Pubdate: Sat, 17 Aug 2013
Source: Cape Breton Post (CN NS)
Copyright: 2013 Cape Breton Post
Contact:  http://www.capebretonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/777
Note: The Winnipeg Free Press editorial	

HARPER'S DRUG STANCE TRAILS U.S., HISTORY

If the Harper government needs more evidence it is heading in the 
wrong direction on marijuana laws, it was provided Monday 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 six 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.

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