Pubdate: Wed, 14 Aug 2013
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2013 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: Tim Walker

IS AMERICA WINDING DOWN ITS 40-YEAR WAR ON DRUGS?

Over the past five years, the Bay Area has seen a 75 per cent drop in 
drug arrests. This is partly because of California's evolving drug 
laws but, according to a recent report in the San Francisco Examiner, 
it has more to with a "philosophical shift" in local law enforcement. 
It seems appropriate, then, that the US Attorney General this week 
chose San Francisco as the venue to signal the Obama administration's 
own philosophical shift on drug enforcement.

Addressing the American Bar Association's conference in the city on 
Monday, Eric Holder said he would instruct prosecutors to cease 
listing drug quantities in minor indictments. The law obliges judges 
to mete out mandatory minimum sentences to offenders, depending on 
the volume of drugs involved. But if that volume goes unmentioned, 
judges will be free to order lesser sentences. A modest proposal, but 
one that could herald a momentous trend: the winding down of 
America's 40-year war on drugs.

Violent crime rates have tumbled since tough sentencing guidelines 
were introduced during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. Yet 
the number of inmates in US jails has risen by 800 per cent since 
1980. Almost 47 per cent of those incarcerated are drug offenders, 
and a vastly disproportionate number are African-American.

"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for 
no good law enforcement reason," Mr Holder said, lamenting the 
system's "moral and human costs". He added: "As the so-called war on 
drugs enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it, and the 
approaches that comprise it, have been truly effective."

Though the new measures have the benefit of bypassing Congress, 
sentencing reform enjoys rare bipartisan support. After Mr Holder's 
speech, a Republican Senator, Rand Paul, said he was "encouraged that 
the President and Attorney General agree with me that mandatory 
minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders promote injustice and do 
not serve public safety".

The Holder reforms also reflect a cultural shift in attitude to drugs 
and drug policy. Last week Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical 
correspondent, came out in favour of legalising medical marijuana. 
Gupta, who was once considered for the post of US Surgeon General, 
had previously argued against legalisation, but now says he was 
wrong. The new sentencing measures and Gupta's Damascene conversion 
may appear to be only tangentially related, says Ethan Nadelmann, of 
the Drug Policy Alliance, "but what both boil down to is a 
repudiation of the drug war hysteria and its residue that has infused 
American criminal justice policy for more than 30 years".

Gupta's developing views match those of the US public, among whom 
support for marijuana legalisation has risen steadily. Polls suggest 
about half of the population now supports legalisation, up from 
one-third in 2005. Cannabis remains illegal at federal level, and 
seems likely to stay that way for some time. Yet the Government has 
intervened sparingly in states where the laws have been relaxed. Last 
year, voters in Colorado and Washington state passed laws legalising 
weed for recreational use. Medical marijuana is already permitted in 
20 US states, as well as Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, there is enthusiasm for legalisation in countries affected 
by the wider war on drugs. Vicente Fox, the former president of 
Mexico, said last month that his country could end pot prohibition. 
The President of Colombia is in favour of legalisation, while 
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has said he would like to see 
worldwide legal regulation of all drugs.

This month, Uruguay's congress voted to create the world's first 
legal national cannabis market. The US will surely keep a close watch 
on this bold experiment. Barack Obama would be hard pressed to end 
the war on drugs before 2016, but his administration at least appears 
prepared to draw it down.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom