion. we have to return the dollar to the gold standard.

also, with the illegal aliens, the major problems is narcotics and sex trafficking with it. that is all i have. guest: thank you, larry. i thought all see gabbard was an interesting -- tulsi gabbard was an interesting candidate, she started talking about ways we can defuse the culture wars and how the democratic party was too aggressive towards people of faith in this country. for that, she was routinely mocked within the democratic party. that was disappointing to me because at first i thought there was a candidate, we need candidates on both sides of the aisle who turned down the temperature and potentially propose a truce in the culture wars. it looked like that to me but it was not welcome within the

party. and indicative of where they are on those issues. host: nacogdoches, texas, good morning. onler: i want to speak transmitting information. received the information is inthfully, the woman called ,nd talk about how the drugs and when it got to be a clinic, it went like wildfire. is sang the democrats but it the people put in office, i don't care their party, it should not be democrat or republican, what is the principle? biased by donald

when, how are they biased he puts it up and they respond on it? who says nod friend matter what donald trump does, lie,t on it, if he tells a they should just back him up. i disagree with that. if he is saying something not true or doing something wrong, it should be put out there. you are just calling it what it is. host: final thoughts. tell us where our viewers can find your poll? heritageaction.com. you can look at talking points and conclusions from it. host: your next focus ahead of , whatesidential election is your primary focus?

policytry to focus where -- we want to be focused on policy and build a grassroots campaign around the policies we have identified that can unite the country. look for us to be in your backyard and talking to neighbors and members of the community about these policies. host: more "washington journal" i had -- ahead. bush madegeorge h.w. a speech about the war on drugs and we will talk about the legacy of that with kassandra frederique of the drug policy alliance. ♪ >> what is your vision in 2020? what issueis asking

you most want to see in the presidential campaign? studentcam is our nationwide video documentary competition for middle school and high school students with $100,000 in total cash prizes at stake, including a $5,000 grand prize. students are asked to produce a short video documentary including c-span video and reflecting differing points of view. information to get you started is on our website, studentcam.org. journal"ngton continues. host: joining us from new york is kassandra frederique, the advocate strategy managing director of the drug policy alliance. kassandra frederique, thank you for being with us. we started talking about the war on drugs and its legacy which began -- we will not play the full speech but a flavor of the

speech ready years ago from president george h.w. bush. here is part of the speech. time i found an issue so important, so threatening, it warranted talking directly with you, the american people. we agree that the bravest -- greatest domestic threat is drugs which have strained our faith and our system of justice, our courts and prisons and legal systems are stretched to the breaking point. social cost of drugs are areting and in short drugs sapping our strength as a nation. turn on the evening news or pick up the morning paper and you will see what some americans know just by stepping out their front door, our most serious problem today is cocaine and in particular crack., who is responsible? everyone uses drugs.

everyone who sells drugs. and everyone who looks the other way. tonight, i will tell you how many americans are using illegal drugs and present our national strategy to deal with every aspect of this threat, and ask you to get involved in what promises to be a very difficult fight. this is crack cocaine. seized a few days ago by drug enforcement agents in a park across the street from the white house. it could easily have been heroin or pcp. it is as innocent looking as candy but it is turning our cities into battlefields and it is murdering our children. let there be no mistake, this stuff is poison. some used to call drugs harmless not, they are is a real and terribly dangerous

threat to our neighborhoods and friends and our families. no one among us is out of harms way. when four-year-old play in playgrounds with discarded hypodermic needles and crack vials, it breaks my heart. when cocaine, one of the most deadly drugs, is available to school kids, it is an outrage. and when hundreds of thousands of babies are born each year to mothers who use drugs, premature babies, born desperate, and even the most defenseless are at risk. speechsing the notable from president george h.w. bush 30 years ago today and looking at the legacy of the war on drugs with the drug policy alliance's kassandra frederique. how do you view the legacy of the war on drugs in the past 30 years and more/ ? guest: thank you for having me.

this is an important moment to talk about because when we think about the legacy of the war on drugs, we recognize it is one of the biggest domestic policy failures in this country. we could literally replace the word drugs with drug policy in the president's speech and we will see the real effect. the war on drugs has not made our country more safe. we could do better to do more public education about the risk associated with drug use and have conversations not filtered with stigma, which we know has created so many overdose deaths. we are now in the middle of a large public health crisis with the overdose crisis and there are direct linkages to our response to drugs that comes from that speech to what is happening now. host: from the prison policy

initiative that some states have largely ended the war on drugs, other states not so much, new york, quite a downfall since 1992. from oklahoma, the rise, reflective of the drug offenders in the opioid crisis. one of the things we have made progress on in terms of the so-called war on drugs, what are the areas that are successful? guest: we are in the middle of a moment people are recognizing the current policies of incarcerating people are not effective and give people the resources to make healthier choices. people are figuring out different ways to increase access to things that work like methadone or narcan and opportunities for people to get access to sterile equipment such as clean hypodermic needles. conversations and

prosecutors are realizing diverting people potentially into jobs and housing or treatment is a more effective use of resources. you see places like albany, new ,ork, tampa bay, seattle conversations with law-enforcement about ways we can shift resources to build communities as opposed to filling our jails and prisons. host: kassandra frederique is our guest joining us from new york with the drug policy alliance. let's open the phone lines to you to hear from your thoughts on your legacy on the war on drugs. in the-8000 eastern-central time zones and any mountain and pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. , yous like i cut you off talked about national issues, finish or thought. guest: i was just pointing out places that have taken on the

idea that we should be shifting from criminal justice resources and more on behavioral health and access to things people need, like housing, primary and harmg treatment reduction principles. it is frustrating because we know what has worked for 30 years and we need people to recognize that shifting our toponse will be crucial bringing people of the resources they need to make healthier choices. host: the fight against drug abuse continues with the opioid epidemic now. the headline in the washington times, donald trump feels that nearly $2 billion for the opioid response towas your the action by the administration yesterday? guest: one of the things we have seen, these are not new

announcements, we have not seen it get to the ground in the way we need. we need more action as opposed to headlines. the rhetoric is not always matching the action. in this moment, we are very interested in really supporting people on the ground doing the work and how we can get the resources to people on the front line and helping people work through whatever they are struggling with. host: how do you get most of your funding? guest: most comes from foundations and major donors and people that support ending the drug war. programa direct mail where people give money every month because they believe the work we are doing is crucial to making america healthier and safer. war is something we all

have to work to move forward with an something that has failed and a lot of people country -- in this country believe that and we are an organization working to help us all get to a better place. nne in newport, reggie, florida. -- new port richey, florida. you are on the air. caller: i am here. how are you? and a you are an advocate lot of the speech you are using has to do with incredible efforts in raising funds for this task. i was raised by a master psychologist and i raised a master psychologist who does drug rehabilitation counseling in-house. i would like to say two things, if i may, i am kind of nervous so bear with me. guest: no worries.

caller: i think some of the donors you may have are also getting funds through investments that are for pharmaceutical companies. you may want to do homework on that. second of all, i want to ask you how old you are? never mind. i am in my 60's. i have seen a lot of friends go by the wayside. because of drug use. the most importantthe most impoe away for people who want to work on alliances to create a better place for us all to live, is education. a lot of the things you are trying to do our very important. but we have a split thing here. versusharmaceuticals

nonlegal. host: we hear your point. go ahead? guest: your biggest point around education is one that we very much agree on. drug policy alliance and some of our partners are doing a lot of work around public education because we feel that a lot of the issues, especially about overdoses, is because people do not understand the toxicology of drugs. or the fact that people do not know what is in the substance. we focus on drug checking so people know what is happening if they are making the choice to use drugs. we have invested in safety first, a curriculum to talk to young people about drugs and give them all of the information necessary for them to make healthier choices in their lives. public education is crucial to

how we will deal with this and that is one of the reasons, if we will have speeches from the administration, they need to focus on how to get people to be safer and not actually promote misinformation about what is happening and what the effects are. it is important for us to stick to the science and give people the opportunity to make healthier choices. host: bob in raleigh, north carolina. i do not want my fellow isocrats to believe someone more responsible for the war on drugs, senators and representatives of acquired prison stocks and the whole thing is a big morass of corruption and has destroyed so many lives. guest: thank you.

kevin --'s hear from go ahead. guest: bob is right and as joe crucialves, it will be to hear joe biden admit what he is done and give us a new vision because what he pushed before did not work. host: kevin in brownsburg, indiana. good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: find, thanks. last: -- caller: the dollars have been spot on, we look at legal and nonlegal drugs different ways and our government never had a war on contrase know about the and the cold war and the cia, and his boss, ron reagan being the biggest drug dealer we have ever seen. what you said about joe biden,

stock in prisons. america is all about the money. i have been on both sides of the fence. situationy work in a where i see a lot of overdoses and i have seen one african-american, 200 or 300 overdoses, never have i seen one african-american die from opioids. pharma, running rampant as the biggest drug dealer of all time, with other pharmaceutical companies. our government will not do anything, it will have to come from the private sector. i applaud you from what you are doing. i appreciate you taking my call. guest: thanks, kevin. there are a couple of points, we do have to talk about the role that capitalism place in incentivizing how we deal with

drugs. there is a conversation to be had about the role big pharma has played and most important it is about the drug policy responses and how we get people access to pain medication and what works. the drug policy works we have been doing has shown that there are people with chronic pain now suffering because our to coney and drug policies -- for coney and drug policies around pharmaceuticals and there are people opioids work for an struggling with opioids and in we need to deal with that. there need to be multiple communities -- that,important to say oftentimes people talk about the overdosed crisis as if it is only hurting one community but the overdosed crisis and overdose deaths are increasing among african-americans and white americans in this country. -- and black americans in this

country and that has not been given the attention it needs because the larger, mainstream image is focusing on the white people. as a community suffering but black americans are also suffering at it is important, as we fight this public health crisis, with the rise of the presence of the novel, we have -- fentanyl, we have a response to the crisis, not only white, latino, blacks, business committees. talking about the drug epidemic and the legacy of the legacy of the war on drugs and 20th from new york is kassandra frederique with the drug policy alliance. we welcome your call and comments. gaithersburg, maryland. caller: hello? host: you are on the air. guest: hello? caller: thank you for taking my call. i was listening to the last person and he said something

that -- there is something i int to say this morning, think 1984 when jesse jackson ran for president twice, and one time he spoke at the convention hold ad that you cannot person in the ditch unless you get in the ditch and hold him down. when someone says something about who the bell tolls for, ,verything something is passed when drugs were in fast and the black communities -- in the black communities and the murder rate went up, it was not called -- there was not nice terminology about it, a bunch of criminals involved. now that we have the opioid crisis, which is incredible, i

did not have a clue until a year ago when my younger sister say 56,000 people die a year, i could not imagine that happening in this country and how it was allowed to be so. we are losing doctors and lawyers and engineers, bus drivers,. pictures, it takes -- dog catchers, it takes everybody to run the world and we have to start asking god for more direction. host: thank you for your call. kassandra frederique? guest: if you believe in god, get on your knees. i believe we have the science and the health intervention that can help us. this is an important moment. we talked about crack cocaine and there have been a lot of

parallels people have made between what the government did for crack cocaine and what the government is doing right now in the opera crisis. the thing that -- opioid crisis. we have not done what we know what works, giving people access to the housing that works, have not dealt with the structural factors at play. there is a different rhetoric focusing on a more compassionate and gentler version of the drug war but it is important for the listener and viewers to know that the rhetoric does not match the practice, people are still being incarcerated and separated from their families and still not being given access to the kind of treatment that works and is effective. right now, some of us have to get down on our knees and pray and some of us have to do the community responses we know that work and that is investing in determinants of health and focusing on harm reduction

practices and shifting resources to build communities as opposed to jailing persons. host: on the incarceration, explain the discrepancy from the prison population initiative that look back 30 years, 1990, the drug possession, people -- arrests, drug possession arrest 300,000were 700,000 and for drug distribution. 2017, 1.4 million arrested for possession but about the same number as the sale and manufacture. discrepancy? for us tois important recognize the difference between the terminology of prison and jail. we are also seeing an increase of people in jails and the assistive criminal justice -- we

are having a conversation as there are a lot of people who have gone back and forth between charged with sales or position because users and sellers can tend to be the same people. now, around incarceration, there is a focus on moving people to diversion or treatment and what we see is people struggling about how to navigate through this moment. the prison policy initiative we reportth has issued this and is looking at these different numbers. for us, we see they may look the same but we are also looking at distribution. our people in prison or in jail or different treatment positions? we are trying to focus on the pervasiveness so we can find where people are. as someone from new york and does research, the distribution

