Barack Obama’s selection of Eric Holder as his attorney general is a very discouraging sign for anyone who hoped the new administration would de-escalate the war on drugs. 

When Holder was U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.Holder pushed for stiffer marijuana penalties stating he is considering not only prosecuting more marijuana cases but also asking the D.C. Council to enact stiffer penalties for the sale and use of marijuana.

"We have too long taken the view that what we would term to be minor crimes are not important," Holder said, referring to current attitudes toward marijuana use and other offenses such as panhandling.

What does marijuana use have to do with panhandling? Is Holder high himself?

Now, people arrested in the District and charged with distributing marijuana, even large quantities, face only misdemeanor charges,and Holder want to increase the penalties.

When are United States legislators going to repeal the absurd laws against marijuana possession and use? It’s a fact the is is almost impossible to remove a bad law off of the books!

According to a December 1996 report in The Washington Times, Holder wanted "minimum sentences of 18 months for first-time convicted drug dealers, 36 months for the second time and 72 months for every conviction thereafter." He also wanted to "make the penalty for distribution and possession with intent to distribute marijuana a felony, punishable with up to a five-year sentence."

His rhetoric on the seriousness of marijuana offenses was indistinguishable from that of the most zealous Republican drug warrior when he was heard saying, “The truth of the matter is that marijuana is a significant problem for the city….Crack cocaine still drives most of the violence in this city, but marijuana violence is increasing. We need to nip it in the bud.”

BEWARE THE VIOLENT MARIJUANA USER RUNNING RAMPANT IN OUR STREETS! ……is Holder serious and should a person with so many misguided and antiquated ideas regarding criminal punishment by our next Attorney General?

NO F***ING WAY!

Ta-Nehisi Coates, in his post in The Atlantic’s blog summed it up best: I think the worst part of all this is you can bet that not a single Senator is going to question Holder about his views on the drug war. No one fucking cares. This thing is wreaking havoc on communities across the country.

Senator Obama has spoken out about drug war inequities during the course of this campaign. In an address at Howard University last fall he said the following:

 

"I think it’s time we also took a hard look at the wisdom of locking up some first-time, non-violent drug users for decades. Someone once said that ‘…long minimum sentences for first-time users may not be the best way to occupy jail space and/or heal people from their disease.’ That someone was George W. Bush - six years ago. I don’t say this very often, but I agree with the president. The difference is, he hasn’t done anything about it. When I’m president, I will. We will review these sentences to see where we can be smarter on crime and reduce the blind and counterproductive warehousing of non-violent offenders. And we will give first-time, non-violent drug offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior. So let’s reform this system. Let’s do what’s smart. Let’s do what’s just"

We can only hope that some semblance of sanity is restored regarding our attitude towards drugs and the failed war against them. The sad reality is the two things that are keeping the insanity alive…..fear and greed!

AROUND the BLOGOSPHERE:

NORML Blog » Blog Archive » So Far, Not So Good - It doesn’t look like you asked Emanuel, Holder, Biden, Vereen if their position has changed since Obama did say that he’d call off the DEA dogs from harassing medical marijuana users in states that have passed medical marijuana laws. …

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