Pubdate: Sat, 17 Aug 2013
Source: Day, The (New London,CT)
Copyright: 2013 Seattle Times
Contact:  http://www.theday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/293
Note: The following editorial appeared recently in the Seattle Times.

EASING THE DRUG WAR

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 United 
States 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. 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