full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ethan Nadelmann: Why we need to end the War on Drugs

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So is legalization the answer? On that, I'm torn: three days a week I think yes, three days a week I think no, and on Sundays I'm agnostic. But since today is Tuesday, let me just say that lgeally retuagilng and taxing most of the drugs that are now criminalized would radically reduce the crime, violence, corruption and black markets, and the problems of adulterated and ugtaneuerld drugs, and improve pbliuc safety, and allow typxeaar resources to be developed to more useful purposes. I mean, look, the markets in marijuana, ccionae, heroin and methamphetamine are global commodities markets just like the global markets in alcohol, tocacbo, coffee, sugar, and so many other things. Where there is a demand, there will be a supply. Knock out one socrue and another inevitably emerges. People tend to think of prohibition as the ultimate form of regulation when in fact it represents the abdication of regulation with cnamliirs filling the void. Which is why piutntg criminal laws and police fornt and center in trying to control a dynamic global commodities mrkeat is a recipe for disaster. And what we really need to do is to birng the underground drug markets as much as possible aboveground and raletgue them as intelligently as we can to minimize both the harms of drugs and the harms of prohibitionist policies.

Open Cloze

So is legalization the answer? On that, I'm torn: three days a week I think yes, three days a week I think no, and on Sundays I'm agnostic. But since today is Tuesday, let me just say that _______ __________ and taxing most of the drugs that are now criminalized would radically reduce the crime, violence, corruption and black markets, and the problems of adulterated and ___________ drugs, and improve ______ safety, and allow ________ resources to be developed to more useful purposes. I mean, look, the markets in marijuana, _______, heroin and methamphetamine are global commodities markets just like the global markets in alcohol, _______, coffee, sugar, and so many other things. Where there is a demand, there will be a supply. Knock out one ______ and another inevitably emerges. People tend to think of prohibition as the ultimate form of regulation when in fact it represents the abdication of regulation with _________ filling the void. Which is why _______ criminal laws and police _____ and center in trying to control a dynamic global commodities ______ is a recipe for disaster. And what we really need to do is to _____ the underground drug markets as much as possible aboveground and ________ them as intelligently as we can to minimize both the harms of drugs and the harms of prohibitionist policies.

Solution

  1. regulate
  2. bring
  3. criminals
  4. tobacco
  5. regulating
  6. unregulated
  7. public
  8. front
  9. putting
  10. source
  11. taxpayer
  12. cocaine
  13. market
  14. legally

Original Text

So is legalization the answer? On that, I'm torn: three days a week I think yes, three days a week I think no, and on Sundays I'm agnostic. But since today is Tuesday, let me just say that legally regulating and taxing most of the drugs that are now criminalized would radically reduce the crime, violence, corruption and black markets, and the problems of adulterated and unregulated drugs, and improve public safety, and allow taxpayer resources to be developed to more useful purposes. I mean, look, the markets in marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine are global commodities markets just like the global markets in alcohol, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and so many other things. Where there is a demand, there will be a supply. Knock out one source and another inevitably emerges. People tend to think of prohibition as the ultimate form of regulation when in fact it represents the abdication of regulation with criminals filling the void. Which is why putting criminal laws and police front and center in trying to control a dynamic global commodities market is a recipe for disaster. And what we really need to do is to bring the underground drug markets as much as possible aboveground and regulate them as intelligently as we can to minimize both the harms of drugs and the harms of prohibitionist policies.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
drug war 7
answer lies 3
global drug 2
emphasize criminalization 2
drug abuse 2
illegal drug 2
principal consumers 2
racist fears 2
drug policies 2
legally regulating 2
global commodities 2
public health 2
sold legally 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
global drug war 2

Important Words

  1. abdication
  2. aboveground
  3. adulterated
  4. agnostic
  5. alcohol
  6. answer
  7. black
  8. bring
  9. center
  10. cocaine
  11. coffee
  12. commodities
  13. control
  14. corruption
  15. crime
  16. criminal
  17. criminalized
  18. criminals
  19. days
  20. demand
  21. developed
  22. disaster
  23. drug
  24. drugs
  25. dynamic
  26. emerges
  27. fact
  28. filling
  29. form
  30. front
  31. global
  32. harms
  33. heroin
  34. improve
  35. inevitably
  36. intelligently
  37. knock
  38. laws
  39. legalization
  40. legally
  41. marijuana
  42. market
  43. markets
  44. methamphetamine
  45. minimize
  46. people
  47. police
  48. policies
  49. problems
  50. prohibition
  51. prohibitionist
  52. public
  53. purposes
  54. putting
  55. radically
  56. recipe
  57. reduce
  58. regulate
  59. regulating
  60. regulation
  61. represents
  62. resources
  63. safety
  64. source
  65. sugar
  66. sundays
  67. supply
  68. taxing
  69. taxpayer
  70. tend
  71. tobacco
  72. today
  73. tuesday
  74. ultimate
  75. underground
  76. unregulated
  77. violence
  78. void
  79. week