Pubdate: Mon, 11 Dec 2000
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: Las Vegas Review-Journal, 2000
Contact:  P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125
Fax: (702)383-4676
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Forum: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/feedback/

MR. CLINTON ON DOPE

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Bill Clinton, the man whose
administration has for eight years aggressively prosecuted the drug war,
leaving tens of thousands of nonviolent offenders behind bars, says the
following:

"I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in
some places, and should be. ... We really need a re-examination of our
entire policy on imprisonment. ... "

Huh?

Where, then, was Mr. Clinton when his Justice Department was going after
California doctors who recommended their sick patients use marijuana after
voters there overwhelmingly approved the medicinal use of the plant?

Where, then, was Mr. Clinton when his drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, was
wailing hysterically about how voters in states that approved medical
marijuana measures -- including Nevada -- were dupes, slackjaws and fools?

To call Mr. Clinton a hypocrite is to insult hypocrites everywhere.

Yes, we need to find alternative methods of dealing with nonviolent drug
offenders. But Mr. Clinton has done nothing during his two terms to push us
in that direction -- quite the opposite. The Bureau of Justice Statistics
reports that the U.S. prison population has increased from 600,000 in 1990
to 1.89 million last year, in large part because of longer sentences for
nonviolent offenses.

Last month, The Associated Press reports, more than 600 religious leaders
delivered a letter to the White House urging Mr. Clinton to commute the
sentences of low-level, nonviolent federal drug offenders.

"Scores of Americans are serving unconscionably long sentences for drug
offenses ... which are grossly out of proportion to the nature and severity
of their crimes," the letter said. "These unduly severe sentences violate
human rights and waste scarce criminal justice resources."

The group admits that Mr. Clinton is unlikely to release thousands of
prisoners. But spokesman Chad Thevenot says the president should "start the
process by granting clemency in the most egregious cases."

If Mr. Clinton's comments to Rolling Stone are to be viewed as anything more
than his usual unprincipled opportunism, he should heed that advice.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk