Pubdate: Tue, 13 Aug 2013
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Page: A11

TIME TO DE-ESCALATE THE 'WAR ON DRUGS'

ATTORNEY General Eric Holder's speech to the American Bar Association 
in San Francisco was a bit like hearing from a stockbroker after 
trading has closed.

"Well, of course the market went down." Well, of course the U.S. 
needs to rethink drug laws and enforcement.

Decades after America righteously declared a zero-tolerance policy 
toward all drug crimes and nonviolent crimes involving drugs, Holder 
and others want to stop the abuses.

Seize the belated insights whenever they come along.

Support for being "Smart on Crime," in the AG's words, is aimed at 
undoing laws that maintain "a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality 
and incarceration" that "traps too many Americans and weakens too 
many communities."

Under the policy proposal, fewer drug offenders would face long 
sentences, fewer would go to federal prison and judges would have 
more discretion.

Substantial credit for this change of heart might truly go to the 
bloated, unsustainable expense of a federal prison system bursting at 
the seams and concentric circles of prison costs the policies impose 
on local jurisdictions.

These policies are on a path to end in the same way they began, with 
broad bipartisan support. Republican President Reagan's "War on 
Drugs" took shape in a heated competition with Democratic House 
Speaker Tip O'Neill, D-Mass. Neither party wanted to be seen by 
voters as weak on drugs.

As a result, Holder described a federal prison system operating at 
nearly 40 percent above capacity, with nearly 219,000 inmates.

The American Civil Liberties Union viewed Holder's policy directives 
to change practices for low-level, nonviolent offenders as crucial 
steps toward reducing harmful federal prison overcrowding.

The country has come a long way in three decades. Changing laws and 
attitudes about marijuana have been in the forefront. The benchmark 
for change is a quote by Reagan's drug czar Carlton Turner, who said, 
"marijuana leads to homosexuality, the breakdown of the immune 
system, and therefore to AIDS."

Holder's policy direction has stirred questions about the need to 
replace U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, formerly Seattle's police 
chief, as he leaves the post for another federal job.

Holder has bipartisan support in Congress for change. Maybe something 
actually will happen to reform laws that have ruined lives and budgets.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom