I'm very pleased to see state Rep. Naishtat taking a stand against current U.S. drug policy and our mass incarceration of nonviolent offenders. Glen Castlebury's response, however, while accurate on a local level, doesn't address the national picture.

While in Texas, nonviolent and first-time offenders are usually given shorter sentences; states such as Michigan, New York and California have mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Mandatory minimums remove judges' discretion in sentencing entirely, forcing them to sentence first-time offenders to as much as 20 years in prison for as little as one day's supply of crack cocaine. Victims of these policies include non-users as well as users, some of them impoverished young parents who agreed to act as carriers in exchange for much-needed cash.

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