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Sentencing reform and how to right the drug war’s wrongs

neversickanymore

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Sentencing reform and how to right the drug war’s wrongs
By Lucy Steigerwald
November 3

On November 1, the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s plan to reform sentencing for certain drug crimes went into effect. The details were hammered out back in April and July, and they could have been challenged by Congress. Thankfully, Congress declined to do so, and now the commission has a chance at helping nearly half of the 100,000 inmates in federal prison come home earlier than they otherwise would have.

For decades, the war on drugs rolled onward, leaving a pulpy mass of casualties in its wake. But since at least 2012, when Colorado and Washington state legalized recreational use of marijuana, there has been some serious strides against this dangerous domestic policy. Generally, however, any progress made on drugs has been confined to changing the legality of substances. Medical marijuana, for example is now legal in 23 states and Washington, D.C., which is a welcome improvement – unless you and your medical problem happen to reside in one of the other states.

Even the tentative, good-but-not-good-enough Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine in 2010, was initially not retroactive until the USSC voted to make it so. (The law also rather bizarrely reduced the weight disparity where mandatory minimums kick in from 100-1 to 18-1 for powder cocaine versus crack cocaine, instead of just eliminating the difference entirely.) Though imperfect, the legislation also eliminated the mandatory minimum of five years for first-time possession of crack.

The USSC is doing something more substantial still with their new guidelines, which allow for retroactive petitioning for reduced time in prison starting in November 2015. Prisoners may begin petitioning for these reductions now, however. Unfortunately, those sentences cannot fall below the mandatory minimums, which can only be changed by Congress. Ideally, the Justice Safety Valve Act, introduced by Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), which would give judges more flexibility to depart from mandatory minimums, will be eventually signed into law, allowing for some of the damages wrought by these mandatory sentences to be mitigated.

In addition, even though the sentencing reforms help the federal prison population, we are very far from instituting anything as optimistic on a statewide level. Most of the some-400,000 state prisoners in jail on drug-related crimes are out of luck unless they get individual commuting of their sentences.

As the war on drugs loses popularity, the question of what to do about the lives ruined and interrupted is going to come up again and again. One of the more fascinating, though politically unrealistic suggestions for what to do about this mess is one offered by a Green Party candidate for governor of New York: Howie Hawkins suggests releasing all drug prisoners, and putting together a “panel on reconciliation” between them and their communities and governments. They want voting rights restored, school grants restored, help for children of the former cons, and prevention of would-be employers asking about criminal histories. They even suggest full-on reparations for “the communities affected.”


continued here http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...reform-and-how-to-right-the-drug-wars-wrongs/
 
If coke was legal, i dont see any way i could NOT buy it every time i had 40 bucks... just sayin...
Maybe some can handle it, but right now the only thing keeping me from spending every cent i have on it is the legal risks and sometime-difficulty of obtaining it...
 
If coke was legal, i dont see any way i could NOT buy it every time i had 40 bucks... just sayin...
Maybe some can handle it, but right now the only thing keeping me from spending every cent i have on it is the legal risks and sometime-difficulty of obtaining it...
I wonder about this as well. I think it would be a generally unwise move to legalize all drugs, at least right away.
I say legalize ones like marijuana and maybe MDMA and monitor the usage rates and adjust tactics from there.
We know the war on drugs does not work, but we do not know for sure if other methods will be more or less effective.
It's a learning process for sure.
At very least though decriminalize all drugs for personal use and remove the cops ability to decide what constitutes personal use and remove the biases in charges.
No more weighing it with the bag bullshit, the law states that it is illegal to be in possession of the drug, not a plastic bag
 
If coke was legal, i dont see any way i could NOT buy it every time i had 40 bucks... just sayin...
Maybe some can handle it, but right now the only thing keeping me from spending every cent i have on it is the legal risks and sometime-difficulty of obtaining it...


You are going to have to address your addiction. Sooner or later you are going to stumble across it and what will the results look like.

The illegality of drugs may be giving you a brief reprieve from your troubles, but you situation is really a house of cards that will come crumbling down with the slightest wind.

The cost of your temporary salvation is very high.

There is mass murder and mass graves in mexico and these photos may be unnerving to people so open at your own risk.

NSFW:

mas-grave.jpg

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/New-mass-graves-found-in-Mexico-missing-student-case


mass+grave.jpg

http://share-toughts.blogspot.com/2011/04/mexico-police-unearth-new-mass-graves.html

another-mass-grave-in-mexico-yields-37-bodies.jpeg

http://withintheblackcommunity.blogspot.com/2012/11/mass-grave-found-in-mexico-progressive.html

Honduras-prison-fire-graves.jpg

Mass Graves, Tortured Bodies Found in Mexico

internat42bf8d.jpg

http://symbolic-mirage.blogspot.com/2011/04/bloody-mexico-more-mass-graves.html


A 2014 report published by the National Research Council asserts that the prison population of the United States "is by far the largest in the world. Just under one-quarter of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons."[9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

Not to mention all the other awful results
Drug War Clock


What have you done to address and heal from your addiction?

Does your house of cards sobriety justify these awful results?

Addicts no matter if they are clean or useing need to build there maturity and take responsibility for themselves and their lives. If they are at a point where they feal they are no longer in control or are hanging on by a thread then they need to take a proactive approach and seek the help they need and make the changes necessary to change and heal. Relying on the utterly failed drug war to save you is not something i would recommend. Justifying it upon your current results seems like a very selfish approach. Relying on the government to save you does not indicate a high level of maturity.

I would seek out and find the help you need and then i would take responsibility for yourself and your life and identify, implement and work a strong program so you can recover and find some peace.
 
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If coke was legal, i dont see any way i could NOT buy it every time i had 40 bucks... just sayin...
Maybe some can handle it, but right now the only thing keeping me from spending every cent i have on it is the legal risks and sometime-difficulty of obtaining it...

That happens currently to many people with alcohol.
 
If coke was legal, i dont see any way i could NOT buy it every time i had 40 bucks... just sayin...
Maybe some can handle it, but right now the only thing keeping me from spending every cent i have on it is the legal risks and sometime-difficulty of obtaining it...

I should not have my freedom restricted just because you cannot handle that freedom.
 
Plus, liquor stores here shut down at 2am, regulation would still restrict your ability to get drugs more than black market sale would
 
Woo-hoo! NSA you posted the drug war clock!!!! Haven't heard anyone mention that since uni. ure mah hero :D

Frankly, even if anyone could safely buy their DOC or any other drug right down the street from their humble abodes, most people would not. Even the most "damaged fiends" will often take a couple bucked over a hit of rock. Not all mind you, but the majority. Certain folks would absolutely seem to be very vulnerable under any such scenario, but these are the same folks who be just as vulnerable under the current situation. Problem with what we got now is that is makes nearly EVERYONE vulnerable, and those would might otherwise tend to be more vulnerable than most even more so.

On top of all that, I cannot believe that you'll ever be able to just get $40 of coke from the corner story just like that, without restriction or anything other than paying the price. Cause that's how the black market works... And what does legalization/being able to legally buy cocaine without some kind of DEA license have to do with sentencing reform, honestly?... :\

SJB's argument is also well taken, although debates about freedom are generally pretty laughable (i mean literally they make me giggle most of the time).
 
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