03/30/16 03/30/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! > can you help me. >> wt u.s. b borders did n not what n nine just reaealized, eyewitness vidideos caught t the soununds o of anastasio hernanandez-rorojas pleading and screaming for his life. amy: six years ago, mexican immigrant named anastasio hernandez-rojas tried to cross the border to return to san ando he lived for 25 years

had five children. you never saw his children again. he died after being beaten and tased. no one was ever held accountable. in his family is petitioning her quest for justice. we will speak with his brother. then president obama has t to sp upup the fight against terror wn ththe prescrcription drug abuse. >> it isis important to recognie that today we are seeing moree opioidkililled because of overdose than traffic accidents. amy: we will speak with mamaia and michael collins of the drug policy alliance. all of that and m more coming u. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the suprpreme court has deadlocd four to fofour in a key case tht

could have undermined the power of public employee unions to -- effectively dealing a major victory to the unions. following the death of justice antonin scalia last month, the eight-memember court splplit ovr whether public employee unions can continue to collect mandatory dues from workers who benefit from collective bargaining, even though they decline to join the union. the split leaves in place a lower court ruling allowing unions to continue to collect the fees. it's the clearest example to date of the impact scalia's death has had d on the court. he had made it clear during questioning that he sided against the unions. in a rare move that could be aimed at averting another four-four deadlock, ththe supree court ordered attorneys in a key birth control case to file new information. the court heard arguments a challenge by religiously affiliated nonprofits to the affordable care act's guaranteed coverage for birth control. the obama administration has

said the nonprofits can simpson provide written notice of their objection to providing employees with birth control coverage at which point the government and insurers take over. but the groups say the mere act of expressing that objection violates their religious liberty. tuesday's order asks the parties to address if birth control coverage could be provided to employees without any involvement by the religiously affiliated nonprofits. meanwhile, illinois senator mark kirk became the first republican to meet with obama's nominee to replace justice scalia on the supreme court. kirk called on his fellow republicans to stop refusing to meet with the nominee, merrick garland. >> i understand 15, 16 republican thinking about meeting with judge garland and leading by example, i'm showing what a rational, responsible guy would do that really once the constitutional process to go forward. amy: republican presidential frontrunner donald trump's campaign manager, corey lewandowski, has been charged

with battery for allegedly grabbing a reporter and pulling her away from trump earlier this month. surveillance footage from trump's own golf club in florida shows lewandowski grabbing reporter michelle fields. the footage, released by the jupiter, florida police department, directly contradicts earlier claims by both lewandowski and trump, who both said lewandowski didn't touch fields. two days after the incident, trump told cnn "perhaps she made the story up." bubut fields posted photographsf bruises she said were caused by lewandowski grabbing and yanking her arm. she and a number of her colleagues resigned from the right-wing site breitbart news, saying the editors failed to defend fields, instead publishing an article casting doubt on her claims. on tuesday, lewandowski turned himself in at police headquarters. he has been ordered to appear in court may 4. the charge could carry up to a year in jail. but speakiking on his private airplane, trump continued to

defend his campaigign manager ad attack reporter michelle fields. >> if you look at her, according to a lot of people, she is grabbing at me. he is acting as an intermediary and trying to block her from doing that. the news conference was over. it was done. it was finished. she was running up and grabbing and asking questions, and she wasn't supposed to be doing that. i told him, you should never settle this case. you should go all the way. i think they really hurt very good person. amy: democratic candidate hillary clinton criticized donald trump saying he bears , responsibility for lewandowski's behavior. >> a lot of rhetoric as well as behavior coming from donald trump'ss campaign that is concerning to many people, including many women. therefore, as people are making up their minds to vote here in wisconsin and in the contest remaining, they ought to take a hard look at the example that

candidate set, what t wos and actions they employ, and hold them responsible. amy: in mexico, senators hung an anti-trump banner outside the senate in mexico to criticize trump's rhetoric calling mexicans rapists and vowing to make mexico pay for a border wall. the banner, which read "mexico against trump," was launched by senate leader miguel barbosasa. >> a call from mexico, from any part of the world, to the society, to the american people, to reject that strategy and reject the initiative of donald trump to become first the candidate of a political party and then president of the most powerful country in the world. and with that, put it risked the stability of peace on our planet. amy: donalald trump's closestst rival, texas senator ted cruz, won an endorsement tuesday from wisconsin governor scott walker, just one week before the wisconsin primary. walker, known for his attacks on public-sector unions in