of for the numbers are can be different depending on how you look at them. illinois -- and teresa in illinois. caller: good morning. i just want to say, you know, this war on drugs, go back to the crack cocaine epidemic, and iran-contra, they were sent to the black community intentionally. they had congressional hearings about it and it did not go anywhere and nobody was ever held responsible. those drugs were intentionally sent into the black community and along with the gangster rap, that was intentionally done, we have 35 years of all of this and crack cocaine epidemic started the prison industrial complex. host: a couple of callers have

made that point. kassandra frederique? guest: it is important to acknowledge there was a systematic -- this was a systematic policy initiative to criminalize poor people and people of color, in particular, black people. your callers are right, when we talk about the policy, it cannot be divorced from the systematic way that race was used to propagate incarceration and stigmatization. conversationt a about gary webb and contra, but around relying the interests and motivations behind richard nixon's war on drugs was a way to destabilize the black community and antiwar left. work, butpolicies

there is a larger conversation about the war on drugs. most drug laws passed in this country have usually been connected to a group of people that were not white. the first drug was associated with asian folks in san francisco with cocaine laws associated with black americans. even right now with conversations about building the wall and the heroine crisis, we see the role xenophobia and racism has played, a motivating factor as we move forward. the reason it keeps coming up is because we cannot have a conversation about the drug policy the country has propagated without having a serious conversation of the role race has played in building drug policies. host: a headline from the associated press on the opioid

crisis, australia faces a opioid crisis as companies push drugs abroad. abilene, texas, maddie. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: i just have a couple of things to say. deal, it affects whites now more than blacks. old, he had2 years a good job. when he was in his late 30's, he got burnt late -- really bad on his back. third-degree burns. opioids,ted him on coding, hydrocodone. it does not take much for somebody to get addicted to hydrocodone.

pills,nd them out like just like candy. you go to the dentist and get hydrocodone. he was taking 16 pills per day. problem but hea did not know what to do without it. it, to him and pay for be in a rehab center. ok? he went once and got out, it lasted a month. he got back on them. when it got hard for him to get them, and his wife was also on them, and they had children, three. whichound another outlet was methamphetamines. they took them by mouth at first

and snorted forever and started using needles. crap about giving people free needles, you are just giving them permission to do drugs. you are not getting them help. 2012ughter-in-law died in because she shared so many needles with people and her advised son, that's my son, they were making methamphetamines in their home and selling it out of their home. host: i will let you go there, a awful story, sorry to hear that. your response? guest: i am so sorry. isrything you are saying

reflective of a lot of things i have heard and witnessed in my work in trying to deal with this crisis. and criminalatic that your son did not have the information to get the resources he needed. he did not have a treatment process that worked for him. that is polymeric. -- that is problematic and why we work so hard with people around the country to figure out ways to make treatment better and more accessible and responsive to the needs of the people who come in. a lot of people who do great work in the treatment space but they need more. so many people are struggling. about clean needles, your point is important. reducing the harms and giving people access to sterile equipment is critical to ending the war on drugs and critical to

dealing with the opioid crisis because it is not only giving people access to clean needles but prevents them from contracting blood-borne illnesses like appetite is be or hiv -- hepatitis b or hiv. important for people to access these resources because it gives them the ability to not die from something else. the ability to keep people alive enough to give them resources to stay alive. dead people do not recover. multipleo give people pathways to recover and for some people that is abstinence-based treatment and other people that may be methadone. for other people, syringe assess where they get syringes but are connected to wraparound services which include drug treatment. giveve to give more -- people more options and not less which is hard because we want our family members to be alive,

some want family members to stop using. sometimes it does not work that way. i'm a social worker and i believe in my heart that we have to not the people there. it is hard for listeners and viewers with family struggling but we work with families every day that have lost people who lost loved ones to overdoses or to incarceration or are still struggling with people using or still struggling with people incarcerated. our goal is to give people more options, not less. , when youint about hear about race and the drug war and you think, no big deal, we know is affecting everybody. the longer we have conversations , the more we have full or conversations about all of the communities impacted by the drug war, the better we are and the

more effective we will be in seeing robust solutions that work for everyone. host: kassandra frederique, we appreciate our conversation with you this morning, thank you for being here. guest: thank you for having me. host: we will now ask you your top policy and priority -- top public priority issues you will focus on, including hurricane dorian, the pending gun legislation discussion on capitol hill, what is happening in the u.k. with the brexit vote yesterday, u.s.-u.k. relations, and congressional retirements that have just happened in the last day or two. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. independents for and all others. the right back. ♪ >> watch c-span's campaign 2020 coverage of the democratic

presidential candidate at the new hampshire democratic party convention with our live coverage saturday at 9:00 am eastern on c-span and online at c-span.org or listen with the c-span radio app. "washington journal" mugs are available at our new online store. check them out and see all of the c-span products. "washington journal" continues. host: 202-748-8000 fo democratsr. -- for 202-748-8000. 202-748-8001 for 202-748-8001. independents and all others, 202-748-8002. top public policies you are watching. wayicane dorian making its up the east coast of the united

states. a washington post or a reported elsewhere -- story reported elsewhere, donald trump shows risk to alabama with a map that appears altered, the white house attempted to retroactively justify a tweet president trump issued of the weekend and which he warned erroneously that alabama would be affected by hurricane dorian feared in a white house video, released wednesday, donald trump displays a modified national hurricane center cone of uncertainty forecast dated 11:00 a.m. on august 29 indicating alabama would be effective and the graphic appears to have been altered indicating a risk the storm would move into alabama from florida, "we had actually the original chart that it would hit florida directly, president trump said as he display the graphic from august 29, which now includes an appendage extending the cone into alabama.

that was the original chart president trump said, it was going towards the gulf, he explained in the video, asking about the altered chart at a white house event wednesday afternoon, the president said his briefings included a 95% chance that alabama would be hit. when asked about whether the chart had been drawn, president trump said i don't know. we zero in on the chart. line.is a black your thoughts on hurricane dorian and other public policy issues. 202-748-8000 for democrats. republicans, 202-748-8001. after their hurting last year in puerto rico, among the project, losing money to the wall, the washington post saying becoming gone is not funding hurricane maria projects at military

installations in puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands to pay for president trump's border in moneynd is taking from construction projects across europe designed to help allies deter russia. richard in potomac, maryland. good morning, richard. caller: good morning. my first priority is money and politics, you have to get it out as the wealthy and powerful continue to tip the tables and put more money in their pockets makehey use the money to policies that to the table. with all -- without that money, politician could focus on what people need and the problems we have today and would reduce partisanship substantially. extensive coverage on c-span yesterday of the debate and people in the british house of commons on key issues related

to brexit and we are joined from coversby aubrey who parliament and other issues for sky news. thank you for joining us. what did the house of commons vote on yesterday? the two issues? >> there were two major issues in the house of commons, the the first was to try to delay the idea of a no deal brexit in october. a group of members of parliament took control of the agenda and suspended the parliamentary role that the government can create -- and theyo greet passed legislation to do that through the lower house in a single day, the legislation is now going to the upper half and expected to pass later today or tomorrow. secondly, the prime minister

wants an early general election because the legislation, he thinks it is the only way to break the deadlock. delays theof this october 31 deadline for brexit, does it? guest: absolutely not. even if the members of parliament are successfully in getting their legislation through tomorrow to delay a no deal vote, that law would force boris johnson to ask them to delay brexit but gives no guarantee that brussels or the european union leaders will do that and comes down to what date could they pick? the members of parliament have asked for january of 2020, but that would be in the hands of the european union. host: whether not be in the elections in the near future in the u.k. -- will there not be

any elections in the near future nikkei -- in the u.k.? guest: the government will try again on monday and the opposition parties are keen on a general election. they are waiting for the anti-no deal legislation to pass, if it does by the end of this week, i am sure they will be more than happy to back a general election on monday. the opposition party wants to have a longer campaign than october 15. we could have a general election in november. host: aubrey joining us from dayon updating us on a busy in the house of commons. thank you. guest: thank you for having me. host: your top public policy issues. renée in mcallen, texas. say, tim would like to

chapman from the heritage ,oundation, about the deficit nobody wants to talk about the and you keep cutting off the democrats and republicans just to finish your sentence. more -- we need a lot more of you to be fair with the rest of the people. give us a chance to talk. you know we are not getting our fair share of time. i watch you every day and love this show. , nobody wants to talk about the deficit, infrastructure, and other things of that nature. be fair now. republicans get to finish their sentences and we don't.

