When you were President of the United States a little more than 30 years ago, I called for the decriminalization of marijuana. And not the legalizations. That must have won you a lot more friends than you had to begin with. Well, as a matter of fact, it was not an unpopular issue because then we were talking about treatment of drug addicts and do away with the drug on the consumer end. But since then, it's been a massive move towards concentrating almost exclusively on doing away with the suppliers,. The incumbent President now has set massive numbers of troops into Mexico, which has caused over 12,000 deaths.
In 2012, Intelligence Squared partnered with The Elders, a coalition of world leaders and figureheads freed from the constraints of office whose wealth of experience can open doors at the highest level. Brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007, The Elders use their collective experience and influence to promote peace, justice and human rights worldwide, using private advocacy and public diplomacy. To celebrate the group’s fifth anniversary, Intelligence Squared hosted three of the Elders on stage in London at the Barbican Centre including former US president Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson – the first female president of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – and South African religious leader and activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Hosted by the broadcaster Jon Snow, the audience were also joined for a brief introductory discussion about the formation of The Elders organisaton with Virgin Group entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel. This is the first half of the the discussion. Join us for the second half in the following episode.
We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be.
Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2.
And if you’d like to get ad-free access to all Intelligence Squared podcasts, including exclusive bonus content, early access to new episodes and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared today for just £4.99, or the equivalent in your local currency .
Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices