you know a lot of policies come out that are portably reforms of the system that really are tweaking the war on drugs and not moving away from the war on drugs meanwhile people who you know i actually have a substance use disorder can't get the help they need and meanwhile we're still going around reinforcing field criminalization policies so that was really the broad policy that was kind of bringing us together and making us say you know we're sick of our friends and family members not being able to get help you know whether it's treatment support housing any of these recovery support services that they need when they ask for help but yet we have all this investment on the criminalization side and that's really harming a lot of our loved ones as well yeah absolutely so do you consider one of the failed policies for example drug courts you know some people consider this a reform of you know it's better than sending people who have addiction problems into prison  but on the other hand it's also forcing them into treatment when they may or may not be ready for treatment or may not want treatment it's really a great irony because what you have is first of all if someone has a valid substance use disorder  treatment may or may not be appropriate for them so such a person a person b they're both addicted to the same thing even a person a may only need a self help group and now you force them into a treatment setting that could actually have a negative outcome for their own health progress but in the state of new jersey speaking just about treatment there's a huge deficit thirty one thousand people cannot get treatment when they asked for it in two thousand and twelve so ironically now we're going to take people who don't even want it and force them into it meanwhile the people who are asking for willingly and this is with the knowledge that when someone wants treatment and wants to recover they have a tee time some better outcome you know the governor christie has has said that the the war on drugs is a failure and yet and yet he continues to want to criminalize marijuana for example and which results in twenty one thousand arrests in new jersey for possession alone and yet he recognizes that that's a failure so why do we continue to pump more and more resources into what we know to be a failed approach to this issue you know i really don't al and i you know when i spoke to you know elected officials in the two things that i see is the war on drugs operates on two pillars of fear and shame we will tell you things that you know this is a danger it will cause more harm if we move away from it and shaming people who are either bringing up factual information say when we propose you know solutions that are rational that or  prove to be a factual success we are shamed into a corner as wanting to promote drug use things like that and that's why i think help not handcuffs has a different you know there's all these different groups with different approaches and ticklish with medical marijuana is one of them showing the medical benefits were actually recover your answer so you know there's other groups as well that just say hey you ship a right to be able to use marijuana and i think they have some very valid points that's not our point we don't promote drug use alcohol use on a sunday anything like that but we recognize that the harm you doing to the population that actually needs help so when these all these different voices come in the chorus i think you start to put down those that fear that shame you bring about a fact based conversation and i think there was a newspaper article just today that said that new jersey has tripled the amount of heroin deaths than the national average so you know what we're doing is not only wrong but it's very very harmful to our just our society and now harm reduction techniques i was very involved with the early new exchange programs in new jersey you know very early advocate for that even before it started with my medical marijuana advocacy so are you involved with the needle exchange authorized to have a needle exchange program which is not yet activated so we are having those discussions like we've had with you know our whole policy platform with our municipal leaders and we're hoping that you know it will come into live it where there's a provider willing authorized to have a needle exchange program and it just never came about there care about how about that you know so i think it's active in three or four cities and in new jersey the needle exchange programs and the department of health has glowing results from them so you know that there be analysis that meaning so any rate it's surprising that there still is resistance that asbury park still after all these years cannot cannot get you know it's needle exchange program there's no needle exchange program in trenton  five hundred other municipalities or so in the charity except for those few pilot programs set on the backdrop of what law enforcement is saying is a heroin epidemic what you just cited of rising drug overdose deaths how can we not be promoting fifteen at a council meeting and i was there and it was very exciting being there i must say randi it was a wonderful experience it's great to have you there for the excellent voice a point of view and expertise that was definitely needed conversation thank thank you randy but but that resolution i mean i was so impressed with that resolution that if you draft it yourself for me to about the so help not haircuts is a supporting member of the jersey united for marijuana reform ok and again you know our group doesn't promote drug use but we recognize the harm of prohibition so we're actually support it will support up to regulation of legalization of a substance and you know we have all these models now colorado is charged ahead its leader washington alaska and washington d c and we're seeing that they're not making these arrests they're not harming people that have done no harm to personal property they're not wasting resources when they can be used for other things so that's where we come on board and say you know this is something we could actually get behind and so we were supportive of new jersey united marijuana reform they came out with a sample resolution so some basic facts that you would already mention about twenty one thousand arrests in new jersey these are people who have done no other no crime whatsoever except for having a petty amount of marijuana and why are we putting ourselves through this grind that really avails us nothing except for generating a disability these people now they'll have a hard time you know the the penalties are just so out of proportion to the don't want to the harms that are associated with with marijuana use that it that it's just inappropriate and and inmates and i mean it just really you point out some very good things that you know this state spends a billion dollars in the last decade on enforcement we have spent a billion of our tax dollars in the last ten years on enforcement of marijuana possession arrest and then every twenty four minutes someone in new jersey is arrested for for marijuana possession you know the the it's in the forms that are already sociate it with with prohibition are are just incredible and and we're starting to get support from this new organization new jersey united for marijuana reform which has one of its members is was the john henry bar from the from the new jersey municipal prosecutor's association who gave very compelling testimony at at the as break part council meeting in july you know he spoke about how how the resources of the prosecutors and the police are just just wasted in just so many absorption taken away from serious crime by by focusing so many resources on marijuana arrests that was certainly the case in asbury park where you know it's a rejuvenated city it's on the comeback you know it's now a thriving shore town a bit of a bird out shell of its former self for so many years and now it's coming back but there's still a lot of this entrenched issues that takes a lot of attention a lot of time and to have our police you know our police force the arrest for marijuana petty possession of marijuana right around ten percent you know as a park is forty million dollars in this whole budget the police department the largest consumer of that with almost ten million dollars the impact on minorities i mean the a c l u nuc of new jersey which is also a part of the new jersey united for marijuana reform now they came out with a very important study that showed that people of color are three times more likely than caucasians to be arrested for marijuana so by using it the same right despite the same rate of use so you know there is there certainly are some type of institutional racism or classism that that is involved in the use of in these well the war on drugs one of the hallmarks is the separation of families and the racial disparities we're talking about one in ten african americans as a parent in jail i mean separating families right there with the number of arrests for marijuana that certainly reinforces that population's migrants who have built this country if they have legal permanent resident status if they get caught with marijuana there's a one time exception if they happen to make the same mistake twice take a loser legal permanent resident status  make them deportable and someone who's here garnering trying to earn that l p r status they get deported right away for a petty possession arrest so we get separating families and you know that really really destroys the nuclear family which has a devastating effect on the inner cities like asbury park and try to you know are in camden you know you take the parents away from the children and what do you do you just you just guarantee that this this problem is going to continue for generations to come quite frankly because you know that the children are don't have the parental guidance they don't have the printer the resources to help them out and they get in trouble with orphans and their source and in the end what happens when they go to prison you know during this tremendous prison expansion the very first thing to be discarded it was rehabilitated efforts you know everything was going into custody and control all the resources you know we're building new state prisons where you know we're picking up our staff and where you know training the staff and and equipping them and don't get me wrong the dinner's apartment corrections is very professional organization it's one of the one of the best deal sees in the country you know but but we pay for that too you know and and  what we pay for is you know it could be going to other areas could be going to prevention it could be going to education it could be going to the everything you know they say if we ended the war on drugs who would have one third more resources to add for every other you know element a bar set up our society education and transportation and infrastructure read some such and such a waste and nationally actually were arresting eight hundred thousand marijuana possession rest each year and yet one hundred eleven million americans have tried marijuana and more than thirty million americans use marijuana each year and you know this is you know part of the reality of what the situation is here in america you know you're going to arrest your way out of this problem how many thirty million americans using it every year one hundred million americans using it you know it it's stunning figures you know which way when you look at it we come to a point where again we have our biggest leaders governor christie saying the war on drugs the failure of private president obama saying the same thing but again we're not moving toward away from the war on drugs which actually is drug prohibition that's the war on drugs and that that's having a militaristic reaction you know a violent reaction towards people using these substances or criminalizing the people who partake in that but you know pointing that out valve is starting to get a lot easier and pointing out you know the ironies of it that you know like you're saying everybody is using it you know prohibition has failed not just in stopping people using the drugs it's also empowered the people that least want to have control of it you know cartels gangs and every other person  and say i'm going to make some extra money acting this but those first two cartels and gangs you know the war on drugs are supposed to protect us from drugs is supposed to help the ailing you know those are the the big talking points and instead we're powering these groups that will target our after after some several decades of the war on drugs drugs are more available than ever they're cheaper they're stronger and the violence that's associated with the war on drugs is just escalated tremendously you absolutely right about the drugs to colombia and mexico and i know using the coast guard to intercept drugs drugs you know it's and now we're getting all this excess military equipment to the police force of so we're really military to become involved in that it's it's very very dangerous what we're doing in a very dangerous things trend that we're following and i'm glad that you're speaking out against it a so effectively you know that this this resolution is just just i think it's brilliant quite frankly you know in so far as it is easily and quickly sums up so many different issues about the about the failure of the war on drugs and the benefits of  marijuana legalization that i i really have been urging many people to go to their five hundred and fifty five other communities in the state of new jersey and bring this to the elected officials right and it has very park you know we just had a changing court government which triggered a new election so we had a new municipal election and we had a few of our council members that were previously elected state on board and a couple new members s election night i knew what our platform was we already had that i you know i got in touch the very next day with all five council members and just said look graduations you know i know you've got your priorities that you've kind of enumerated during the campaign i said what about you know what we're working on and these are priorities and one of them was this sample resolution that some of them said you know one hundred learn more about it i'm not sure where i am some of them were like i support out right but let's see where my team members are but you know that was november and then we just kind of kept having conversation didn't happen overnight but as you make the rounds as you make it a point to persistently you know respectfully be persistent go around it's worth a hawk into the chief of police too because believe me they know they're under pressure to reduce crime reduce violent crime and they see that you know a lot of their resources are being tied up now whether or not any particular police chief will come out in support or against i don't know but it's worth making that round making that stop and having a conversation we had where the asbury park police chief he took a neutral stance you know which was very good i mean and just say look you guys make the laws and we'll for us what you tell us when force which you know is exactly the way it should be you know and unfortunately it's not always that way for me in other communities were the police you know are heavily invested in this war on drugs and they they they are actively opposed to any type of reform but you know to be neutral i think it is what we what we should expect and  best we can expect from the police which was exactly what happened in asbury park so that when that was great to shore it again on the ironies of our policy now i you know it's also worth it to point out that police have a very difficult job particularly now there's a lot of issues going on surely she is talking about but that's a job where you can go to work and expect to possibly have a traumatic experience and you know as you advocate the benefits of medical marijuana sometimes p t s d is very effectively treated marijuana and imagine if you have a job where you can go in and be violently traumatized expect to show up reasonably soon after for working you know be healthy and appropriate to perform your duties but you actually can't take the medicine because if you were to take that and you're a criminal he would certainly lose your job right and he would be on the opposite end of that meanwhile the irony is it's ok to you know consume alcohol to the point of alcoholism and also you know i mean what is the message sent to our law enforcement who are our broader community that it's ok to go overboard here so long as you don't harm personal property but it should you touch this you become criminal and y know certainly alcohol you know it's certainly a potential problem for law enforcement officers especially given the the stressful nature of the position and the you know the need to relax and unwind and try to forget some of that the problem customized level saying hey you know i'm a member of your community it has a very part this is why i'm concerned of it presented just like that you know and also you know the campaign organizer helped out here because this is how you can start moving t i sort of speak towards the point where we want to be at a calling on other elected officials to do the same and achieving all these goals so all the stats really kind of lined up right there really what it was just being the link just saying this is why it matters as benefits of regulation the you also point out in this resolution you know that that you know we're not doing a good job of keeping this away from kids i mean for the last thirty years in a row the monitoring the future survey showed that over eighty percent of high school seniors samer want is easy to get fairly easy to get and it's easier for them to get marijuana than beer so you know to to to put it in a regulated system where it's only available to adults through licensed stores where you know they would they would  check i d s you know you really would do a far better job of keeping this away from the inappropriate use by teens and young children than we're doing now absolutely the national center for addiction and substance abuse al statistics on their high time high school report i'm sorry one for kids is able to get marijuana so easily that they often get it by tax and they get it within forty five minutes that pizza and it has great park at least  other you know there's other benefits benefits so that now we will know what we're getting you know that marijuana will be tested for for can have annoyed content because tit for purity will be tested and we could be organically grown if that's important to people you know it's  greater and greater in support of this regulated market is starting to almost come into clarity you are seeing a lot of actors not just on marijuana but you're seeing just these past months the drug enforcement administration as well as the state's medical examiner both attributed the unregulated caraway as a reason why so many people are overdosing to different subject to different substances but such a danger when you're buying something you don't know what's in it and you have an actor who who knows what their intentions are who knows what they want to achieve through that sale and again as someone who grew up by marijuana and that could be laced with anything now right like you're saying when you bring it behind a licensed store owner who has to follow the rules and then this is why the the dangers of synthetic marijuana what they call synthetic marijuana which isn't marijuana at all it's just you know instead of a chemical concoction it's sprayed on weed and people use it in place and i want to because there it doesn't show up in a drug test but the resolution finally what it says is that the city supports fair and effective criminal justice and drug policies and you urge the state legislature to pass and the governor to sign legislation to regulate tax and  and legalize marijuana so you know the there is not no change really going on in asbury park right now the resolution is just urging the urging this law to become to become law indeed there is ceremonial you know it would be great if we had fact based information and they heard from experts like yourselves the municipal prosecutor's association you know they heard from new jersey not where i want to reform it of course help out here cops and and that's the way it should go that decision makers are there to the more information about the coalition for medical marijuana new jersey join us and our free public meetings on the second tuesday of every month at the lawrence township library in mercer county new jersey from seven to nine p m snacks are every forty two seconds someone is arrested for marijuana it could be you