If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Policymakers hoping to find meaningful offsets to fund disaster aid will have look at: 1) Where there's a lot of money, 2) where the spending is unjustifiable, and 3) where the politics and public opinion are conducive to allowing cuts, since there are very few areas in which that's true.
The bottom line: responsible adult cannabis users should no longer have to hide any more than responsible alcohol users do.
After more than four decades of a failed war on drugs, calls for a change in strategy are growing louder by the day. In Latin America, the debate is positively deafening.
As bad as drugs can be, Drug Warriors are worse. They raise the stakes of the drug fight, incentivize the drug gangs and push them to greater heights of violence. When a solution becomes worse than the problem it is time to abolish the solution.
Ever since I decided to research the mechanics of our prison system, I have been somewhat stuck.
The very term Rockefeller Drug Laws has practically become a euphemism for unfair, racially biased mandatory prison sentences and drug-war related mass incarceration.
Condemning people to pain and illness while they wait for a trial isn't justice, it is cruelty. And it must stop.
In 1973, two years after President Nixon declared a "war on drugs," New York Governor Rockefeller passed the toughest drug laws in the nation, demanding mandatory sentences for drug law violations, while removing the judge's power to consider each case individually.
If prison isn't working, what will? How about asking this question: "If so many people are using drugs, what's wrong with reality?" Locking up drug users doesn't address this question.
Some think drug courts are the utopian answer to both drug use problems and over-incarceration. Drug courts are part of a kinder, gentler drug war. Mind your manners, pass clean urine screenings, and everyone wins. The reality is much different.
Washington has more than a "shared responsibility" in the mayhem that afflicts Mexico and Central America. President Obama should not only discuss drug violence in Mexico and Central America, but also listen to alternatives to the war in drugs such as that of President Pérez Molina.
President Obama made a joke about his marijuana use at last week's White House Correspondents' Dinner. It was just one joke, and it was actually pretty funny, but let's consider the context.
Many people who want substance abuse treatment can't get it. The White House wants to fix this. Can they do it, and will it help?
Good drug policy is good AIDS policy. Drug users and sex workers benefit more from services than from beatings and prison. And as law enforcement officials committed to protecting the public, we can support public health.
What possible point does it make to threaten a local sheriff or even a state attorney general with 20 years in prison for writing and implementing sane regulations for medical marijuana?
Today we are releasing a science-driven plan for drug policy reform in America to build upon this progress. This 21st century drug policy outlines a series of evidence-based reforms that treat our nation's drug problem as a public health issue, not just a criminal justice issue.
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