next peter the valen his cross talk gas debate whether a tough crackdown on drugs by mexico and the u.s. is actually spreading violence. you. think you are. blowing welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle the war on drugs has been declared a failure the u.s. government has spent more than two and a half trillion dollars fighting this campaign over the past forty years but the problem has only gotten worse and more deadly is it now time to seriously consider decriminalization and what you lay should have some give me drugs. to keep. to cross talk what went so wrong fighting drugs i'm joined by geoffrey my run in newton he is a senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in the department of economics at harvard university he's also a senior fellow at the cattle institute and he's also the author of the book drug war crimes the consequences of prohibition and in san diego we cross to ac one hundred seven he is a senior partner at the ayso hutchinson law group all right gentlemen this is cross talk about means crosstalk rules in effect but before it let's have a look at a show re