The Drug Policy Alliance has created a new document; An Exit Strategy for the Failed War on Drugs: A Federal Legislative Guide
The report basically recognizes that after decades of incorporating the drug war into the very fabric of the federal government, the U.S. needs more than just an understanding that the drug war has failed, but it actually needs an exit strategy. The Drug Policy Alliance provides 75 concrete actions that could be taken to help the federal government exit this failed drug war.
Here are some examples:
- Eliminate abstinence-only zero tolerance policies.
- Make harm reduction a cornerstone of U.S. drug policy.
- Allow states to reform their drug policies without federal interference.
- Reform the 1961, 1971 and 1988 U.N. treaties on narcotics drugs and support the rights of other countries to set their own drug policies.
Reform civil asset forfeiture laws. - Limit the Drug Enforcement Administration’s authority over the practice of medicine.
- Restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated individuals and people on parole and probation.
- Eliminate random, suspicionless drug testing of most federal employees and reform the Drug-Free Workplace Act.
- Sunset drug war programs.
- Eliminate or cut subsidies to local law enforcement agencies for drug enforcement activities.
- Prohibit federal agencies from undermining state marijuana laws.
- Repeal federal mandatory minimum sentencing.
- Reform federal provisions prohibiting people convicted of a drug law violation from accessing public housing, and prohibit federal housing authorities from punishing entire families for the action of one family member.
- Encourage and allow for the establishment of supervised injection facilities.
Of course, most of these on their own are totally insufficient to eliminate or even significantly reduce the harms of the drug war, but you’re looking at such a daunting task as dismantling the federal drug war machine, it helps to have a defined set of concrete steps that can be taken.
This is one useful document among many. The Exit Strategy doesn’t, for example, provide a look at how legalization might be structured. For that, we turn to Transform’s excellent After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation
…
Speaking of legalization, thanks to Allan for providing us with a link to the draft regulations for selling marijuana in Washington State.
I think I got through about half of it before complete boredom set in (although there were a few light moments such as the example of a regulation-proper label for “Space Cakes”). I found myself wondering if they would be this exruciatingly, mind-numbingly detailed about the regulations for producing plutonium, and wanted to ask “Did anyone tell them this is just about pot?”
It really does point out how broad and insidious the whole drug war thing became however, (like this is a surprise or something). It is mind-boggling how wide the net became, and it will take a lot to undo it, but the lies have started to unwind anyway. Might as well get started, it won’t get any easier.
Here’s another brick from the wall, we can set it over there, don’t get cut by the sharp edges.
(Still cheered by the testimony of Rep Cohen the other day!)
Much like a real net, that’s been used, abused, and stretched out for purposes it wasn’t ever intended, in some places it’s becoming quite frayed, tattered, and vast holes are appearing.
The slack appears in one corner; threads and fibers pull tightly together in some other. Lines get unmoored. Curtains of clumped netting float by, only tentativly connected to the larger structure. Snaring even smaller fish, strangling rare sea birds, getting snagged on reefs, and breaking propellers miles away.
Generally causing a tangled mess for everything around because the operators refuse to check out the vast amount of resources available on finally getting your shitty net out of the water and switching to mobile aqua-pods.
They forgot one thing: Focus less on media-friendly national and state drug trends statistics and more on statistics that assist local communities in gauging drug policy progress. Focus the drug war at the community level and people will become much more pragmatic when they see it’s in their backyard.
*****Expand reporting requirements to show local-level trends in drunk driving accident rates, alcohol, heroin, cocaine, prescription drug and other hard drug overdose rates, and show the number of trauma center cases due to alcoholic-related violence at area hospitals, etc. This data should be provided in real-time so we can see what a toilet our drug war policy has created in our own communities. Local governments should be required to map on Google Earth all the drunk driving accidents in cities across the country, so police will spend less time pushing people from using the safer choice of marijuana. Wonder why MADD doesn’t push this? They receive federal funding and it would embarrass cities for supporting the alcohol industry while waging war on peaceful marijuana users. Only when the drug war hits Americans in their back pocket and property values are in jeopardy will the “white picket fence” Americans wake up. *******
You forgot to put a bullet-point next to Reform civil asset forfeiture laws.
They forgot a lot of things on that list (though it’s still a good list). One such thing on the list is the proper kind of flag pole to be used when flying the American Flag: all flag poles must be adorned just above the gold or copper colored eagle –a spike used for impaling future tyrants and traitors who seek to undermine the Dream of a free melting pot democracy through illegal laws like the CSA drug laws etc.
Whatever the ONDCP/DOJ/DEA decide as their exit,,it needs to happen pretty quick,,now 94% of voters believe no one should go to jail for small quantities of marijuana according to ASA today.
Add that to Cohen’s diatribe at Holder and any plan to crack down hard on marijuana users is going to blow up in his face. Even stepped up drug screening will be shot down.IMO
http://tinyurl.com/au8svxk
“”When asked, “Which approach do you think government and law enforcement should take toward someone found smoking marijuana or in possession of a small amount of marijuana?”, six percent of respondents said possession should be punishable with jail, 20 percent said it should result in mandatory substance abuse counseling, 32 percent said users should incur a fine, and 35 percent of respondents said people caught with small amounts of marijuana should not be punished at all.”” “snip”
I bet DupedPont has no shame knowing that he is philosophically a human carrion feeder. If the war on drugs was a medieval battlefield then he is the grackle plucking eyes from the wounded while goading his handlers for more bodies.
Sorry, I meant post above to go to the previous DuPont thread.
What you did wasn’t as bad as placing someone in a round room and then telling them to go pee in the corner. I’m sure a bastard like DuPont should never escape being locked up in any comment on this couch . . . even if Pete’s posting something on ‘irrigation’ for pot plants.
.
.
Oh well shit. Jimmy Carter Endorses SAM, Opposes Marijuana Legalization
Warning: Article quotes David Frum and Kevin Sabet.
Oh Jimmy… sad, sad, sad… shame, shame, shame
“Don’t Step On the Grass, Project SAM”
Calvina Fay Prohibition Inc.
Starin’ at the boob tube, turnin’ on the big knob
Tryin’ to find some life in the waste land
Fin’ly found a program, gonna deal with Mary Jane
Ready for a trip into hate land
Obnoxious Joe comes on the screen
Along with his guest self-righteous Sam
And one more guy who doesn’t count
His hair and clothes are too far out
While pushin’ back his glasses Sam is sayin’ casually
‘I was elected by the masses’
And with that in mind he starts to unwind
A vicious attack on the finest of grasses
Well it’s evil, wicked, mean and nasty
(Don’t step on the grass, Sam)
And it will ruin our fair country
(Don’t be such an ass, Sam)
Well, it will hook your Sue and Johnny
(You’re so full of bull, Sam)
All will pay that disagree with me
(Please give up you already lost the fight, alright)
Misinformation Sam and Joe
Are feeding to the nation
But the one who didn’t count counted them out
By exposing all their false quotations
Faced by a very awkward situation
This is all he’d say to save the day
Well it’s evil, wicked, mean and nasty
(Don’t step on the grass, Sam)
And it will ruin our fair country
(Don’t be such an ass, Sam)
Well, it will hook your Sue and Johnny
(You’re so full of bull, Sam)
All will pay that disagree with me
(Please give up you already lost the fight alright)
You waste my coin Sam, all you can
To jail my fellow man
For smoking all the noble weed
You need much more than him
You’ve been telling lies so long
Some believe they’re true
So they close their eyes to things
You have no right to do
Just as soon as you are gone
Hope will start to climb
Please don’t stay around too long
You’re wasting precious time
Steppenwolf
Why Do Democrats Defend the Drug War?
Go to Hell Dung Worrier Sabet, You’ll be among lots of friends.
Drug Worrier Kevin Sabet Gets Punk’d
Wait, tobacco and “excessive” drinking are illegal? And if we only have to discourage “excessive” drinking, why do we have to “discourage” (via the coercive power of the state) all cannabis use, particularly when you consider the fact that cannabis is infinitely safer than alcohol by every objective metric?