wisconsin, dropped out of the race for the republican presidential nomination in september and called for unity against trump. in pakistan, authorities said they have detained more than 5000 people and released most of them following the easter bombings at a park in lahore. the attack killed 72 people, many of them children. rana sanaullah, a state minister for punjab province, where the bombings t took placace, said me thanan 200 people remain in custody. >> during these raids, 5221 suspects were rounded up. 5005 of them were released after the verification of their particulars. 200 16 suspects are in custody pending further investigation. after further investigation, we will know more about them. if someone is innocent, they are innocent. if someone is found to be guilty, they will be charged. amy: in cyprus, a court has ordered an eight-day detention for an egyptian man who hijacked a domestic egyptair flight and

diverted it to cyprus by threatening to detonate what turned out to be a fake explosives belt. all 72 passengers and crew were ultimately released safely from the plane and seif eddin mustafa was arrested. officials said mustafa told police -- "what's someone supposed to do when he hasn't seen his wife and children in 24 years and the egyptian government won't let him?" authorities described the alleged hijacker as psychologically unstable. in brazil, president dilma rousseff has suffered a major setback amid the country's worst political crisis in more than two decades. rousseff's opponents are attempting to impeach her on corruption charges, but rousseff has said the attempts are an undemocratic bid by her right-wing opposition to oust her from power. on tuesday, brazil's largest political party said it was leaving rousseff's governing coalition. the brazilian democratic movement party has several ministers in rousseff's cabinet and 68 members in the lower house of congress. the vote paves the way for more party members to side with attempts to impeach rousseff next month.

to see our conversation with pulitzer p prize winning journalist when greenwald about what is happening in brazil, go to democracynow.org. the turmoil in brazil comes just months before the summer olympics in rio de janeiro. the television network nbc said tuesday it has already surpassed $1 billion in advertising sales for the rio olympics, putting it on track to set a record for the most national advertising ever sold for a single event. north carolina is facing a growing backlash over a new law barring cities and towns from passing laws prohibiting discrimination against lgbt people in public accommodations. the law, known as house bill 2, was introduced after the city of charlotte in north carolina passed an ordinance seeking to protect the right of transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. on tuesday night north , carolina's largest corporation, bank of america, came out against the anti-transgender law. earlier in the day, 80 chief executives from facebook, applpe and other firms wrote an open

, letter to governor pat mccrory opposing it. and north carolina's attorney general roy cooper, who is running for governor against pat mccrory, announced he would not defend the new law in court. we will have more on this story later in the broadcast with a transgender student who is a plaintiff in the aclu lawsuit against the new law. a judge has allowed former supermodel janice dickinson to proceed with a defamation case against comedian bill cosby. dickinson accused cosby of drugging and raping her in 1982. she sued him and his former attorney i in may after they publicly denied her account. the judge's decision clears the way for a trial in the case. more than 50 women have come forward to accuse cosby of sexual assaults dating back decades. in many cases, the statute of limitations has expired, preventing bill cosby from being prosececuted. a coalition of attorneys general have announced a historic effort to investigate corporations that

may have misled the public about time a change. massachusetts attorney general, flanked by former vice president out gore e and multiple other attorneys general, said her office would join new york attorney general eric schneiderman investigation into exxonmobil. >> certain companies, certain industries may not have told the whole story, leading many to doubt whether climate change is real and a misunderstanding and is apprehend the catastrophic nature of its impacts. also feel companies deceived investors and consumers about the dangers of climate change and should be, must be held accountable. that is why i have joined in investigating the practices of exxonmobil. we can all see today the troubling disconnect between what exxon new, what industry folks nato, and what the company and industry chose to share with investors and with the american public. amy: democracy now! and new york

juan gonzalezost is leaving after 20 years. mayor bill de blasio tweeted "we will miss hearing one gonzalez's loud voice for the workers in the new york daily news. we hope to give hearing g it elsewhere." former village voice writer tweeted -- and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: i'm just thankful you're not headed out this door. but i have to say, your career of 29 years at the "new york daily news," i would like to read the letter that your editor in chief wrote about you that he is released to the staff. you cannot interrupt. juan: he release that on

deadline yesterday. amamy: this is the letter from e editor in chief jim rich. he writes "one gonzalez has been an inspiration to each of us at some point in our careers, some of us grew up in new york city area and were compelled to become journalists after reading his unsparing investigative work. some of us has to children to shoulder with him as he covered with unmatched grace and integrity, many of the most important or harrowing stories and the city's history. all of us have missed is unflinching devotion as an agent of social good. his accomplishments are too long to list here, but a few must be noted," says the head of "the new york daily news." he writes --

his investigation into the 26 shooting of sean bell helped disrupt the nypd's narrative of the incident and lead to a more complete telling of the fact while shedding light on institutional misdeeds and the police department that still resonates. in 2010, he exposed corruption surrounding the city time project, computerized payroll system and novel, reporting that the four federal fraud indictments and won his second polk award for these columns. and then he goes on to say, "just one of these stories is enough to cement a journalist's career and having them all and callous others makes you a legend, and that is what one gonzalez is, a legend who set his powerful, intelligent, compassionate boys on a 29 your course at "the daily news," standing up to every bully that came his way and his relentless assault on justice. a man of and turning energy, juan and a co-author also post

is a little book "news for all people." the magnitude of his work and importance to this newspaper in the city cannot be overstated, which is why it is difficult for me to tell you that he has step into take a half retirement and will be leaving us as a full columnist at the end of april. i place "quotes" around retirements, because he will still write from time to time around his new job as a journalism for vassar records university and the completing an upcoming book while embarking on other similar projects as they arise. not that for a one-time young lord. please join me and letting juan know how much we appreciate him and how much we will miss him. it is been an honor to share the same newsroom with him. again, those are the words of "daily news" editor-in-chief about jim rich about one gonzalez who is leaving the new york daily news after 29 years. congratulations for an astounding career.

juan: you know it is time to leave when the people who are your bosses are telling you they were inspired to get involved in the profession because of you. i am one of these people was always believed in term limits for politicians and i think there should be term limits for columnists, and i'm way over the limit. but i will still be here on democracy now! amy: you're leaving of a gore the daily news" but i am very happy you're staying with us. we turn to an unprecedented effort to hold the united states responsible for violence committed by its customs and border protection agents. six years ago in may 2010, mexican immigrant named anastasio hernandez-rojas tried to cross the border to return to san diego where he had lived for 25 years and had fathered five children. he was then stopped by border patrol agents. he would never see his children again.

the agents initially said hernandez-rojas had became hostile and resisted arrest but eyewitness video showed the agents had beaten and tasered him. footage of hernandez-rojas's death was obtained by reporter john carlos frey and aired in a 2012 pbs report by correspondent john larson. >> can you helpp me. >> what u.u.s. border agents did not realize,e, eyewitness s vids of thehe incident cacaught the sounds of anastasioo hernanandez-rojas screaming and pleaeang f for his life. >> know. helplp! >> and now a neverer before seen eyewitness video of the incident raises new disturbing questions. the dark video reveals more than a dozen u.s. border agents standing over anastasio hernandez-rojas. it shows the firing of the taser. was anastasio hernandez-rojas, ress releasee p

suggested,- combative? juan: the san diego coroner's office classified anastasio hernandez-rojas's death as a homicide, concluding he suffered a heart attack as well as "bruising to his chest, stomach, hips, knees, back, lips, head and eyelids, five broken ribs, and a damaged spine." despite these findings, the department of justice announced last year there was insufficient evidence to pursue federal , criminal civil rights or other , federal charges against the agents. amy: well, today, the family anastasio hernandez rojas is taking another step in their quest for justice. the family is filing a petition in washington, d.c. after this broadcast. we are joined by two guests. bernardo hernandez rojas is the brother of anastasio hernandez-rojas. and roxanna altholz is an associate director at uc berkeley international human

rights law clinic. she is an international human rights lawyer and scholar. we welcome you both to democracy roxanna, let's start with you. what exactly are you filing today and what do you hope will come of it? >> good morning. thank you for having us here today. representing anastasio hernandez-rojas's family in a suit against the united states on human rights, suing the united states for torturing and killing this unarmed father of five. the suit also exposes the problems with the criminal investigation, criminal investigation that lacked impartiality, lacked independence. as you mentioned, the last year, the department of justice closed the criminal investigation and

found that the border patrol had used reasonable force against anastasio hernandez-rojas am a this despite eyewitness testimony, video, and audio that showed that anastasio hernandez-rojas was handcuffed in a fetal position on the floor, pleading for his life, surrounded by 15 to 25 border agents being beaten and tasered. the doj's decision to close the in one sense, isn't surprising because that criminal investigation was doomed from the beginning. criminal investigators, police investigators did not arrive at the scene until the day after the killing. they allowed customs border protection -- and protection to have control of the crime scene in the hours -- crucial hours

after the beating. and the agents dispersed witnesses without recording any of the information. there were over 30 eyewitnesses. they dispersed their witnesses, seized their cameras, their cell phones and destroyed images of the beating, and then when the police investigators finally arrived to the scene, they lawsed on documenting enforcement's first and of the events. they did not-- seek the truth. they did not try to disrupt that narrative, but just document it. so in the entire police investigation of the more than 30 eyewitnesses from only about three civilians were interviewed and provided statements to the police. so we are submitting the suit to prevent the u.s. government from

sweeping this horrific crime that the rug and to ensure the united states is held accountable for violence and impunity at the border. juan: i would like to ask bernardo hernandez rojas if you could tells a little bit about your brother and the impact that his death and this failure of the government to act has had on your family. >> anastasio was murdered. he was tortured. of may, 2010. elapsed and we have not found justice. during these five years, we have justice andg for

they have not paid attention to us. that has not been looked into. here to time, we are inter-american commission on human rights, this petition. so it is to follow up on anastasio's case, because this cannot be left like this. it is injustice. years, we these five have also met other people who have gone through the same thing and many things -- very similar things continue to happen at the border. we want this to stop. we want them to stop these injustices, and we want a response from the government as to what is happening with my

brothers case and why have they not responded with good news. juan: roxanna altholz, how unprecedented is this action you're taking of raising human rights violations with the inter-american commission on human rights about violations occurring within the united states? the inter-american commission on human rights is the only international human rights body with jurisdiction, with the authority to hear an individual complaint against the united states for human rights violations. usedms and advocates have this opportunity to sue the united states on issues related to the death penalty, on issues related to immigration in the past, and on other issues. suit toringing this draw the international community's attention to the

the need for- reform, for reform of law enforcement in the united states . i think the inter-american commission, in terms of -- this is really the bread-and-butter of the inter-american commission, since the commission was founded decades ago, they've decided dozens and dozens of cases dealing with extradition killings. by filing this suit, we're creating an opportunity for the inter-american commission to bring that expertise, to bring that experience and join the chorus of forces that have called for law enforcement reform in the united states. i think it is a really important opportunity to talk about the kind of structural and legal reform that we need, especially at the border. death, 50 more's people have been killed. not a single agent in all of

your support patrol history has ever been held accountable for one of these killings, has ever been disciplined for one of these killings. as far as we know, all of the agents responsible for anastasio 's death are still on active duty. they have never been disciplined , much less held criminally accountable for the killing. amy: there were many videos made of what happened to anastasio. ashley young was another witness who shared the video she oforded on her cell phone border police. this was shown on the p pbs broadcast "need to know." >> he was just grinning, "help me, help me, help me" in spanish. his hands were restrained behind his back. >> you could tell his hands were tied together? >> right. >> and she said she only saw him resist once, when they tried to put it back in the car.

>> did he lash out at the officers? >> he did not. you just kind of forced his feet against a car so he would not go into t the car. >> minutes later, more officers arrived. >> another officer arrived and pulled out a taser and said, "stop resisting." >> was he resisting? >> nio. was a shock.se people were like, why would they do this? he got tased several more times, and that is when people erupted. >> that is when standing on this overcast with other bystanders, she shoots this -- you can see anastasio hernandez-rojas on the ground, surrounded by more than a dozen officers. brightenedow" has the video to make it easier to see. >> oh, my god. >> one agent at the top of the

