É Tudo Ilegal! - John Stossel's Illegal Everything

Lemonade for sale! Lemonade for sale!
Stossel lemonade!
Is everything illegal in America today?
Wait! Wait! Wait! I can't give it to you! I can get in trouble!
You were just selling lemonade.
I go to the front door and there's about 6 or 7 black vans. All with guns.
Enough to scare the crap out of you.
The police came after this grocery store.
It seemed like they thought we had cocaine in the papayas or something.
How do you are gonna tell me what I should and shouldn't eat?
Most americans support laws against prostitution.
But what if it were legal?
Here it's safe.
What if drugs were legal?
One countrie's tried that.
I think it's working.
But not in America.
Here, politicians keep passing more rules.
Everyday I look over my shoulder, "ok, where are they gonna find the illegal tomorrow?"
You have no idea what you're up against.
This could happen to you.
Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime.
You say if you follow me around, you'd find three felonies?
Well, that's actually an understatement.
In America, these days, it's like everything is illegal!
What's more american than opening a lemonade's stand?
- Would you like some lemonade? - Yes, please.
Who's first?
- Thank you very much! - Oh, thank you so much!
- Thank you. - I appreciate it.
For years, kids have set up stands like this.
But today, watch out!
The police may bust you!
I was like, really scared, because I didn't know what was gonna happen.
We were just selling lemonade at front yard,
for about three days. And the third day the police decided to shut us down.
Their mom heard the police yelling.
And I could hear them from inside my house.
Yelling at them: "Girls, you have to shut the lemonade stand down!"
It made me wanna open my own stand, here in Fox's front yard.
There's a cop over there.
Will the police bust me?
There are so many vague laws that everybody arguably could be caught up in it.
Lawyer Harvey Silverglate says America's avalanche of new laws,
this is just what the Feds added in the last year,
makes criminals of just about all of us.
Every citizen arguably could be shown to have violated...
some regulation in these stacks,
and that's the danger to liberty.
The police never told these girls why they were shut down.
My husband stopped at the city hall to try to find out.
And the city official laughed at him and said:
"Really, they shut your lemonade stand down?"
And he said "Yeah, I'd like to see what law I'm breaking".
She didn't even know.
Eventually, the police chief explained.
We're not aware of how the lemonade was made,
who made the lemonade, or what the lemonade was made with.
We understand you guys are young, but still, you're breaking the law...
and we can't let you do it anymore.
Appleton, Wisconsin, shut down these girls lemonade stand.
And these kids in Texas were stopped too.
They said that you needed a permit to sell.
In Hazelwood, Illinois, Katelyn and Abigail Mill sold girl scout cookies from their own front yard.
But then the city sent them a letter ordering them to stop.
I looked at it and I was like: "What? Cookies, come on, it's girl scouts!"
All these people ran a file of laws they didn't know existed.
And still don't understand.
They're ununderstandable.
Not only to people like you who are not lawyers, to people like me...
- I am a lawyer, and I can tell you I don't... - They're incomprehensible to you.
They're incomprehensible to me.
Even the police don't understand.
She said the Robert's kid's lemonade stand violated the law, but...
Two officers, the previous day, bought lemonade from them.
And tipped them.
In Scottsdale, Arizona, Dr. Raed Tarazi...
is accused of breaking the city's nuisance and Property Maintenance Ordinance.
His crime? This tree in his backyard.
It's the wrong kind.
They said: "If you don't remove the tree you'll be fined $2,000 a day..."
Or I could face imprisonment for 6 months.
- You bought the house partly because of this tree? - Yes.
But it turned out this tree wasn't on the Planning and Development Service's department's list...
of approved trees.
It's odd, because there are bunch of them in the area.
And so you point this out to the authorities, and they say what?
"Let us know who they are and we will cite them as well."
In California, Stephanie and Chuck Fromm were fined for holding Bible studies in their home.
You need a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to hold meetings.
Ok, and that's tricky.
It goes down this road of traffic studies, earthquake studies, land studies...
This can mean tens of thousands of dollars.
You then asked them: "How many people make for a meeting?"
And the Code enforcer and his boss, that was there for the planning department, said...
"More than three."
- And you have more than three kids. - I have five!
Russel! Russel!
Famous people accused of breaking the law can fight zealous prosecuters.
They can afford the expensive lawyers, who often get them reduced sentences or a acquittal.