host: barbara in oklahoma city. good morning, democrat line. caller: hi. i wanted to say, we have had this grove war for so many years ,- drug war for so many years we will never do anything about it as long as we keep locking up the victims. drugs, you of these put drugs -- they will not stop the pharmaceutical companies with the money in it and all of that. same thing on the firearms issues. control --ever be in controlled as long as they're are in the market and making so much money that they have about cover the earth with weapons.

until that stops, nothing will change, nor has it. we had been fighting this for so many years and not one thing changes. it is like they say, people who are the problem will not obey the laws. thank you for listening. joseph,publican line, manchester, maryland. caller: good morning. the war on drugs has been a failure since we started. onre has been zero progress handling or decreasing drug usage, overdose is. -- overdoses. over the last five years we have implemented over a dozen new programs and there has been zero progress with just about the same amount of overdoses. that is where i am with the war on drugs. host: you are running for

delegate in maryland? caller: yes, sir. host: as a republican. where is manchester? caller: carroll county area. host: north part of the state? caller: yes, sir, 10-50 minutes away from the pennsylvania line. host: carrie in rogers, minnesota -- terry in rogers, minnesota, republican line. caller: i cannot help but mention the map showing the heeat is desperate, whether or somebody put a black loop on the map, scientist have not, did not hit where they said it would. we are supposedly the whole world's climate will kill us in 10 years but they cannot predict accurately the next 24 hours. that is funny. always something against donald

trump. nobody wants to enjoy how this country is prospering right now. taxes are down and gas prices are down and the stock market is up, wages are up, employment is up. we are actually talking with north korea instead of obama hiding under his desk and popping his head out, saying don't cross my redline or you are in trouble. this is kind of funny how it is going. they are down to whether a map was altered. they lost election and in all likelihood they will lose another. stop these, desperation, it is embarrassing to listen to. host: the article he was talking about, the map, you have probably seen it on the cable shows, president trump looking at the map and the issue was the

darker circle near alabama. jennifer is an owings mills, maryland. democrat line. caller: good morning. i am calling for an issue related to the war on drugs and mental health. getting help for veterans. war anderson goes into and they with ptsd, try to get treatment from the veterans administration, it is such a hassle to get the treatment as they put you off and the veteran may do drugs to help get through their trauma. i believe that one of the top issue should be that, when a veteran who has served their

country, how they should get the help due them. that is my issue. host: jared in monroe, new york. caller: hi. i want to comment on the war on drugs. lyndon johnson had a were on poverty with translated to richard nixon's war on crime and president reagan and bush started the war on drugs and continues. the way to build up the prison industrial complex and the militarization of law enforcement. the other aspect is that it takes away the rights of a lot of minorities and poor people because they lock them in jail and give them a felony record and they cannot vote anymore so it disenfranchises the working and lower class and socioeconomic classes in the country without actually saying it. host: appreciate your comments. we have five more minutes or so.

welcome your comments on twitter with congress back on monday and harry tweet, a memo to congress, recess is over and quite a spate of retirement over the august recess with bill flores of texas announcing yesterday morning and after the program news of jim , the republican, the second longest-serving member of the u.s. representatives will not run for a 22nd term he said on wednesday. news out of california as susan davis is retiring from congress. it could spark a democratic free for all, that is the times of san diego. what have members been doing on their break? steve king claims he drank from toilets in border detention centers and the daily beast, he spent the most of his career defending himself against allegations that he is a white

nationalists told constituents at a town hall in eagle grove, iowa on wednesday that he drank out of a 20 at a migrant attention facility to prove criticisms of the conditions are cellnded, "i went into the where it was reported they advised they had to drink out of the toilet, he said, i took a drink, and it was pretty good. that was from the daily beast. mary in northridge, california. republican line. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my comment. timeerstand that a lot of it is considered the president border wall but he has enough money for security. the rest of us do not. it is not so much about immigrants but about other things coming in. , obamant on the drug war was here for eight years and

president trump had a first act that helps people incarcerated through a drug arrest. you show did not show, rest to possession, but you did not show arrests to possession to sell, it is completely different because in not selling drugs to people that can defend themselves, the little kids in the middle school and high school. snippetinutes had a about people lining up in these clinics to get their opioids. now we go on the opioid epidemic, did not happen overnight. david,ndiana, independent -- democrat line. go ahead, david. caller: good morning.

i know with the top public policy issue is, the achievement century, biotechnology on a nanoscale, engineering on m&a kilis scale will allow us to repeal individual human cells and reverse the aging process. we can achieve a first. we are on track to do that. the largest investment since weapons is biotechnology. we are spending so much money on it and we will do it. when it isat achieved should be the top public policy issue this year and going forward until it is shared. host: thank you, david. our producer tweeting, senator schumer, the democratic leader in the senate, outlines democratic senators top priorities which includes bills

on gun background checks, health-care, election security, federal spending, pensions, and hong kong. howard in north carolina, democrat line. caller: c-span, you can validate everything i'm about to say. you have shown it before on a program. illnessbama said mental would be a difficult for a person with a condition, a mental condition, to receive a firearm. a couple of years ago, in 2017, donald trump reversed that policy and said that any mental illness person can buy a firearm but the first time, when there is a mass shooting, the first thing donald trump says is they must be mental. it so people can

receive a gun. i would like you to pull that up and show people that trump always talks about mental illness in people but he signed an thate mental illness people can also purchase a firearm. and there is a gentleman that says trump is doing so great but field being a president. he does not know which job he really wants. you should call it fox and call him to do the forecast because he is definitely not a good president for the american people. i know barack obama was for all beforeamericans, even they called it obamacare, but dealing with the condition that people have, now they want to republicans ran

on it is just obamacare. they did not want to think about if you have a pre-existing condition. all of that will be lost if the republicans have their way. host: i don't have time to pull up that clip on this program but perhaps in the future. you can always find what you are looking for in terms of video at c-span.org. we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 for another program of "washington journal," live every day at 7:00 a.m. we hope the rest of your day is great. thanks for being with us. announcer: here is a look at some of our live programming today on c-span. afternoon eastern, a discussion on future technologies tha could be used to modernize the

military. a top u.s. officer joins a panel of think tank scholars at the event. live coverage today begins at 12 eastern on c-span. this afternoon, joint chiefs of staff chair, g u.s. relations. watch that live at 6:30 p.m. eastern, online at c-span.org, or listen live with the free c-span radio app. saturday on book tv at 9:00, 10:00 p.m. eastern, our interview with a disability rights and attorney. she talks about becoming the first in-depth graduate at harvard law school. >> students can just go to school and expected teachers to teach them. i could not do that. about what are

the potential unknowns? how can i find those unknowns? beenll my life, i have trying to identify the unknowns, figure them out, and come up with solutions. announcer: at 10:00 p.m. on afterwards, a professor talks about his book "how to be an antiracist." he is interviewed by a princeton university professor. >> i don't think even well-meaning people, even people who are trying to be part of a movement against racism, recognize really that the history of this term. so when a eugenicist was classified as racist, they said i am not racist. when jim crow segregates were charged with being racist, they said i am not racist. even today with white nationals are saying i'm not racist. no matter whether they are in the white house or planning the

next mass shooting. p.m.,cer: then at 11:00 former defense secretary jim mattis recounts his military career and his thoughts on leadership in his book. onch book tv every weekend c-span2. announcer: this is the story of how this whole new economy was built. i have always been interested, ever since i was working in washington, in how business and government interact with one another. they have an antagonistic relationship, but they also have a collaborative relationship or the real story of american history is one of public-private partnerships in many ways and in ways that they are sometimes unseen. so i think this story is a really great way to get into that. announcer: university of washington history professor discusses her book "the code:

silicon valley and the remaking of america," sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. and now, comments from supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg. she talks about her career, friendship with antonin scalia, and her health following cancer treatment. justice jens berg spoke in little rock, arkansas, as part of a special lecture series -- supreme court justice ginsburg delivered remarks in little rock, arkansas as part of a special lecture series hosted by the clinton foundation, and the clinton school of public service. she sat down with the conversation with npr's nina totenberg. this is about 90 minutes. >> wow. you got to look at this crowd. [applause]