Prison Terms Were Set Under Guidelines Now Deemed Too Harsh

President Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentences of 22 drug offenders, the largest batch of prisoners to be granted early release under his administration as it steps up an overhaul of the nation's criminal justice system.

The early release of federal inmates is part of a sweeping effort to reduce the enormous costs of overcrowded prisons and address drug sentences handed down under old guidelines U.S. officials now view as too harsh. Obama had previously commuted the sentences of eight prisoners under the new Justice Department-led initiative; tens of thousands more are seeking to have their cases reviewed.

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William Bennett, who served as secretary of education under Ronald Reagan and director of national drug control policy (or drug czar) under George H.W. Bush, has long been known for his strong and clear articulation of conservative principles in a number of best-selling books, among them "The Book of Virtues."

In "Going to Pot," he and his co-author Robert White, a managing partner in an international law firm and former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, examine the current trendy rush to legalize the drug. "Marijuana, once considered worthy of condemnation, has in recent years become a 'medicine' legalized fully in four states, with others expected to follow."

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Two days before Initiative 71 legalized possession of marijuana in the District, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, informed Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) that her decision to proceed with implementation and enforcement would be a "willful violation of the law."

A Feb. 24 letter from Chaffetz and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) contended that the language of a continuing resolution enacted by Congress in December barred the use of appropriated funds by the District to legalize marijuana, and they characterized the mayor's actions as a violation of that bar.

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Suspicion and Wariness of Marijuana Legalization Abounds - Especially Among Those in Public Housing

Jamal Vaughn, a mechanical engineering student, was on his aunt's stoop in Northeast Washington on a recent afternoon, his long fingers curled around a half-smoked joint.

"It used to be, ' Let me see who's around,' " Vaughn, 21, said between puffs and giggles, referring to his wariness of cops who had long made this neighborhood east of the Anacostia River a hot spot for pot arrests.

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In Zealously Punishing an 11-Year-Old, Officials Exhibit Clouded Judgment.

THE NEWS is full of instances in which deficits in common sense produce bad outcomes. But rarely is the deficit so clear, or the outcome so wretched, as in the case of a sixth-grade boy in Bedford County, Va., who received a year-long suspension from school for possessing a single leaf of marijuana - which, on closer inspection, turned out not to be marijuana at all.

The pupil, who is 11, was enrolled in a gifted-and-talented program not far from Roanoke when an assistant principal found the leaf in his backpack in September. Leave aside the possibility - hardly remote in middle school - that the leaf may have been planted as a prank, which the boy's parents suspect is the case; the leaf was not in dried, smokable form, and there is no suggestion that the boy smoked, sold or purchased this particular leaf - or any other.

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Regarding the March 20 Metro article "Bowser weighs in on 'Black America' ":

If Americans are troubled by the disparity of income between African Americans and white Americans, one tactic would go a long way to reduce it: Correct the country's racist policies regarding drug crimes. White Americans consume drugs at virtually the same rate as blacks, research shows. Yet black Americans are about twice as likely to be arrested for a drug offense as whites, and they are about four times as likely as white defendants to end up in prison.

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Hundreds Turn Out for Giveaway Intended to Promote Home Growing

The District witnessed a massive, public drug deal Thursday - and for those involved, it was quite a bargain.

With D.C. police officers looking on, hundreds of city residents lined up and then walked away from an Adams Morgan restaurant carrying baggies containing marijuana seeds.

Taking advantage of a ballot measure approved last fall by voters that legalized possession of the plant, the unprecedented giveaway scattered what organizers said were thousands of pot seeds to cultivate in homes and apartments across the nation's capital.

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It sounds like an idea a stoner might come up with.

In Washington, D.C., it's now legal to possess marijuana, to grow it, to smoke it and to give it away. But you're not allowed to trade in it. You can give your neighbor up to an ounce, but if he gives you money or even bakes you a pie in exchange, that's illegal.

The District of Columbia has legalized marijuana - but is trying not to create a market in marijuana. It's aiming for a gift economy, not unlike what you might experience at Burning Man, but permanently.

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First, a disclaimer: There is no marijuana in the beer. That's what they said. Cannabis and hops are just a lot alike. It only smells like pot. And it might taste a little like it, too.

So if that's what you like - a dank, resinous pint - or if you're willing at least to try it, this could be your season at the District's DC Brau Brewing Co.

Starting Tuesday - St. Patrick's Day - the brewery began tapping green-decorated kegs of its new seasonal India pale ale. The beer is dubbed "Smells Like Freedom," in what must be one of the most unusual protests in the history of the District's protracted fight for full voting rights.

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The weekend after marijuana became legal in the District, Capital City Hydroponics ran a sale on the indoor gardening kits needed to grow it. Business doubled.

In a narrow Petworth basement stuffed with high-end gardening supplies, Michael Bayard gingerly explains that tomatoes are best grown indoors given the District's unfavorably dank weather.

Tomatoes, it turns out, are cultivated similarly to marijuana. And since his shop, Capital City Hydroponics, opened in 2011, Bayard has often explained to customers how to grow the food - tacitly aware that some of them just go home and use their new tomato knowledge to grow pot.

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During a visit with reggae singer Bob Marley in 1978, I asked him about the effects that smoking marijuana had on him. Relaxing in the sunroom of his home in Kingston, Jamaica, he said marijuana clarified his inner vision and inspired songs about peace and justice.

Out of the "holy smoke," as Marley called it, came a plume of music that wafted far beyond the Jamaican shores, such as "Get Up, Stand Up" and another, written by fellow reggae singer Peter Tosh, called "Legalize It."

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D.C. Business Owners Grapple With Diverse Needs As Laws on Marijuana Testing Evolve

From white-linen restaurants to K Street law firms, D.C. employers have found themselves on the front lines of defining marijuana legalization in the nation's capital.

If your employee shows up blearyeyed, can you do anything about it? And what protections will unions be able to offer?

A survey of D.C. business owners and union leaders in the week since the District legalized possession, use and home cultivation of marijuana shows these questions have begun to fuel a lively debate in workplaces.

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Here's the reality of the District's new law on legalized pot: Get busted while also holding two ounces of marijuana or less, and D.C. police will give it back to you.

It happened this week at the 6th District police station in Northeast Washington. A man who had been arrested returned for the things that police take before they cart you off to jail. Among this man's possessions happened to be a small amount of marijuana - which police now view as property to store rather than contraband to seize.

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After just five days of pot being legal in the nation's capital, the D.C. Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve new limits on marijuana use.

The legislation introduced last week by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) prohibits smoking in bars, clubs and virtually anywhere outside a private home where people could gather.

Although Bowser stood up to Congress last week and legalized marijuana over threats of jail time from House Republicans, the mayor immediately asked for the new curbs. She said they are needed to close a loophole in a voter-approved ballot measure that could allow clubs with membership fees and access to the drug to form in the city.

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Adam Eidinger was flying high.

As chairman of the DC Cannabis Campaign, he helped spearhead the push to legalize marijuana in the nation's capital. When the law went into effect Thursday, he retreated to his campaign headquarters and took a victory toke, then another and another.

Now, just a few days later, Eidinger is feeling low. On Tuesday, the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation - offered by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) - that Eidinger says will undermine some provisions of the original law and hamper further liberalization of marijuana use.

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Homes Currently Only Legal Place for Usage

The D.C. Council on Tuesday barred private clubs from allowing marijuana usage on their premises, dashing the hopes of some pot entrepreneurs who sought to host events where patrons could partake and share with others.

The emergency legislation, which passed unanimously and takes immediate effect, says any business that violates the law could have its business license revoked. It clarifies pot legalization laws that took effect five days ago.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser sought the measure to close a loophole in the voter-approved ballot measure, Initiative 71, that she believed left room for clubs to potentially charge membership fees for access to pot parties.

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Marijuana Convention in D.C. Helps Put Growers in Business Legally

Part patchouli, part power suit, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts gathered over the weekend for the District's first cannabis convention since the city legalized recreational marijuana - offering a glimpse of the emerging markets that could take hold in the nation's capital.

Although the faint smell of marijuana hung over the Southwest D.C. hotel's exhibition hall - where attendees could get tips on how to grow it, buy products to smoke it and speak with consultants on how to market it - nowhere could it be found.

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The mind-altering-substance market got a little more crowded in Washington this past week when the District joined three states in allowing residents to possess and consume marijuana for recreational purposes.

And despite the objections of some congressional Republicans, initially led by Rep. Andy Harris (Md.), who's quite keen to tell D.C. voters that he knows better than they do, the District is actually the best place in America for marijuana aficionados - in part because of Harris's efforts to block the will of the voters.

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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's (R) emotional disclosure that his cousin died of a heroin overdose shows that the tragedy of addiction is not restricted to any income class, ethnic group or geographic area ["For Hogan, the heroin crisis hit in the heart," Metro, Feb. 25]. Addiction afflicts individuals and families from all walks of life, in Maryland and across the United States.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's 2013 Maryland Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported that 4.9 percent of the state's high school students have tried heroin at least once, 5 percent have tried methamphetamines and 3.9 percent have used a needle to inject these and other drugs.

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Today, a rare consensus has emerged in favor of reforming our federal drug sentencing laws. This presents a historic opportunity to improve the fairness of our criminal justice system. But unless we act quickly, we risk letting the moment pass.

The Justice Department has sought to be an early innovator on this front. A year and a half ago, I launched the Smart on Crime initiative- a comprehensive effort to reorient the federal government's approach to criminal justice. It focused on reducing the use of draconian mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenses and deepening our investment in rehabilitation and reentry programs that can reduce the likelihood of recidivism.

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