But what if you're just an ordinary business man and you import these guys?
Watch out!
You could go to jail! For years!
We didn't catch the lobster. We didn't see the lobster.
Ebby Schoenwetter used to import sea food.
Then authorities said: "You're in trouble!"
I did the same thing for 13 years, over and over. Clear customs and FDA...
Bring the lobster tails in and sell them.
Nobody in the government ever had a problem with that, until that day when they walked up on a dock and said:
"Don't offload your lobster and tails."
Customs shows up and says: "Stop unloading, put them back"?
We put them back and we were wondering what the heck happened.
They didn't really know the answer.
We know that, you know, you shouldn't murder and you shouldn't steal.
Those are intuitive. That's old-fashioned.
Now, the laws are much more technical and vague.
The government eventually said he broke 4 obscure regulations that were on the books in Honduras.
They'd said they had to be packaged in 40 lbs boxes. We had them in plastic bags.
Everybody was using plastic bags.
I started in 1986 and was always doing in the same way.
In the end, even Honduras said: "No, you got it wrong."
It didn't matter.
7:30 in the morning, there's about 6 or 7 black vans, there's FBI, IRS,
National Marine Fishery Service, Customs, there's about 13 of them on my deck.
All with guns.
And that was just the beginning of Ebby's nightmare
And you were sentenced to...
Eight years, one month.
That's right, 8 years and a month.
Maybe he was a repeat offender?
Any trouble with the law before this?
The worst thing I had was a speeding ticket. That was it.
He served 6 years in jail.
- What's happened to your business? - I went broke.
What's happened to your family?
They went broke also and they broke up.
My kids are back home with their mother and...
that's the story.
I assume these attorneys, general and state's attorneys... they're not evil people.
Ok, they're ambitious, they wanna make a name for themselves...
But they don't wanna hurt people who didn't really do nasty things.
Most are not evil, but there are a lot of fanatics.
Prosecutors have noticed that other prosecutors like Eliot Spitzer, Rudy Giuliani, senator Richard Blumenthal...
won high office by racking up impressive conviction records.
You see all these regulations around here? They will comb the books and they will find something.
This could happen to you.
They can take any law that they think you broke and take you to trial.
And whether you win or lose, you're gonna lose.
Because by the time you're done fighting it you're broke.
Of course the government never goes broke.
It must have spent a million tax payer's dollars going after you.
I heard they spent 5 million.
The amount of money that it takes bankrupts the tipical individual.
How much money does it take?
Oh, I've have clients who've spent 10 million dollars.
I can not even imagine how much money they spent prosecuting my husband.
The Feds tried Jill Barron's husband Jack and lost, but instead of apologising...
for getting it wrong, they now threatened to fine him $30,000 a day.
What terrible crime did the government say Jack and Jill commited?
Trying to buid a house on their own property.
The county gave you permission to buid. You own the house.
Yes, they did. And they inspected the foundation.
And approved it.
- So you started to build. - Uh-huh.
But, a government owned drainage ditch nearby was clogged with logs.
So Jack asked the government to fix it.
They told my husband: "We are backed up 6 months. If you can clean the ditch, go ahead and do it."
So he used his backhoe, he removed huge logs out of this ditch.
The water poured off the land, and...
we were cited one felony for cleaning the ditch.
What?!
A felony charge.
It gave the property the appearance of being a wetland.
The State government flood your property...
and then the Federal government comes and charge you with felonies for building on a wetland.
And it clearly isn't a wetland.
Jack is digging a well here. He had to go deep down.
He wasn't finding water.
He was down about 8 feet.
Could not find water tailing.
I should repeat, a jury cleared Jack of all charges.
And we won, but, after we were home, for a month, maybe, the Army Corp of Engineers and the EPA...
sent us another letter saying: "How nice for you that you won...
in the criminal court, but we still feel that it's a wetland"...
and the decision made by the jury did not matter to them.
and "if you don't get off the property, we're gonna fine he civil."
What does that mean?
$37,500 a day
They've had to sell their home.
Now they live in a modified trailer.
So, this has already taken almost everything you have.
Well, yeah, or then I wouldn't live like that.
And their life savings?
We'll be bankrupt, obviously.
You have no idea what you're up against, you don't know the power that is the EPA.
They have all the time and resources in the world.
It's an implacable foul with unlimited budget.
And they wear you down.
They just come in and ruin lives.
And so our government, that's supposed to be by the people, for the people,
sometimes is against the people.
Up next. Why I had to do...
this:
Wait, stop! Don't drink it!
Wait! Wait! Wait! I can't give it to you, don't drink it!
Lemonade for sale!
The fact that american police now tell little kids that they don't have the proper permits to do this:
50 cents!
Made me wonder: what does it take to open a lemonade stand...
legally in America?
A call to the New York City Information Department directed me to this website.
This is supposed to make licencing simple.
Ow, the wizard! They make it easy.
Except...
What?!
There were unintelligible questions.
I need an EIN assistant? Is the EIN... what's an EIN assistant?
Oh, an Employer Identification Number.
The government said I had to take a 15 hour food protection class.
To sell lemonade?
Bicycle injuries... equip bicycles with reflectors... I don't have bicycles!
After this there's an exam.
Then I have to wait weeks to find out if I passed.
And if I did, I have to buy a government approved fire extinguisher.
I got my fire extinguisher!
Might be a fire out here!
To do this legally, would take months!
Forget it!
So I did this without a permit.
Fox's lawyer gave me the ok if I didn't actually sell anything.
I had to give everyone refunds and get the lemonade back.
Wait a second! I shouldn't have sold it to you! I have to get it back!
Of course my costumers thought this was crazy.
It's a silly law.
Many at once had their own lemonade stand.
Did you have to get a licence to open the stand?
I'm from Canada, and we didn't need a licence stand.
Wait! Wait! Wait!
- Actually, I can't let you drink this because... - Oh, why?
Because there are so many rules here... I'm not allowed to sell this to you.
- I think you need your money back. - No!
What are the rules?
- Tell me. - I didn't get all...
- I didn't have time to get all the permits. - What?!
In Pakistan you can do nothing, you didn't need any permits in there.
That's how it used to be in the United States.
It was once easy to start a business here.
Back in the 1920's, you take a poor illiterate irish man or an italian, he goes out and buys a used car,
paints the word "taxi" on it, and he is in business for himself.
Walter Williams is now an economist, but as this old documentary showed,
he got his start driving a cab.
I made about $125 a week.
But today, he couldn't buy a cab in my town, unless he was a millionaire.
Politicians here and in most cities now require every aspiring taxi driver to buy one of these medallions.
No medallion? You're not legal.
But these medallions now cost a million dollars!
Yes, very expensive!
So expensive that only big companies can afford them.
So now these drivers are not entrepreneurs, they're employees.
Yeah, it's because of the medallion, I cannot drive my own car.
It restricts entry, and the purpose of these licences is to keep outsiders out.
No, it's to create us a safe and orderly marketplace.
You believe that? No, the purpose of the licencing is to keep outsiders out,
so that ins can charge us higher prices.
One of the few remaining places where it's still easy to start a taxi business is Washington, D.C.
These drivers like that.
Is the last bastion of free entrepreneur system and entry in America.
But now this lobbyist wants to end that freedom.
You have to regulate.
He wants to bring the dumb medallion rule to Washington, D.C.
He wrote a bill that will cut the number of taxis allowed in half.
There's too many taxi cabs.
These D.C. drivers don't think so.
- Kill the medallion bill. - Kill the medallion bill now!
They like being allowed to work.
But the lobbyist convinced this D.C. city council-man to sponsor his bill.
We wanna professionalize our taxi cab system.
Professionalize this system? What does that mean?
Well, we wanna make sure that the custumer has a good riding experience.
That sounds good, but...
What is this? What is this?
Regulations already on the books subject every driver to petty harassment.
This is unacceptable right here.
Still, at least in Washington, the open entry rules allow newcomers to enter the business.
Washington, D.C., is the only major city in America that allows an open entry.
- Isn't that good for poor people? - No, it's not good.
- The medallion system is what is needed. - But that is squeezes newcomers out!
- And newcomers should be squeezed out. - Why?
- Because this is a regulating industry. - How much you get paid to lobby for this?
Well, I get paid by hour. And my rate per hour is $775.
This man, you know, he's about money. I can't blame him.
But don't hustle me.
I'm told you're paid by the taxi king, Jerry Schaeffer.
Is he using you to squeeze the competition out?
I'm being paid not by the taxi king, but by the taxi...
A bunch of taxi kings... kings and queens and jacks. To keep the little guys out.
By... right. By some kings, queens, jacks and just some poor little folks.
Poor folks, really, pay lobbyists. And if he gets his regulation, poor people...
won't become taxi entrepreneurs.
Only a few are gonna be able to afford it. If any.
Washington has been sort of an open place for taxis being able to become a taxi driver.
- That's good. - We love it.
So why monkey with good?
When folks have some ideas about different legislation, our job is to implement it.
You've only been here 4 years, how many laws have you gotten passed?
Oh, many! We are very active here in my office, legislatively.
You ever repealed any?
Um... no. I don't think many have been repealed.
Passing new laws adds to the power of politicians.
But it makes it much harder to be an entrepreneur.
You're going to run me out of business.
Just wanna get out of here!
Who decides what you eat? You?
Turns out... no!
Some towns banned happy meals.
One banned all of new fast food restaurants.
My town's mayor wants to limit the salt I can eat.
And if you sell certain things that the food police disapprove of, you'd better watch out!
There was a loud banging on the back gate.
And I said: "What's going on?" It goes "We have a warrant to search the premises."
Not long ago, federal and state officials raided Rawsome Foods, a food co-op in Los Angeles.
They started walking around. They drew their guns and I'm like: "Why are you drawing guns?"
They searched me. It seemed like, they thought we had cocaine in the papayas or something.
Their crime was selling milk that hadn't been pasteurized.
They just went into our freezer and they just took gallons and cheeses and whatever they wanted.
A year later, the government raided again.
They also raided Sharon Palmer's farm.
Which supplies Rawsome with its natural food.
These people come and invade... ripped my house apart. They took me down to the county jail...
booked me... photographed me like a criminal.
Palmer and Rawsome's owners were charged with 6 fellonies. They could go to jail.
All because...
Health officials say raw milk can be downright dangerous.
It can! Unpasteurized means the milk hasn't been heated to kill the bacteria,
like salmonella, that can give you stomach aches, or kill you.
But raw food buyers say things like this:
It's pure and healthy and makes me feel good.
Oh, please! That's ridiculous!
But don't free people have the right to be ridiculous?
The hell! And this is America! How do you are gonna tell me what I should and shouldn't eat?
Right! I eat lots of Dove Bars, these aren't good for me.
I also eat chicken.
The CDC says, because people don't wash chicken properly, bacteria in it causes lots of illnesses and many deaths.
But we don't ban chicken.
When the government gets between my lips and my throat, I call that an invasion of privacy.
Joel Salatin is one of the most back-to-the-earth foodies.
Hey pig!
- Why do you wanna drink raw milk? - Because I want to.
I think it's healthier and it's good for me and I've drunk it all my life...
sometimes legally, sometimes illegally.
Most states ban the sale of raw milk, just as they ban unlicenced lemonade stands.
Wait! Wait! Wait! I can't give it to you! Don't drink it! I can get in trouble!
Although my lawyer told me that if no one drinks it...
I have to get it back!
And I don't make any money, then this is probably legal.
You're silly!
That indicates this whole societal prejudice against "terrible" business people, you know?
Anyone who's in business is a cheater, a villain.
The CDC says hundreds of people have gotten sick from raw milk.
More than that have downed in backyard swimming pools.
I think we should fill in all the backyard swimming pools and outlaw them.
Life is risky! You can die from it! I mean, ultimately, ultimately,
you and I should be able to chose our risk.
I mean, I think eating Cocoa Puffs and Twinkies and drinking Mountain Dew is risky.
But I'm not asking for a government to tell you that you can't do it.
For 30 years, Salatin's farmed 500 acres in Virginia.
Hey, turkeys!
And he's seen government pass more and more rules.
Everyday I look over my shoulder: "Ok, where are they gonna find the illegal tomorrow?"
Salatin would like to slaughter his own animals to sell to his neighbours.
But as with raw milk, it's only legal if he doesn't make money.
You can go into the woods, and shoot a deer, and put it prominently on the hood of your blazer, like an ornament,
take it around town in the afternoon sun for a couple of hours and then take it home,
string it up on a tree until you skin it out, cut it up, and feed it to your children.
And that's being a great american.
But if I take one lamb or one pig and get all the neighbours together and we have a comunity killing,
like they used to do, and one neighbour pays me a penny, I'm a criminal.
It's logical to think we need government to protect us.
If that is what you think, that's fine. Go ask for government protection.
But... allow my customers and me who don't have faith in the government... let us opt out.
Hey pig!
Basic food freedom of choice...
should be as important as the freedom to worship, speak or own a gun.
What you're doing, pigs?
What about the freedom to record public officials doing public work?
I'm a reporter!
Coming up.
Well, you're going to jail.
In America these days, you never know what's legal.
You're going away!
You're gonna be arrested for trespassing.
I did nothing!
But can police legally arrest you, just for filming the authorities?
That's next.
Our government adds thousands of new laws every year.
The Feds alone added 80,000 pages of new regulations just last year.
Adding state and local laws...
and we're drowning in rules!
The just disobeying one of these could lead to the police locking me up.
So, given that the police have the power to lock me up, or shoot me,
it's important that we be able to keep an eye on them.
Fortunately, that's easier today, because even our phones have cameras.
And the cameras are powerful tools for, as the romans said, "watching the watchman".
Excuse me.
You're going away!
You're gonna be arrested for trespassing.
I did nothing!
The problem is that, often, the watchmen don't wanna be watched.
In Jones County, Mississipi, a highway patrolman told Pete Ayre: "Stop your RV!"
Pete is an activist who likes to videotape encounters with authorities.
Yes, sir?
Open that side door for me, man. Turn that camera off, too.
- What's that? - You're filming?
- Yeah. - Turn it off.
- How come? - Are you filming me?
- Yes. - Turn it off for me.
He'd broken no traffic laws, but...
maybe the police were suspecious of shirtless tattooed Pete and his big trailer with New Hampshire plates.
Pete's friend filmed the encounter and said:
I would like to keep everybody accountable on this situation.
Apparently, this officer didn't like that.
Another arrived and said: "Turn if off."
I'm not shutting it off, officer.
- Or you're going to jail. - Excuse me? Sir, what's up...
The cops grabbed his camera and arrested him and his friends.
They held us in jail, wouldn't let us make phone calls...
After about 12 hours, the police let them go.
They charged me with possession of a beer in a dry county,
because there was one unopen beer in the refrigerator in the RV. They had nothing else to stick on me.
They couldn't charge him with filming the police, because that's legal.
And that's a good thing.
Just outside my office, a cop claimed a bicyclist rode into him on purpose.
But then this video turned up, and showed that the officer was the aggressor.
That cop was eventually fired.
Maybe video like this is why some don't wanna be filmed.
- You guys need something? - I'm just... this is my front yard.
I'm just recording what you're doing. It's my right.
- Actually, not from the sidewalk. - This is my yard.
In Rochester, New York, when Emily Good heard police stopping a driver outside her house...
she went out in her front lawn onto film the encounter. One officer didn't like that.
- What did I say to you that offended you? I'm... - You're behind us officers when we're doing a traffic stop.
- I'm allowed to stand in my yard. - Go stand in your house.
- I'm allowed to stand in my yard, I'm going to stay in... - I'll ask you one more...
I was in cotton pajamas, you could tell I was holding nothing.
I don't think that there is any reason to feel threatened.
All I have is a camera, I'm clearly wearing nothing. I have no weapons...
It does not matter... You know what? I think you're gonna go to jail, that's it.
I'm observing what they're doing and they're arresting me. I don't understand what's going on.
The officer took her to jail and charged her with "obstructing governmental administration".
I did nothing! I did nothing!
I think that the young police officer is high on his power.
High on his power is a little harsh. He is doing his job.
No, it's not his job to take people, observers, from their own property and put them in jail.
A month later, Emily put this video online.
It was viewed thousands of times, and some viewers criticized the police.
"That idiot cop!" "The cop was stupid!"
"Abusing his power!" So you post a video on YouTube,
and they come back!
In uniform, four officers...
Police showed up outside a meeting of Emily and her friends and started writing tickets for parking violations.
Like parking farther than 12 inches from the curb.
Can I see it? Can I see the ruler?
Her friend taped that.
Ok, that's 12 inches from the curb.
After the media picked up on the story, the police chief said his officers' actions were "inappropriate".
Charges against Emily were dropped, but no officer was ever punished.
They never are, as far as we know.
Even when they arrest news cameraman.
- Go away! - Sergeant...
- Go away now! - Sergeant, where should I go?
Go away now!
Phil Datz tried to film a police pursuit.
- Alright, you're going away. - Ok, I'm on my way, but I now may ask...
- Because it's an act of scene, and you're leaving! - Where can I stand...
Alright? No place. Go away! No.
He went away, he moved across the street. But then the officer drove up to him there.
Sergeant, I called PIO, they told me to go back to the...
Put it down. Put it down. Put it down. You're under arrest.
They charged Phil with obstructing government.
- Did you obstruct the government? - Absolutely not.
At the point I was arrested, I was probably a thousand feet away from the officers.
Charges were dropped, but, again, the officer was never punished.
None of the officers who arrested Pete, Emily or Phil would talk to us,
but the head of one police union sent us this written comment:
He says: "This has become a serious safety issue, I'm afraid something terrible will happen."
Well, the opposite is true, because if the officers are doing the right thing, the videos are gonna show that.
True! This hijacker rammed a cop car.
Get away!
The officer shot the hijacker. Killed him. And then was exonerated of murder,
because this video showed he acted in self defense.
- Are you recording me right now? - Yes.
Some officers now understand that it's just part of the job to be filmed.
As if you were a police officer, what would you wanna do? Make sure it's safe, right?
Correct.
Well, it should look good on YouTube, either way.
So let's give three cheers for officer Matt Lyons of Oceanside, California.
Make sure you get a good picture of me so you know exactly what I look like.
It's refreshing to hear an officer welcome a camera.
And remember, my name is officer Lyons, with the Oceanside police department,
my badge number is 1093. God bless America.
Coming up.
Should they have the freedom to sell sex?
And should they have the freedom to get high?
Legal drugs and sex work. When we return.
Lots of people in the american jails are here for drug use.
And that's ironic, because the people who make the laws and enforce them,
many of them admit, they use drugs.
Which of you are ready to admit to having used marijuana in the past?
- Senator Carry? Yes or no? - Yeah.
- Yes. Edward? - Yes.
The audience applauds.
And I didn't like it. And then inhaled...
I inhaled, frequently. That was... that was the point.
Everyone laughs. Yet the same politicians oversee a system that does this:
Go, go, kick in the door! Wait... don't move!
Drug raids like this one happen in America more than a hundred times everyday.
What the *** did I do?
Neill Franklin once led such raids.
You've locked up hundreds of people for drugs?
Absolutely, and have been responsible for thousands being arrested.
- You felt good about it? - Yeah.
We really thought these drugs made people evil.
But 10 years ago, Franklin decided that drugs, even hard drugs, do much less harm to americans...
than the Drug War.
Drugs can be, and are, in many cases, problematic.
But the policies that we have in place, to prohibit their use, are ten times more problematic.
Conducting drug raids is one thing that changed this mind.
Move!
On this raid, a SWAT team broke into this family's house. Shot their dog.
You shoot my dog?!
Once inside, they didn't find any drugs.
The owner was just charged with "possessing drug paraphernalia".
We just don't end up with dogs being shot. We end up with kids being shot.
We end up with search warrants being served on the wrong home.
And innocent people on the other side of the door thinking they are protecting their home.
We should be kicking out more doors.
Paul Chabot was a White House drug czar advisor under president Bush and Clinton.
They're not kicking the door of someone smoking a doobie on their couch.
They're kicking the door of somebody who's a violent person with a known history to be dangerous.
When they get it right... sometimes they make mistakes... terrorize people.
Because that accident happens should not be the reason that we do away with the program.
"Do away with it!", says Franklin. It didn't stop drug use.
But it created violence.
Tens of thousands of people are dying.
Not because they get high on drugs.
But because when something is illegal, it's sold on the black market.
And that causes crime.
Drug dealers can't call the cops if someone tries to steal their supply.
So they arm themselves to the teeth and form gangs.
We have the violence of these gangs competing for market share, and people get hurt.
Specially kids. Drug gangs constantly look for new recruits.
Some of these gangs are better recruitment programs than Fortune's 500 companies.
They know what to say to kids...
He demonstrated how they recruit kids.
"Check this out."
"Look what I got on my feet, man. Wouldn't you like a pair of these?"
"Just run right there to Foot Locket and get yourself a pair."
"When you get... come back and show me, you man."
Ok, kid comes back, Man, they lookin' good, man!"
"Wouldn't you like to be able to buy a pair of them every week?"
"Man, you can hang out with me..."
"This is what you could be. You could be! You could have this."
A few days later, the dealer sees the kid again.
"What? You dissin' me or what, man?"
- "You know you own me!" - "Well, you offered me sneakers."
"You got my 120 bucks? Oh, you don't? Ok, well, here is what you got."
"You hold this for me. That's all you gotta do for me. Alright?"
- "Just stand here..." - "Just stand here and let me know..."
- "I got to keep the sneakers?" - "...when a five-0 come..."
"And you get to keep the sneakers."
I got you.
And, if drugs were legal, people assume there would be more of that.
No, you see, you don't understand. It is the policy of prohibition that causes that environment.
And we don't have these kids on a corner, you know: "I got a fifth of Jack Daniel's here for you! You want that?"
Jack Daniel's is sold by businesses in safe, well lit places.
There's no violence here, because this is legal.
But there used to be violence in places like this.
Gangsterism was a natural sequel, and...
Violent crimes is why America ended it's 9 years of alcohol prohibition.
Al Capone, commissar of vice and corruption...
We created organized crime! Al Capone!
Organized crime existed well before prohibition.
But much less of it. Here is the murder rate about 80 years ago.
It rose, when alcohol was banned, dropped when it became legal again.
If were to do away with our drug laws, and just sort of legitimize narcotic use in this coutry...
by saying "let adults do what they do", we know, statistically, the drug usage numbers are gonna sky-rocket.
But we don't know that.
People think were it not for drug laws, drug abuse would be rampant.
But Portugal decriminalized all drugs 10 years ago, and the number of abusers did not sky-rocket.
Actually, they have.
And Portugal, which people often talk about today as a success, is actually a blatant failure.
We went to Portugal. He's just wrong!
We had a huge problem with their abuse.
This man is Portugal's drug czar.
We had around 100,000 people hooken on heroin.
15 years ago, heroin users shot up on the streets, and junkies set up tent cities.
Then, instead of doing what we've done, they tried something different.
They decriminalized every drug. Crack, heroin... you name it!
It's legalization. We have the most liberal model in the world.
Drug use is treated more like a parking ticked than a crime.
People caught with drugs, like this man found with hash...
get a slap on the wrist, sometimes a fine.
When the law passed, did stoned people run wild in the streets, taking heroin and crack?
That's so not true!
This woman served in Portugal's parliament.
People now take a more responsible attitude towards certain drugs.
There's no police after them, to choose for them.
Despite that freedom,
independent studies found that the number of people who say they regularly do drugs stayed about the same.
and more importantly...
the numbers of addiction itself decreased a lot.
We saw this woman openly smoking a joint near some police officers.
But we saw more public drinking than drug use.
Drug abuse is down, say authorities. And drug crime is down.
The police forces were a little bit suspecious.
At first, this police inspector had doubts about the law.
But now he says: "it works!"
The level of conflics on the street are reduced.
Drug related robberies are reduced.
In fact, now the police are not the enemies of the consumers.
And teen drug use is down.
It brought some peace to this debate.
But in America, the Drug War...
rages on.
Coming up.
Another war. Against prostitution.
We don't sell access to the intimate self.
It creates the idea that human beings are no different, no better, than stuff.
But these sex workers say: "What is she talking about?"
I choose to do this, this is what I want to do.
In these piles of laws, there is one law that most of you agree with.
The ban on prostitution.
In America, sex is ok. Money is ok. But sex for money, that's forbidden.
Seven women arrested and charged with soliciting prostitution.
Do you have anything to say, ma'am?
The women hide their faces
TV reporters treat prostitution like most other crimes.
We got exclusive pictures as vice cops set up a sting at a center city hotel.
Cops posing as johns easily lured 5 women to the high-rise hotel.
Even using the Yellow Pages.
Even using the Yellow Pages.
Think about that.
It wasnt at all difficult for the police to discover the law breakers.
Heck, the Yellow Pages in my town have 15 pages of so called escort services.
Sex work is common. Police ignore 90% of it.
Yet, when they do make bust, the implication is that the police saved the prostitutes.
Jail just may be the safest place these high end hookers have ever been.
Really?
Jail is the safest place these hookers have ever been?
I doubt that!
More importantly, where sex work is legal, there is little danger. Here in Nevada, for example.
Here it's safe!
We have a problem, the sheriff comes.
Brooke Taylor says sex work is like any other sailes job.
