In Ethan Nadelmann's TED Talk "Why We Need to End the War on Drugs", we are persuaded to agree with the stance that he takes on drug policy reform through his use of statistics, stories, and overall knowledge on this topic. One of Ethan Nadelemann's biggest focuses is the racial discriminations that were the original reason for these drugs to be made illegal. Nadelmann begins his persuasion by talking about the high incarceration rates, especially here in the US. "It's reasons like this, most of the money world wide going to the drug abuse goes not to helping agencies, but those who punish." It makes no sense that a country, that is supposed to be based on helping its citizens, is focusing on the incarceration of people, rather than the help mental, physically, and health related. 

 As Nadelmann goes on to explain, the reasons that most of the drugs that are illegal today became illegal in the first place based on racial decisions. Opiates, a drug with morphine-like affects, used to be used by middle-aged white women to ease pains when other drugs couldn't be found. When the Chinese came over to the US and started working on railroads, after a long stressful day, they would kick back and smoke some Opium to unwind and relax. With fear that the the Chinese would turn white women into "Opium addicted sex slaves", the US made this drug illegal. Cocaine, first used medically, and even used to be used in the soft drink Coke, was made illegal over fear that black men would do some coke and forget their place in society. And weed, we all know what weed is, became illegal for fear of Mexican migrants using this as a ploy to come to the states through the West and South West. 

With the United States placing more of their emphasis on criminalization and incarceration rather than spending the focus on health, we are seeing these drugs cause more deaths than they otherwise would if the government were focused on bettering the health of people rather than just incarcerating them. Now does this mean that all of these drugs should just suddenly be made legal? Maybe. It's possible that legalization could cause a higher use of these drugs, but more probable that legalizing, taxing and regulating these drugs would lead to less crime, less violence, less corruption, and a lesser black market. With the legalizing of these drugs, more people would be able to use them for their actual health benefits, rather than abuse them for the wrong reasons, and more people would have access to help and rehabilitation. 

If you keep up with what is going on with the War on Drugs, you know that the progress to end it is very unsuccessful. We are seeing no help from either side of the border, and no one willing to help on either side. Nadelmann give us examples of this when he states: "When we try and fix this problem (weed being trafficked across the US/Mexico border), we go to the supply (in Mexico) and they say that the problem lies in the demand (in US). When we go to the demand, they say the problem lies in the supply. And even worse, the customs and border patrol says that they can't solve the problem, because the supply will never stop, knowing that the demand will never stop, and the demand will never stop, know that the supply will always be available. This is where the expertise from people like Nadelmann comes in.

When discussing drugs and the war on drugs, it is easy for an argument to become very opinionated based on the view of the speaker. With the basis that TED contacted Ethan Nadelmann to speak, we have a pretty good feeling that the argument will be backed factually, and we will not just be listening to an entire talk from the bias of some drug loving hippie. Nadelmann then goes on to further backing all of his claims by letting us know that he was a professor on this subject, and how his beliefs for ending the war on drugs became so strong, that after writing his PhD dissertation on it, he decided to stop teaching and become a human rights activist for the decriminalization of drugs. We can tell by the way he presents himself and the emotion that he brings to his speech, that he is a good speaker and this gives him even more credibility. The dissertation even furthers this point, as we know the hard work that comes with completing a dissertation.

Nadelmann also tells many stories about the reasons that all of these drugs were made illegal. "Most of these drugs were first made illegal based off of racial discrimination." Like I previously stated, most drugs that are illegal today, were legal in the 19th century/early 20th century, and were used in positive beneficial ways to help people. Fear of people not being their "true selves" on these drugs was the giant spark that started this war on drugs, and what is now being seen as a stupid reason, and something that could help lead towards decriminalization. His stories and facts on how legalizing and regulating these drugs is spot on, and really does help show the good it would do us as a country if we were to make a move to end the War on Drugs, and de-criminalize, and help those who's lives are consumed by drugs. 

It is seen in other countries where health is the focus over criminalization, that clinics make moves not to incarcerate people, but to help heal them. As Nadelmann states, "It's the people I've seen who have lost their lives to drug related violence, prison, overdose, or aids because our drug policies focus on criminalization over health." Giving heroine addicts access to clean needles so they don't contract aids or any other disease, and then treat their addiction. Not throw them in jail. 

As Nadelmann explains, the US has one of the lowest drug usage rates now at 5 percent, but an astoundingly high incarceration rate at over 25 percent. "Its good people who have lost their jobs, their homes, their freedom, even their children, to the State, not because they hurt anyone, but because they chose to use one drug over another." If we were to move to legalization or even decriminalization, we would be able to lower these incarceration rates, and over all better the family and child's life with drug users. 

For someone with views like mine, it is hard to see how people cannot understand all of the benefits of decriminalizing these drugs. Sure, once these drugs are decriminalized, their use and possibly risk will be shown for the next few years. But this also happened in France when the drinking age was lowered to 18. For a few years, teens 18 and older binge drank. But after the first few years, the education that was brought along with the legalization, ended up dropping this binge drinking rate to lower than it was before it was made legal. It is not crazy to believe that a similar thing would happen with drugs. 

While our government stays the way that it is currently, it is hard to imagine that any new drug reform laws are going to be passed. As long as there remains a demand for these drugs, there will always be a supply. "When one supply gets cut off, another one pops right up". If the government were to start regulating, there would be no need for these random, sketchy, untrustworthy supplies to continue to "pop up", as the government would be the supply that it is coming from. This is something, that even if considered, will not be something brought around for quit some time. So, until a legalization or decriminalization is put into place, the best thing to do, is what Doctor Ethan Nadelmann is already doing. Instead of just putting people behind bars every time they use a drug, we need to spend our time and our money to educating people on what is happening in the government and in society with drugs, and to make sure that people know the real reason behind things, and the real reason for why we need to end the war on drugs. 

