Pubdate: Sun, 16 Dec 2012
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Debra J. Saunders

A SMART CONSERVATIVE POSITION ON WAR ON DRUGS

"Mandatory sentences breed injustice," Judge Roger Vinson told the New
York Times. A Ronald Reagan appointee to the federal bench in Florida,
Vinson was railing against a federal system that forced him to
sentence a 27-year-old single mother to prison life without parole
because her dealer ex-boyfriend had stored cocaine in her house.

Note to D.C. Republicans: This would be a great time to take on the
excesses of the war on drugs.

The Times was writing about conservatives, including Jeb Bush and
former Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson, who advocate for smarter,
more humane incarceration policies under the rubric "Right on Crime."
In light of the GOP's need to woo more young voters, drugwar reforms
offer an ideological good - limited government - and also might be
politically savvy. Think: Ron Paul and his rock star status on
college campuses. Two areas cry for immediate action. One: sentencing
reform. The single mother, Stephanie George, had prior drug
convictions, which contributed to her draconian prison term. Even she
says that she deserved to do time, but not the rest of her natural life.

What's more, her costly incarceration won't do anything to dry up the
nation's drug supply or scare kingpins straight. Career dealers, like
George's ex-boyfriend, who was released five years ago, know how to
game the system and reduce their sentences by testifying against
amateurs and patsies who think they can win at trial. As the judge
explained, the guiltiest parties "get reduced sentences, while the
small fry, the little workers who don't have that information, get the
mandatory sentences."

When the federal government imprisons small-time criminals for life,
the system has grown too costly and too ineffective. It embodies the
definition of big government. University of Chicago economist Steven
Levitt found that American penal policies decreased crime in the
1990s. Since then, incarceration rates have risen so steeply that
Levitt told the Times he now thinks that the prison population - more
than 2 million people are in prison or jail - could be reduced by a
third. If he's half right, Washington should act.

President Obama was critical of mandatory minimums before he was
elected to the White House. But he has failed to use his presidential
power to pardon as he should. Obama has commuted only one sentence to
date, and right now, a commutation is George's only hope of release.

Julie Stewart, who founded Families Against Mandatory Minimums, knows
Democratic and Republican politicians who have issues with the war on
drugs. Congress should not wait for the White House to enact
sentencing reform; GOP members should lead the way.

Two: marijuana. Though the Obama administration has rewarded
sanctuary cities that choose to flout federal immigration law, the
Obama Department of Justice has had a no-sanctuary approach to
medical-marijuana dispensaries in states where voters have legalized
medical use. In California, U.S. attorneys have gone to extremes,
seizing assets without prosecuting dispensaries and suing landlords
who aren't even distributing the drug.

In November, Washington and Colorado voted to legalize possession of
up to 1 ounce of marijuana. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., opposed the
Colorado measure, but he supports the Respect States' and Citizens'
Rights Act of 2012, which would exempt states with medical or
recreational marijuana laws from the Federal Controlled Substances
Act. Is Coffman ahead of Obama?

The administration has announced no policy change. Talking to ABC on
Friday, Obama reiterated his 2008 view that arresting recreational
users should not be a priority and said he does not support legalizing
marijuana "at this point."

Marijuana Majority's Tom Angell is not impressed. "The federal
government rarely goes after individual users," he noted in a
statement. "The real question is whether the Obama administration
will try to prevent voter-approved marijuana sales systems from being
enacted or if they will force individual users to buy marijuana from
the black market, where much of the profits go to cartels and gangs
that kill people." And: The executive branch should reschedule
marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act.

"We want to put away the bad guys," former California GOP Assembly
leader Pat Nolan, who served time in federal prison and now works for
the Prison Justice Fellowship, stressed, but the federal system no
longer is limited to hard time for hard crimes. Still, Nolan sees more
conservative support for sentencing reform on the state level than on
Capitol Hill.

It's time for a change. Smart conservatives should fight for
government that works and an end to laws that do not. Compassionate
conservatives must stand against laws that are harder on small fish
than career criminals. Fiscal conservatives should oppose the policies
that burn dollars without promoting public safety. Constitutional
conservatives should stand up for states' rights.

And young conservatives instinctively understand this.
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