Pardoning everyone in prison for marijuana possession isn't delusional. It's humane. The right thing

[reformist2]

The only two groups that might be against it are right-wing law-and-order crazies, and oh yeah, the prison industry.

Which means this will be yet *another* thing that Hillary will say we can't do!

[plus5mace]

1. Yup, one of the powers that the president clearly does have is to pardon people.

The Clintons prefer to pardon Marc Rich, I prefer to pardon the victims of the drug war. Go ahead Hill, explain why nothing can be done to help people that deserve it.

[farleftlib]

4. That, and appoint a drug czar

The War on Drugs was an epic fail. Remember Bill Bennett?

http://boingboing.net/2015/06/15/william-bennett-yep-still.html

80's Drug Czar William Bennett - yep, still an asshole.

Remember when marijuana prohibition resulted in racist policies, violent drug cartels, widespread government corruption, pot laced with dangerous chemicals, an untaxable black market, a militarized police, a massive for-profit prison industry, an economy-draining and useless drug war, and children being lured into the drug trade? I remember it, and it sucked.

[polly7]

16. Bernie should contact THIS man:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016132112


Everything Americans Think They Know About Drugs Is Wrong: A Scientist Explodes the Myths

Columbia University scientist Dr. Carl Hart combines research and anecdotes from his life to explain how false assumptions have created a disastrous drug policy.

By Kristen Gwynne / AlterNet June 13, 2013

What many Americans, including many scientists, think they know about drugs is turning out to be totally wrong. For decades, drug war propaganda has brainwashed Americans into blaming drugs for problems ranging from crime to economic deprivation. In his new book High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society, Dr. Carl Hart blows apart the most common myths about drugs and their impact on society, drawing in part on his personal experience growing up in an impoverished Miami neighborhood. Dr. Hart has used marijuana and cocaine, carried guns, sold drugs, and participated in other petty crime, like shoplifting. A combination of what he calls choice and chance brought him to the Air Force and college, and finally made him the first black, tenured professor of sciences at Columbia University.

Kristen Gynne: What are some of the false conclusions about drugs you are challenging?:

KG:You talk about how people are always blaming problems on drugs, when those issues really spring from the stress of poverty. What are some examples?:

KG:What kinds of environmental factors matter?

CH: ..... If you have competing reinforcers or alternatives, like the ability to earn income, learn a skill, or receive some respect based on your performance in some sort of way, those things compete with potentially destructive behavior. And so as a psychologist, you just want to make sure people have a variety of potential reinforcers. If you don't have that, you increase the likelihood of people engaging in behaviors that society does not condone.

Skills that are employable or marketable, education, having a stake or meaningful role in society, not being marginalized—all of those things are very important. Instead of ensuring that all of our members have these things, our society has blamed drugs, said drugs are the reasons that people don't have a stake in society, and that's simply not true.

KG:What is actually responsible for problems often linked to drugs?

CH: Poverty. And there are policies that have played a role, too. Policies like placing a large percentage of our law enforcment resources in those communities, so that when people get charged with some petty crime, they have a blemish on their record that further decreases their ability to join mainstream, get a job that's meaningful, and that sort of thing.

KG:What would policy that reflects reality look like, and how do we get there?

CH: That is complex, but quite simple to start. The first thing is we decriminalize all drugs. More than 80% of people arrested for drugs are arrested for simple possession. Wen you decriminalize, now you have that huge number of people—we're talking 1.5 million people arrested every year—that no longer have that blemish on their record. That increases the likelihood that they can get jobs, participate in the mainstream........

Full article: http://www.alternet.org/drugs-addiction?sc=fb

[ms liberty]

17. Yes, he is awesome! Someone needs to recommend him to Bernie. n/t

[farleftlib]

19. Thanks for posting that

I'm really liking this guy. Treatment is so much more effective than incarceration and cheaper too. Not to mention humane.

[blackspade]

26. This deserves it's own OP!

[Kip Humphrey]

30. She'll say, "but we have to send a message."

I loved Bernie's retort, "exactly who are you sending a message to?"

[bravenak]

2. That only works on federal prisoners

Still need legislation in feds and state courts. I vote no on all judges as a rule unless I know they do not give long sentences to drug offenders.
We need to get a list going of the worst judges in each district and whichever other court offucials are elected and work on it. I'm down, I hate judge volland and voted no but he retired. I am voting no on all of the rest.

[tk2kewl]

5. Please visit n2doc's OP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1280116836

[bravenak]

6. I cannot post there, sorry

[tk2kewl]

7. Read the article. It lays out how it can be done.

[bravenak]

9. I just read it.

Highly unlikely is my assesment. To many coulds and ifs.

[firebrand80]

11. That article is nonsense

State Governors are going to do it just because Bernie did it? That's not a plan.

The minute one of those half a million plus prisoners commits a violent crime (and it will inevitably happen), there will be political hell to pay.

[tk2kewl]

12. did you speak with Govs Brown and Cuomo?

i guarantee one thing. if Bernie did it at the federal level there'd be heavy pressure aplied on the ground in NY and CA. but i do appreciate your Willie Horton argument.

[firebrand80]

13. Willie Horton would be nothing compared to this

And I don't know where you're getting the assumption that they'll be a political uprising in support of mass pardons. Criminal laws get tougher and tougher for a reason, because it's politically popular.

[tk2kewl]

14. you must not get out much

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. It proves Third Way types never get invited to the cool parties.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. Hillary stance on pot sucks big time

As does her DNC leader Debby.
As does Obama's choice for the DEA.

[bravenak]

10. I know

[Arazi]

3. +10 million!!!! So obvious eom

[AzDar]

15. The blind support of a corrupt and center-right candidate is nauseating...

" No, We CAN'T !!"...

[SammyWinstonJack]

37. +1000000

[Ferd Berfel]

18. Absolutly the correct thing to do

and regardless of the quantity involved!

[Duppers]

20. +100

Thank you.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. The ACLU says someone is arrested for simple possession of weed every 37 seconds.

[jalan48]

22. Absolutely. Alcohol is far more damaging to the brain and body.

But then, alcohol sales would probably drop if people started smoking weed.

[JDPriestly]

38. Yes. Plus the collateral damage, spousal and child abuse, murders,

auto accidents and many, many other accidents -- even just people falling in their homes -- are often associated with if not caused by alcohol use and abuse.

Alcohol can be a killer.

We don't hear about that so much because alcohol use is such a big part of our culture, but alcohol is associated with much criminal behavior.

If we tried a year in which we just discouraged people from choosing to use alcohol -- allowing everyone the choice, but educating people about what that choice really means for society -- I'd like to see whether that alone would reduce our crime rate.

Just wondering about this.

Thanks for the reminder.

I wonder if there isn't, somewhere, a foundation or wealthy individual who would sponsor a program, say in just one state like New Hampshire or Kentucky or New Mexico, to educate the people about the advantages of choosing not to drink alcohol. Then maybe we could find out what effect such a program would have on alcohol-related disease, accidents and crimes.

[bluestateguy]

23. If you are talking about what the president can do

yes, the president can pardon or commute marijuana prison sentences for people in federal prison.

But most marijuana prisoners are in state prisons, where the president has no control.

[blackspade]

24. It should be done now.

[Hoyt]

27. I think we have to go further than simple pot possession. I doubt there are very many folks in

prison for simple pot possession. We need to widen the pardonable offenses greatly. But we should not pardon very many who were caught with a significant amount of drugs while armed. We need to throw the book at the Bundy militia losers too.

[JDPriestly]

35. I agree on this, agree very much:

"But we should not pardon very many who were caught with a significant amount of drugs while armed."

I stand by the rest of my post, but we should try people who are armed and in possession of large amounts of drugs and imprison them if they are convicted of crimes.

[SmittynMo]

28. Look at all the downers posted here

It' all because of the establishment, which is so wrong on so many things. Pot is just another example.

Let the people out of jail and clean up their records. We need Bernie to reform the prison justice system. Big time!!! It's time to start over on a lot of things.

[6chars]

29. it would save taxpayers money

if humane isn't enough of a reason.

[jtuck004]

31. Friends of Bill Clinton's prison industry wouldn't like that.

The Clinton Dynasty's Horrific Legacy: More Drug War, More Prisons

Pandering to "tough on crime" politics and "war on drugs" rhetoric helped create the world's largest prison system. Has Hillary learned anything?
By Jeff Stein / Salon April 13, 2015

Hillary Clinton wants to run for president as an economic populist, as a humane progressive interested in bolstering the fortunes of poor and middle class Americans. But before liberals enthusiastically sign up for Team Hillary, they should remember this: In the late 1990s, Bill Clinton played in instrumental role in creating the world’s largest prison system — one that has devastated our inner cities, made a mockery of American idealism abroad, and continues to inflict needless suffering on millions of people. And he did it with his wife’s support.
...

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/clinton-dynasty-horrific-legacy-more-drug-war-more-prisons

I have told more than one politician I am through with them if they don't support ending this racist drug war. Any word that suggests otherwise puts them on the other side of the fence from me.

[SammyWinstonJack]

39. What a rotten legacy. How many voters are aware of this, I wonder.

[JDPriestly]

32. I agree, and addiction treatment should be a medical specialty.

We should have special care for drug addicts in our hospitals (not talking about marijuana as addictive, see below) -- maybe a special department or ward in very large hospitals -- and make sure that patients are assigned a general practitioner to whom they turn for the organization of a plan for addiction control and detox. Another reason for supporting universal, single payer healthcare coverage.

We should strongly encourage people who have problems with addiction whether food or heroin or Oxycontin to seek detox and assistance in ending their addiction when possible.

We need to approach the problem of addiction with all of our humanity up front and no punitive motives.

Of course, I have never heard of any evidence that marijuana is physically addictive. It is almost a crime on the part of society to put marijuana users in jail. We should deal with marijuana by learning more about it and then educating people about what we learn.

I think there are a lot of questions about how marijuana affects people's lives, but so far I don't think that we have identified any damage done to people by the use of marijuana that is as bad as the damage that imprisoning people for possessing or using it inflicts.

[99th_Monkey]

33. K&R nt

[bigwillq]

34. No one who is in possession of marijuana

whether buyer or seller should be in prison, unless a violent crime has been committed while buying or selling.

A simple possession, even in large quantities, should not warrant a jail sentence.

[AtomicKitten]

36. Of course and their criminal records should be expunged.

[efilon]

40. Just home from seeing Where To Invade Next

It's very thought provoking and makes you wonder how we can be so far behind most of the world socially. Showed prisons in Norway,quite different than what we see here. And they don't arrest anyone for drug possession.

[Hydra]

41. Legalization is the sane option, and letting everyone out of jail who is in for it

By that same token, because it's the right thing to do, the 1% will lose money on it.

They stand in the way of almost all progress in order to keep their power and privileged. It has to end.