Author and travel expert Rick Steves has long studied drug and marijuana policies around the world, and he told Cheddar that the United States should take a page from Europe’s rulebook.
“In our society, especially with the way our administration is approaching the drug problem, it’s just ‘moralize and lock them up’, and it’s just not productive,” he said Tuesday. “In Europe, the word for addicted is ‘enslaved.’ People aren’t criminals, they’re sick … they need help to get over this problem.”
This White House has taken a harsher stance on drugs than its predecessor, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions scrapping Obama-era rules stopping the federal government from interfering with states’ cannabis laws, and President Donald Trump even suggesting the death penalty for dealers.
Steves, who co-sponsored a bill legalizing weed in Washington state, champions a more empathetic approach. He’s studied European drug laws for 15 years and says that, on the continent where “a joint is about as exciting as a can of beer,” effective policies keep incarceration rates low.
“Learn about Europe’s challenges with marijuana and its opioid problem, bring it home, and our society can learn.”
While Steves says he isn’t necessarily “pro-marijuana”, he is a strong advocate of ending “stupid” bans on its use.
“I’m just interested in [ending] incarceration and racist drug laws,” he said.
Currently, adult recreational marijuana use is legal in nine states and Washington, D.C.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/travel-as-a-political-act).
J&J Shelf Life, Pulse Nightclub Memorial, Consumer Prices Rise. Here is all the news you need to know for Friday, June 11, 2021.
President Joe Biden is calling on global leaders to join him in sharing coronavirus vaccines with struggling nations around the world.
Inmates at an Oklahoma prison began receiving special computer tablets this week.
American consumers absorbed another surge in prices in May — a 0.6% increase over the past month and 5% over the past year, the biggest 12-month inflation spike since 2008.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell for the sixth straight week as the U.S. economy reopens rapidly after being held back for months by the coronavirus pandemic.
Now that El Salvador is taking bitcoin nationwide, other Central and South American countries are coming forward with their own proposals in what's shaping up to be a regional race to become the next bitcoin hub.
The White House dropped Trump-era executive orders that attempted to ban the popular apps TikTok and WeChat and will conduct its own review.
Criminal gangs that used a secure-messaging app called ANOM unwittingly allowed the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to eavesdrop on their conversations.
Reporters traveling to the United Kingdom ahead of President Joe Biden’s first overseas trip were delayed seven hours after their chartered plane was overrun by cicadas.
A Senate investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection has found a broad intelligence breakdown across multiple agencies, along with widespread law enforcement and military failures.
