Pubdate: Fri, 16 Aug 2013
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Note: Winnipeg Free Press editorial

DRUG STANCE LACKING

If the Harper government needs more evidence it is heading in the 
wrong direction on marijuana laws, it was provided by the U.S. 
attorney general, who conceded America's drug laws have been a 
failure and have wrongly punished and injured millions of young 
people. Eric Holder told the American Bar Association the Obama 
administration wants to move away from a policy of handing out harsh 
sentences for many drug-related crimes. Low level, non-violent drug 
offenders, in particular, should no longer be charged with offences 
that impose mandatory minimum sentences, Holder said. It's a 
startling turnaround for a country that declared war on drugs in the 
1980s, even though it already had some of the toughest laws in the 
western world.

Federal prisons are overflowing with 220,000 inmates, nearly half for 
drug offences. And although some states have liberalized their 
marijuana laws, most state prisons are also overcrowded, partly 
because of drug offences.

Holder said major drug dealers with ties to international cartels and 
gangs should still be prosecuted vigorously, but low-level users 
should be diverted to treatment programs or community service, rather 
than treated like hardened criminals. The attorney general also 
criticized mandatory minimum sentences, saying they restrict the 
ability of judges to pass sentences based on the facts. He said the 
harsh judicial system may have done more harm than good by 
perpetuating cycles of poverty and desperation, particularly among 
young black men and other minorities. By American standards, Holder's 
comments represent a seismic shift in attitudes, although it remains 
to be seen if any of the lofty goals will become law in the 
notoriously fractious American political system. Canada, on the other 
hand, is moving in the opposite direction. As part of the 
Conservative omnibus crime bill, mandatory minimums have been 
introduced for relatively minor marijuana offences, including at 
least s! ix months in jail for cultivating six plants.

Trafficking offences, which could include relatively minor amounts, 
would carry a minimum sentence of up to two years in jail. The Harper 
government has also stubbornly opposed any form of decriminalization 
for minor offences, even as the Organization of American States 
issued a report recommending legalization of pot as a way of battling 
the social and economic cost of prohibition. The Conservatives are on 
the wrong course and the wrong side of history, but it is not too 
late to change.

- - Winnipeg Free Press
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom