Pubdate: Mon, 19 Aug 2013
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2013 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Nathan Jones
Note: Jones is the Alfred C. Glassell Postdoctoral Fellow in Drug
Policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Page: B7

RETHINKING THE WAR ON DRUGS

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder should be applauded for his speech
last week to the American Bar Association calling for a reduction of
federal mandatory minimum sentences in drug cases.

Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders is a waste of taxpayer money.
These new policies will increase government coffers without reducing
safety. Under Holder's proposal, prosecutors will omit the amounts of
drugs from their indictments when the defendant is charged with a
nonviolent drug offense that is unconnected to organized crime.
Omitting the amount avoids triggering mandatory minimum sentences. The
policies also expand compassionate release programs, leave more drug
cases under the purview of the states and increase drug-treatment
programs for nonviolent offenders in lieu of incarceration. They are
also morally just.

Harsh drug sentencing disproportionately harms minorities. According
to a June report from the American Civil Liberties Union, blacks and
whites use marijuana at comparable rates, but blacks are 3.7 times
more likely to be arrested.

While Holder pointed to Texas investments in drug treatment programs
and parole policy changes as examples of cost-effective drug reform
policies, there is still more to be done in Texas.

As William Martin, the Drug Policy Program director at Rice
University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, has pointed out,
"trace cases" are still being prosecuted in Texas. These are cases
where only trace amounts of drugs are found on individuals resulting
in felonies instead of misdemeanors. Texas could easily pass
legislation changing sentencing for possession and delivery of small
amounts of drugs from a felony to a class A or even class C
misdemeanor.

A step further would be for Texas to consider what 20 states and the
District of Columbia have already done: legalize medical marijuana.
Polls show the vast majority of Texans support legalizing marijuana
for medical purposes. America's most famous doctor and CNN's chief
medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, last week came out in favor of
medical marijuana.

In a CNN special first aired on April 11, Gupta pointed out that U.S.
research on medical marijuana is a restrictive process, with the
result that the only real science is being done abroad. Looking
elsewhere, with a focus on Israel, he found research pointing to the
legitimacy of medical marijuana.

If Texas really wanted to skip ahead, it could do what Colorado and
Washington have done and legalize marijuana for recreational purposes.
Based on its size and geographic proximity to Mexico, legalized
marijuana in Texas could take a significant chunk of profits away from
Mexican cartels that have killed more than 100,000 people in
drug-related violence in the last decade.

Most analysts think that marijuana accounts for at least 20-30 percent
of Mexican cartel profits. Marijuana legalization won't destroy the
cartels, but it will weaken their ability to corrupt U.S. and Mexican
authorities.

Finally, Texas is one of the few states without a needle exchange
program for drug users. By giving injecting drug users access to clean
needles, we could reduce the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other
illnesses that kill our children and burden our health care system.
These are the most cost-effective and beneficial drug reform policies
Texas could make.
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MAP posted-by: Matt