screen pulls off his pants and walks away with them. but it is not until a few seconds later when things appear to call down when an officer turns on his light that we see and agent's bear lake as he meals on what appears to be anastasio hernandez-rojas's net. >> the next thing that happened, he stopped moving. he was convulsing during the tase. after a stop, he just kind of like there, i think, i witnessed someone being murdered. amy: in 2012, democracy now! spoke to humberto navarrete, an eyewitness to u.s. border patrol forces beating anastasio rojas on the california side of the u.s.-mexico border. navarrete explained how he ended up taking this video of the beating and tasering of hernandez-rojas. >> i was on my way heading to

tijuana and that is when the first thing that i heard was anastasio screaming at the top of his lungs, asking for help. area, iot to a closer saw what john described, anastasio hernandez-rojas facedown in handcuffs, and two officers in uniform. there were five officers in the near area right when i started .ecording two uniformed officers, one of them had their knees on anastasio's neck. the other officer had the other kne on his lower back. i starteted n noticing all ofofe details is thehe most t importat wasas nots thaanastasio resiststing d that iwhwhat i decided to pupull outut my celll phone and d start recordingng wt

you u can see on the fifit vide. that is when i started recording. amy: can you tell us, bernardo hernandez rojas, you're in washington, this is a major step in your brother anastasio -- and the case of his killing by the u.s. border patrol. can you tell us what you want to come out of this? flex what i would like to come out of this is that penalties be imposed on the officers that they stop doing this, that everybody knows -- well, it is all ready know what happened, but a great many injustices are happening at the border. one of these is my brothers case, and they have not resolved anything. something is happening here.

the agents don't want to show their face. it is not impossible to punish them. they, too, need to uphold the law. if i commit a crime, i need to confront the justice system and it should be that way for everyone across the boarard. juan: i want to ask roxanna altholz, in this harrowing video or was he in essence a mob killing -- where in essence a mob killing, only in uniform, of mr. hernandez, and light of all of the debate we're hearing in this presidential race, especially from the republicans about tightening border security and also all of the cases where we of the nevada african-americans killed around the country by law enforcement, your sense of why this issue of abuse, of immigrants at the border, gets almost no attention these days?

>> i think this part of the vulnerability of border communities. the political rhetoric around border security. you know, border security cannot mean open season on border communities. cbp's current policies on use of force and accountability foster violence and impunity. a couple of weeks ago, a panel of government experts -- the u.s. government recognizes, their own experts, said that the disciplinary system of cbp is so broken that it does nothing to deter abuse. the united states has exponentially increased the , sinceof cbp since 2001 9/11, but has not invested the needed resources to ensure that cbp agents are held accountable for misconduct and abuses.

said, no oneust should be above the law. anastasio also said this, as he played for his life, as he pled for mercy. he said, "stop treating me like an animal." reforms arensure enacted by cbp that ensure the dignity of all communities at the border, including undocumented migrants, who are some of the most vulnerable, who have real limitations, but practical and legal, to ensuring that they have access to justice. in a sense, these are the individuals, these are the communities that we have to be most careful about protecting because they are the most vulnerable. and we hope this suit healthspring these communities into the ongoing important

national dialogue about reform,, law enforcement reform. amy: roxanna, thank you for being with us, associate director at uc berkeley - international human rights law clinic. and thank you to bernardo hernandez rojas, the brother of anastasio hernandez-rojas, who is killed in while trying to mayy 2010 enter the united stats from mexico. he was beaten to death by border control officers. when we come back, president obama makes a major announcement andrding heroin use prescription drug abuse. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "el hielo/ice," la santa cecilia. performing here at democracy studios. to see the full performance and interview with them, go to democracynow.org. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. in 2014, record number of americans died from drug overdoses with the highest rate seen in west virginia and new mexico, new hampshire, kentucky, and ohio. many states rereported even higr death tolls in 2015. on tuesday, president obama vowed to step up the fight against heroin and opioid by treating addiction as a health issue, not a criminal problem. at the drugcomment

abuse and heroin summit inin atlanta. >> is important to recognize that today, we are seeing more people killed becausese of opiod overdose then traffic accidents. think about t that. a lot of people tragically die of car accidentsts, and we spena lot of time and a lot of thoseces to reduce fatalities. and the good news is, we have been very successful. the problem is here, we have the trajectory going in the opposite direction. so 201014, which was thehe lastr youave accurate data for, see in a norma's ongoing spike -- an enormous ongoing spike in the number of peoplple who aree using opioids in ways that are in healthy and you are seeing

significant rise in the number of people who are being killed. amy: dr. lena wen, baltimore city health commissioner, also spoke. she spoke about a patient who was a competitive swimmer, and because of torn disks in her back was prescribed pain pills and eventually became addicted to heroin. the patient repeatedly sought help in the er. emergency room. >> one of the most humbling things and worst feelings as a doctor to know that you can't help them, that what this patient needed, with so many of our patients need is treatment, addiction treatment at the time they are expectiting it. but we couldld not give it. [applause] i mean, we will never say that to someone who has a heart attack. we would never say, "go home and if you have e not died in three weeks, come back and get treated." [applalause]

so that is what we faced. i remember i talked to her one-time about getting the treatment. we set her up with an appointment, but it wasn't until two weeks later. she went home that day and overdosed, and came back to us in the er. we tried to resuscitate her, but we cannot save her. i think abouout her all the time because she had come to us and many times requesting treatment and yet, clearly, there's a difference between how we treat her and how we treat everybody else because we need to recognize that addiction is a disease. if we treat addiction like a crime, then we're doing something that is not scientific, that is inhumane, and it is an effective. [applause] amy: dr. leana wen. we are joined by maia szalavitz, a journalist who's covered

addiction for almost 30 years. her recent piece in the guardian is headlined, "curbing pain prescriptions won't reduce overdoses. more drug treatment will." she has a new book out called, "unbroken brain: a revolutionary new way of understanding addiction." michael collins is also with us deputy director of national , affairs at the drug policy alliance. michael, your assessment of what president obama is proposing right now? >> what we can say about the proposal, two steps forward and one step back. there's a lot of positives in the announcement, inferences on harm reduction, treatment, overdose prevention, but at the same time, the obama administration is still beholden to the criminalization of drug users and we see that in the announcement, there is funding and there for law enforcement, for heroin task force, and we know that is the academy of the failed war on drugs -- if it of the failed war on drugs. there are parts of the announcement we like but also

parts that are very disappointing. juan: michael, i have been astounded the past few years now epidemic haseroin freded across the country, the amount of emphasis, even as you say not sufficiently more on treatment than on a graduation, because i remember back in the 1970's when heroin was predator of the inner city neighborhoods of the united states and we got the rockefeller drug laws and we got all of this crackdown on the victims of the heroin epidemic. you're seeing a whole new dialogue, at least this time around, and how much of it has to do with the racial composition of who are the folks that are being affected the most at this s point? >> i think you're absolutely right. if everyone doubted it was a war on people's color and racist, they should look no farther than the discussion going on just malware, as you point out, for years, decades even, communities of color have been affected by

heroin, by overdoses, and legal handcuffs, not hugs, and now we're seeing compassion around white people in rural committed his, and i think it is something we have to recognize that this is very symbolic of the fact the war on drugs has been a war on people of color. while it is positive that the obama administration and even republicans are talking about compassion toward drug users, we should bear in mind our committees of color that have suffered as a result of the war on drugs and we should not try to escape that. amy: a recent article in harpers magazine revisits the war on drugs from nixon. it begins with ehrlichman. he revealed why the war on drugs began. he said -- "the nixon campaign in 1968, and the nixon white house after that, had two enemies: the

antiwar left and black people we knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. we could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. did we know we were lying about the drugs? of course we did." that from john ehrlichman, president richard nixon's domestic policy chief. maia szalavitz, can you respond? >> absolutely. the racism in the drug war goes even further back than that. it's hard to 1914 with the harrison narcotics act. at that time, there were literally headlines in "the new york times" about cocaine fiends who were causing problems in the south and the idea was that cocaine made them impervious to bullets. so the drug war has always not

been about fighting drugs because if we actually wanted to deal with addiction problems, we would see it as a health issue and we would not be trying to focus relentlessly on supply. "unbroken new book brain: a revolutionary new way , of understanding addiction," could you talk about the long-running problem of addiction? >> addiction involves learning. what i am saying, we have been looking at it all wrong throughout the course of our drug policy, largely because of race. you cannot become addicted without learning because if you don't know what fixes you, you cannot crave it and you cannot seek it compululsively. we have misunderstood what goes wrong in addiction. what basically happens is you fall in love with a drug inin a

rarather than a person o or your child, and the relentless pursuit that people have to take care of their kids and be with their loved ones gets turned into that pursuit of drugs. and so when you look at it that way, you realize that it is a problem of something that was ms. learned, not a problem like alzheimer's or the pathology is eating our brain. that is a much more hopeful idea of recovery. amy: can you talk about your own addiction experience? >> i became addicted to cocaine and heroin in the 1980's when i was in college. i had been an incredibly geeky kid for most of my life and had a hard time socializing. i would always sort of have these obsessive interests. i was really interested in opera or science fiction, nobody wanted to him he go o on about

that, but they did want the army go on about drugs, especially if i could provide them. and that made me feel i have something to bring to the party and i wasn't this horrible isolated bad person who could not connect with people. that was really dangerous for me. 1980'snto coke in the when 50% o of all you and adults tried cocaine during the 1980's, which is an astonishing figure. it was very prevevalent. then i got suspended from school and i thought my life was over, and i thought, well, i may as well do heroin now. that turned out to be my drug of choice because it finally gave me the feeling of safety and love and comfort that i had always been missing. amy: and so then what happened? >> then i wound up shooting up dozens of times a day. i was selling coke, so i was headed around, which always led to heroin. eventutually, i was busted and s facing 15 to life under the rockefeller laws.

two years after i got arrested, i realized that i needed help. and that i was going to die. and so i sought treatment will stop fortunately, have been in recovery since 1988. amy: how did you end up not going to jail for 15 to life? >> what basically happened, the judge saw me a year after i voluntarily chose to go to treatment. i was not mandated. i looked very, very different. i had gone into treatment sort looked like, great, i was dying of something, covered in tracks, and i came out 10, fat, and blonde. just said, , well, you know, if you can manage to stay off drugs, i will try to keep you out of jail. that was her difficult because of the mandatory minimum, so there was this yeears and years of negotiation with the prosecutors, but finally, she dismissed the case and interest

of justice because the prosecutors continued to insist i go to jail or prison and she was like, this woman has been recovering for five years now, this doesn't make any sense. i was extraordinarily lucky. being white e and female and middle class had a lot to do with it. if we are really to deal with the heroin problem we have now, we have to acknowledge the racism that drives our drug laws and create drug laws that don't criminalize people for having a medical problem. amy: what you think of president obama's announcement yesterday? >> it is a good step forward. it doesn't do some of the important things i would like to see, for example, medication-assisted treatment are the only things that acactually cut the o overdose dh rate b by 50%. we need people to stay on his

medications and definitely in order for that to happen. yet we restrict methadone to these wearable clinics -- horrible clinics. and doctors formally could only prescribe to 100 patientnts and obama has raised it to 200, which is great, but they can stop or prescribed to thousands ofof people if they're treating pain rather than addiction. it makes no sense to restrict the treatment. juan: michael collinsns, what progress does the drug policy alliance see the state alliance examples of more foresighted or farsighted policy at the state level? >> one thing that is disappointing about the announcement is this is a truly a crisis, then all options should be on the table and i think we don't see all options on the table from the obama administration yesterday. for example, there are a lot of interesting initiatives and proposals in places like ithaca, new york, maryland has a proposal around safe injection

facilities, there is interesting programs in places like seattle and santa fe called law enforcement assisted diversion -- much more of a harm reduction approach to drug use. amy: unix l like, michael, what you mean by safe injection sites ? >> it is essentially a safe place when injection drug user can go and use drugs. therefore, not using drugs on the streets, not using them in a situation where, you know, they can cause themselves harm. they're doing it under medical supervision. this is not something new. when you look at a globally, it is existed in canada for a number of years. strong evidence shows safe injection facilities result in a reduction in overdose use, principally, as i say, you are engaging drug users in medical

help. the bottom line is here, i think we have to get to a place where we are treating drug users as human beings will stop it is not enough just to show them compassion. drug users should be at the table when we're having these policy discussions. they should have voice. amy: finally, how the racial disparity will be and should be dealt with in the policy announcement of president obama yesterday, michael cocollins? >> i think the president did acknowledge that the changing face of heroin has resulted in more compassion, you know, the president has spoken out a lot on criminal justice reform and the need for sentencing reform, sentences.in and forcefully, legislation is being held up by senate leader mitch mcconnell.

we're waiting a floor vote on a bill that would roll back mandatory minimums, but he will not allow the bill to come to the floor. onere making progress, but thing that is true about the u.s. is it is very easy for the u.s. to get involved in wars and the war on drugs as a war, but for more difficult to -- we're seeingng it right now. it is very challenging. amy: we have to leave e it ther, but michael collins, i want to thank you for being with us, drug policy alliance and, maia szalavitz, we will continue our conversation after the show and post it online at democracynow.org. maia szalavitz plus new book is called "unbroken brain: a , revolutionary new way of understanding addiction." when we come back, we are going to north carolina to the "bathroom bill" that hasas just been passed. stay w with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: north carolina is facing a growing backlash over a new law barring cities and towns from passing laws prohibiting discrimination against lgbt people in public accommodations. the law, known as house bill 2,

was introduced after the city of charlotte, north carolina, passed an ordinance seeking to protect the right of transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. on tuesday night, north carolina''s largest corporation, bank of america, came out against the bill. earlier in the day, 80 chief executives from facebook, apple, and other firms, wrote an open letter to governor pat mccrory opposing it, and roy cooper, running for governor against mccrory, announced he would not defend the court. amy: on tuesday i spoke to one of the plaintiffs, 20-year-old trans student payton mcgarry who attends unc-greensboro, as well -- and i asked him to us his story and explain how he ended up being a lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. >> yes, i'm a 20-year-old student at unc-greensboro. to give you a little bit of back story, i grew up in a small town in north carolina.

at about the age of 15 or 16, i started feeling different. you know, something just felt a little bit off. i started coming out to my family, my friends, and seeing a their best based on gender and all that good stuff at 17 years old, and started hormone replacement at 20 -- 18 years old, sorry. and here we are. so, it means a lot to me that this lawsuit is taking place just because of my own experiences with opposition to my gender. and i've experienced a lot of just distressing discrimination in north carolina. and i can't believe that we're passing laws now that actually not only enable it, but in some require it. cases amy: payton, can you talk , about how hb 2 will affect you directly? >> well, first and foremost, i mean, everybody calls this the bathroom bill, so let's go ahead

and get that out of the way. it's requiring me to use the female restroom, is essentially what's happening. and this is distressing because i used the female restroom until it was not feasible for me to, until i was getting pushed, shoved, slapped, screamed at every time i went into a female bathroom. so now, it is putting me in a tough situation, because it's putting me in a situation where i have to choose between going into this distressing situation where i know harm to my well-being could come -- you know i could be screamed at, i , could be shoved, slapped, beaten to a pulp, essentiallyor i can break the law. and that's not who i am as a person. more so than that, though, by excluding lgbt from your discrimination ordinance, which is now the statewide discrimination ordinance, you're allowing that kind of discrimination to take place, that already takes place in so many places. you know, my -- i could be

kicked out of my housing. i could be fired from a job. i've already been denied employment before this law passed. and now people know that it's legal. so what adverse effects will that have on my life, in the lives of so many other lgbtq students or just people in general? amy: after hb 2 was passed, the north carolina governor, governor mccrory, said he signed the bill to "stop the breach of basic privacy and etiquette, ensure privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms." if you could speak to the governor directly, what would you tell him? >> i would tell him to go speak to the professionals in this field, go speak to people who study gender and sexuality, and study these types of things, and maybe have a little bit of empathy. go talk to the community. go talk to the people who suffer directly from this bill, which

was based largely upon the idea that i as a transgender person can cause harm to someone else in a bathroom, just by simply being there, which is a -- it is a hurtful and unfounded statement based on bias and animosity towards the lgbt community in north carolina. so i would tell him, "learn a little bit about these issues. learn a little bit about who we are as a people. and learn a little bit more about our background and the things that we go through." , a plaintiffcgarry in the federal lawsuit filed by the aclu challenging a new north carolina law permitting discrimination against to be two people in public accommodations. if you want to see the whole interview with payton mcgarry, go to democracynow.org. that does it for our show. we begin our 100 city to around the country next week. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed

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