I mean, we are entrepreneurs, we are independent contractors, just like any other business.
She works at the Bunny Ranch, one of 28 legal brothels in America.
Dennis Hof is her boss.
You're a pimp! You're exploiting these women!
I'm not a pimp, I have a licence to do this.
You're a licenced pimp.
500 women choose to rent out their bodies at his brothel.
- You're claiming you're having fun? - Oh, yeah!
- Being bought, sold? - We're not being bought or sold.
If we were being bought or sold, there'd be crying and kicking and screaming when the transaction happened.
Are we doing that? No.
- Cheers! - Cheers!
But, wait a second. Don't you feel demeaned?
Not at all.
The US State Department calls the act of selling sex for money inherently demeaning.
Sex is supposed to be spontaneous.
According to whom? Who made the sex laws?
- It's just for money. - Right.
Don't you model for money? It's the same thing.
Sex is different, sex is more intimate.
Well, you're still showing your body, or exploiting yourself.
I choose to do this, this is what I want to do.
I assume you have no other options, you felt pushed...
I have several options. Before I did this I had a nice paying job. I was...
- So why do you do this? - Because I want to.
These girls can go out on dates and give up sex, and it's fine.
But if a guy leaves a $100 bill on the dresser, there's something wrong with that?
Interesting question.
It's not that complicated to appreciate why we don't want to legalize prostitution.
I put it to former prosecutor Wendy Murphy. She's locked prostutes up.
We don't sell access to the intimate self.
It creates the idea that human beings are no better than stuff.
Slavery is against the constitution, it has been for a long time, we find it incon...
But slavery is involuntary, that's forced.
Prostitution is very close to slavery.
It's inconsistent with everything we know about what freedom means.
To subject humans to market forces.
What?!
She lost me there.
Humans are subjected to market forces all the time.
Have you ever seen a fashion show?
Or a professional sports draft?
Or a boxing match?
Two men can beat each other's brains in, in a boxing ring, legally,
why shouldn't these girls be able to have sex for money?
Sex workers told us: "Sex is just a job, one better than some others."
The girls in McDonald's doesn't love making burgers,
the guy at Duane Reade doesn't love stocking toilet paper.
Cami Parker dropped out of a prestigious college because she wanted to do sex work.
If I don't like somebody, I don't have to be with them.
Opposite of slavery, I think.
- Nevada's got it right. - Not all Nevada.
In Las Vegas it's illegal.
They got lots of disease, lots of robberies, 2 million dollars with the property thefts...
reported last year.
Prohibition does not work.
If you want disease, if you want money going to criminals, then keep it illegal.
By keeping this illegal, you kill people.
People don't get Aids test, they're afraid to report crimes to the police.
In Nevada, in parts where it's legal, there's no crime.
Oh, please! You can't die with Aids from prostitution if you can't engage in prostitution, you can't...
But they do engage anyway, even when it's illegal.
- So people... - It's just underground.
Ok, so people rob banks, too. We can't regulate...
But that forced stealing money from people.
This is consensual. Big difference.
People will want to do things that are harmful to them.
I wish you could talk to the women from the Bunny Ranch about this.
I'd be like: "I can save you!"
I was glad she said that, because the sex workers had stayed to listen to her comments.
You guys are beautiful!
Now they came forward to join the conversation.
They work in a legal place. They say it's great.
You like it. We like it. It's your own choice,
if you wanna do it, do it. And if you don't like it, then leave.
I'm happy that you're happy. That's terrific.
The fact that you are having a good time is not an excuse to ignore the harm.
- Tell me why it's so bad for me? - Darling, it isn't about you.
And then you say, you say we get our souls sucked, I have been nothing but happy.
I believe that the majority of prostituted women suffer harm that is so serious,
I would compromise your freedom to protect the majority of women, absolutely.
So you wanna basically tell everybody in the world what they can and can't do...
with their own bodies and take away everybody's freedom of choice?
I would like to live in world where people didn't hurt each other.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
The Senate majority leader agrees.
The time has come to outlaw prostiturion.
So americans are nowhere close to accepting what you do.
Because it's sex. Relax, it's just sex, America.
Even if you support the laws against sex worker or drug use,
do we need all of these laws?
So many that no one understands them?
So many that even a government admits it can't count them all?
No! Let's get rid of some of these laws!
That's our show for tonight. Get rid of laws!
Good night!