Sadly, Jimmy seems to have lost it here (and I’m sorry, Francis, it comes of posting in haste before I’ve read the whole thread, but you beat me to the point that Jimmy is now a logic-free entity) and I can only assume he is now in his dotage. Like most of his so called “greatest” generation, he is on the way out, along with prohibition itself. Amen.
it’s shockingly sad (for me) to see the dawdling pace the black community is taking in the march against the WOD. Russell Simmons has a black-oriented protest planned in DC next month (LEAP will be there) but who has heard anything about it, anywhere?
Here’s a fair piece addressing the black community:
End the War on Drugs Now!
And speaking of blacks and the drug war, here’s another excellent piece from Kristen Gwynne, over on Alternet:
Stop-and-Frisk Trial: NYPD’s ‘Top Stopper’ Stopped Almost All Blacks, Was Never Questioned For It
I often point out the fact that blacks dont participate in nearly the numbers they should in many situations that directly affect them, This is the best example of the slave mentality at work. Many are affraid to shake the bee hive for fear of being stung. They sit and await instructions, approval,and discipline from MASTER. Churchs and so called leaders are no different either, since Master controls and owns everything they have access too they fear losing what few gains they’ve been allowed to make. I still recall in the 80’s as a young black man attempting to do something my father could have never imagined doing and his response ” They aint gone let you do that, you gone get yourself killed ” The overseers patrol (police) our neighborhoods as a constant reminder of Masters authority anyone caught in violation will be punished Severely
Wow! I guess this explains why a group of black men, cheeba smokers all, wouldn’t sign a legalization petition.
I’m an immigrant and this is sad news ( I mean NEWS! ) to someone who bought the legend of America.
But the slave-OWNING mentality is deep here – I guess this explains why American businesses are so dang hard on their lowest-paid workers. WHite collars? They’re like us. Blues? Slaveys!
SO doesn’t keeping cheeba illegal keep the slaves from the thinking man’s medicine? Can’t let them slaves get too smart for their own good, right?
That’s pretty powerful truth. I’ve always believed that the drug laws destroyed true prosperity after the end of segregation. I believe Gangster Rap came more out of the drug laws than it did out of segregation and slavery (at least according to the lyrics when the rappers sung about selling drugs, being in gangs whom sell drugs and battle for turf/money, being harassed by cops seeking an easy arrest over drugs, drug laws creating more gangs to sell the drugs and drug laws making it harder for the black American to get out of the ghetto) . . . I really believe Dr. King Jr. and the rest created the total end of segregation, but the drug laws came and systematically destroyed their rights, separated families, created more crime and more gangs (to sell the drugs), which made segregation once again mandatory via the cause and effect of much larger and destructive ghettoes and ‘profiling’.
I still believe Yo-MTV raps was the best source for understanding the full events around Iran-Contra and the invasion of Panama. Lil Wayne and DJ Screw etc can quote word for word about Dick Nixon’s ‘War on Drugs’ agenda and speech and its consequences better than any news article or Wiki-link out there. Of course Art is a reflection on life. Nothing makes me filled with blood lust more than seeing a cop profile and thus search a black vet who served this country . . . If he went to war, he’s forever my brother and every civilian cop who arrests a vet of any color for drugs has the right to have his (insert word of choice here) taken away from him. I don’t call American cops ‘British Red Coats’ for nothing. One day, we shall become a true democratic melting pot and that’s why I fought and do this.
http://gothamist.com/2013/05/15/indictment_against_cop_who_killed_u.php Breaking news.
Congratulations to Our Agent, on His Success.
:sarc:
Seriously, …There are no Words.
Reparations for the Victims Upon Cementing Your Exit-Strategy.
Not just a police state, but as of last Monday, a military police state. Few noticed the change:
The situation in Mexico has been duplicated domestically. American citizens are now at war with their own military.
For the government, it’s too little, too late. We shall defeat the military as decisively as we’ve defeated the prohibitionists on every front of the drug war. As exit strategies go, the U.S. military needs to find one fast.
Did you call me a pussy communist?
Boston Marathon tragedy now pretext for more military?
http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/10C18.txt
THE POLICE STATE COMETH by Rep.Ron Paul
Mr. Speaker, in a police state the police are national, powerful and authoritarian. Inevitably, national governments yield to the temptation to use the military to do the heavy lifting. Once the military is used for local police activity, however minor initially, the march toward martial law with centralized police using military troops as an adjunct force becomes irresistible.
Throughout our history, law enforcement in the United States has remained for the most part a local matter. In recent history, especially since the 1970s, the growth of Federal agencies to enforce tens of thousands of regulations, not even written even by Congress, has changed our attitude toward the proper use of police power as established under the Constitution. While this is annoying to many Americans, many of whom are voicing their resentment, the principle of a centralized police power has become acceptable and unchallenged by our political leaders today. continued…
PATRIOT Ax Targeted Drug Offenders
“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. ….the 63% of the German people who expressed their opposition to Hitler were much too divided and shortsighted to combine against a common danger which they must have known would overwhelm them unless they united, HOWEVER TEMPORARY, to stamp it out.”
-William L. Shirer, author;
“The rise and fall of the Third Reich” **p.259**
We not only seem to be rapidly slipping into fascism with the Military policing the streets. We also have the problem of cops taking over Military roles… Pete assembled this list a while back.
Exporting DEAmocracy
This is part of our global contribution. The drug war has become the preferred foreign policy approach toward controlling much of the world. We export our drug war, our tactics, and, most of all, our DEA. (Now with offices in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Canada, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Turks & Caicos Islands, Haiti, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caldeonia, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis & Futuna, Western Samoa, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Kiribati, Nauru, Philippines, Burma, South Korea, Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Laos, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Bahrain, Chad, Dijibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Oman, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Russia, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Western Sahara, Channel Islands, Ireland, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Azores, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Gibraltar, Portugal, Principality of Andorra, Spain, Spanish Enclaves (Ceuta & Melilla), Algeria, France, Monaco, Morocco, Tunisia, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Slovak Republic, Ukraine.)
Begging the Question…
Where are all of the Taxbaggers and Norquest?
Call me a dreamer . . . call me someone grasping onto hopes that may never exist: But I do what I do so all of you can be proud of the U.S. Military –if not now, then one day . . . to officially clean us from the wrongs we have committed and to inoculate us from any future ills that could come from us.
Hooah.
I’ll fight tooth and nail to restore the honor of the soldiers and vets and fight even harder so they can see the wool that covers their eyes. Why? Because Iraq, 9/11, Afghanistan and our recession was all about the Drug War (The War on Terror is just the polite and friendly name for the War on Drugs). The Drug Warriors and their drug money funded terrorist pets pissed me off when they had to turn my HS graduation year and first month of university/adult life into a terrorist act called Sept 11th 2001 . . . my graduating class was the first class to be affected and thus deprived of our national innocence (as a whole) and the American Dream because of 9/11 and the recession it created from two long expensive wars. At least the Class of 2000 or 1993 etc had a year or more of the ‘innocent’ American adult life trying to reach that American Dream. The War on Drugs is beyond personal for me. I tell you the truth: there is more joy in being arrested for drugs (which has happened to me) than 9/11 and what it created for our nation. Drug legalization has really nothing to do with legalizing drugs . . . drug legalization for America in the 21st Century is all about 9/11 and what followed. Remember, you cannot spell Al Qaeda without a D or an E or an A. I’ve been out of the U.S. Military for nearly 4 years, but I’m forever in the Army since that Oath to defend against all foreign and DOMESTIC threats is a life long oath akin to marriage . . . this nation I shall defend against the DEA and corrupted DOJ. If the DEA really wanted to keep this drug war up and running, they should have never created this very much aware and pissed off Vet and paid for his education and world travels . . . I’m a corrupted government’s worst nightmare. I’ve been known to cause U.S. Spy Drones to crash by angrily shaking my fist at them.
while exit strategies are great, the pressure on the powers that be to utilize these strategies must come from us.
As always, I’m a LEAP fan. Kevin Booth’s “American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny” will debut on June 6th.
From Neill Franklin:
“He also said that he didn’t believe in imprisoning users of marijuana, but favored SAM’s approach of arrests with treatment referral and health assessments…
We must do everything we can to discourage marijuana use, as we do now with tobacco and excessive drinking…”
So when will we see tobacco and alcohol consumers facing “arrests with treatment referral and health assessments?”
Jimmy, you’ve just joined the dinosaurs of the drug war. Extinction looms.
this comment above was in reply to Duncan’s about Jimmy Carter and SAM
OT
I’m surprised there has not been more on the Couch about the recent IRS scandal(s)in the light of their role in Federal attacks on MMJ in several states.
Here’s an article on Alternet addressing that:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/other-irs-scandal-outright-war-against-marijuana-dispensaries
You can bet that HSBC and other banksters involved in the drug trade are allowed to claim all sorts of expenses against their tax bill, unlike the dispensaries.
“Pot Pigs” go on sale in Seattle by Thom Hartmann
A butcher in Seattle has a new spin on high-quality meat. BB Ranch, and their butcher, William von Schneidau, have introduced “pot pigs†in celebration of marijuana legalization in Washington State. Schneidau teamed up with a local cannabis farmer, who’s donating the leftover pot stems, seeds, and stalks, which are then added to the pigs’ diets for fiber.
The website for BB Ranch states that proceeds from a celebratory “pot pig dinner†will go to local charities that support sustainable local farming and the culinary arts. Unfortunately, SeattleMet News says you won’t get intoxicated from eating the meat, but the pigs are a bit more mellow because of their diets. BB Ranch is certainly using a new take on sustainable farming, and they’re putting a whole new meaning to the term “pot-bellied pig.â€
“GOOD SOIL. BETTER FEED. BEST BEEF”
Pot Pig Gig March 22, 2013
Now that pot is legal in Washington State cannabis farmers are having the same problem other farmers have always had. What to do with the parts of the marijuana plant that weren’t good for, well, pot! It turns out that all those useless stems, root bulbs and over sized leaves are great feed for pigs so the folks at Top Shelf Organic are donating their waste to the ranchers at Bucking Boar Farm in Snohomish. This cooperative act of sustainable farming not only reduces waste costs for Top Shelf and reduces…
Youtube Pig Gig
There are other markets for those “waste products” from marijuana farming, too. For instance eating or juicing those leaves (raw) is particularly good for human health (and do not produce a high). The stalks are as useful as bamboo for the same purposes for which we use bamboo; and also produce a pretty high quality fiber (some say better than hemp) for rope and fabric. Then there is also pulp for a high quality paper that lasts more than double the life of wood pulp paper.
I forgot to add that the seeds are very nutritious, too, for people and birds, it would be a pity to waste them by turning them into fuel.
Totally off-topic, but near to my heart, Wounded Knee II was 40 years ago. I know some of the people that were there… a shameful event indeed. But I thought maybe some of the vets and others on the couch might enjoy the flashback and a look at some of the things we’ll do fighting the good fight:
Memories of the Wounded Knee Airlift April 17, 1973
Live long and prosper…
Thanks Allan, I’ll add it to the thread
Free Leonard Peltier
The continuing saga of Wounded Knee
Leonard Peltier Greetings From Leavenworth
when Leonard escaped from Lompoc I went looking for him. I came close to where he was hiding but not close enough… sadly I was a mile or two off.
Well, spent a few quality minutes with the WSLCB document (and a cup of coffee, per Petes heads up). As far as pproducer rules go, I don’t see anything too onerous. The 1000 foot rule seems over the top by about half, but they had to have something for the “What about the Chillens?!!” cohort. I’m positvely inclined so far.
My sister and me had that talk we have when we start seeing classmates in the local obituaries,,
I told her if I got where i had to be plugged into a machine and living on fluids to just unplug me and let me go,,
Bitch unplugged my computer and poured out all my wine….
because of my recent stumbling upon a newspiece about a SUNY anthropolgist giving a lecture that included my old Grampa Semu and Rolling Thunder, and oh so much more (Hopis, Gary Snyder, the Human Be-in, Firesign Theater, WW II conscientious objectors…) (Unexpected Histories: Hippies, Hopis and Ammon Hennacy Well that stimulated something and the last week I’ve been digging around, jumping thru names and keywords and I stumbled onto a piece by the late Allen Cohen, he who started the San Francisco Oracle in 1966 in the Haight-Ashbury.
I was struck by his description of the hard drug issue in the Haight in the mid to late ’60s and the hippie answer to it:
mmmm…dead cow. did they save the meat, i wonder. here are some interesting comments about the horrors of legal pot at the tacoma news tribune.: http://tinyurl.com/d2mhm6d
[Open in new window]
Evidence mysteriously missing,,smell of charcoal permeated the air,,deputies said.
Zack Galifianakis to Brian Williams on NBC’s Rock Center:
“I got your text earlier… I don’t sell pot anymore”
It appears that the body politic in Latin America is doggedly trying to come to its senses:
tammy de weerd:
sorry so late on this but it seems tammy has a history of misapplying public funds. when her 18 yo daughter was charged with underage drinking she used city funds to hire a pr company to spin the story
and older sister Tara had a meth problem
wonder how they spun that? adhd perhaps. im sure the drinker didnt find herself in enforced treatment
Allan says: “Older sister Tara had a meth problem”.
Jean Valjean says: “Wonder how they spun that?”
Exactly . . . the older sister was alrady spun on speed . . . no need in spinning it any further.
1- Denounce the UN ‘Narcotics’ Convention.
2- Repeal the CSA as unconstitutional delegation of personal decisions to a politically corrupt Congress that bans substances without any scientific requirement.
3- Release all non predatory drug statute convicts from incarceration.
4- Establish a program of restitution.
Federal Appeals Court ruling:
http://tinyurl.com/axf4cpt
On Friday, a federal appeals court panel issued a sweeping decision that held the reduced sentencing ratio should apply retroactively to all cases, not just because that was the intent of the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, but because failure to do so would be unconstitutional. In a powerful statement about the troubling history of drug sentencing, Sixth Circuit Judges Gilbert Merritt and Boyce Martin write:
The old 100-to-1 crack cocaine ratio has led to the mass incarceration of thousands of nonviolent prisoners under a law widely acknowledged as racially discriminatory. There were approximately 30,000 federal prisoners (about 15 percent of all federal prisoners) serving crack cocaine sentences in 2011. Thousands of these prisoners are incarcerated for life or for 20, 10, or 5 years under mandatory minimum crack cocaine sentences imposed prior to the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act. More than 80 percent of federal prisoners serving crack cocaine sentences are black. In fiscal year 2010, before the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act, almost 4,000 defendants, mainly black, received mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine. […]
The Fair Sentencing Act was a step forward, but it did not finish the job. The racial discrimination continues by virtue of a web of statutes, sentencing guidelines, and court cases that maintain the harsh provisions for those defendants sentenced before the Fair Sentencing Act. If we continue now with a construction of the statute that perpetuates the discrimination, there is no longer any defense that the discrimination is unintentional. The discriminatory nature of the old sentencing regime is so obvious that it cannot seriously be argued that race does not play a role in the failure to retroactively apply the Fair Sentencing Act. A “disparate impact†case now becomes an intentional subjugation or discriminatory purpose case. Like slavery and Jim Crow laws, the intentional maintenance of discriminatory sentences is a denial of equal protection.
This should free some people!
anyone know who the pols were who sponsored the 100 to 1 crack law? im sure bill clinton had a hand in it
who else to defer to than Pete (it is his couch afterall):
http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/len-bias-two-decades-of-destruction/
International report sees merit in decriminalizing drug use
ooopsie… Duncan beat me to it above ^
You Have Two Paths to Choose From.
Pick Your Selection With Care.