This is such an amazingly spot-on description of how politicians make decisions related to the drug war…
Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is pressing ahead with plans to create mandatory minimum prison terms for drug crimes in spite of two studies prepared for his own department that say such laws don’t work, and are increasingly unpopular as crime-fighting measures in other countries.
“Minimum sentences are not an effective sentencing tool: that is, they constrain judicial discretion without offering any increased crime-prevention benefits. Nevertheless, mandatory sentences remain popular with some Canadian politicians.”
It costs a lot and it doesn’t work. Let’s do it!