Posted on 04/21/2014 8:55:47 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
....Thousands and thousands of people like [the woman described above].are serving punishingly long sentences in federal prison based on draconian policies that were a relic of the "tough on crime" antidrug laws of the '80s and '90s. Thirty years after skyrocketing urban violence and drug use sparked politicians to impose longer and longer sentences for drug crimes, America now incarcerates a higher rate of its population than any other country in the world. This dubious record has finally provoked a bipartisan backlash against such stiff penalties. The old laws are slowly being repealed.
Now, in his final years in office, Obama has trained his sights on prisoners like Scrivner, and wants to use his previously dormant pardon power as part of a larger strategy to restore fairness to the criminal-justice system. A senior administration official tells Yahoo News the president could grant clemency to "hundreds, perhaps thousands" of people locked up for nonviolent drug crimes by the time he leaves office — a stunning number that hasn't been seen since Gerald Ford extended amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers in the 1970s.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Me too. Put me on your enemies list also.
See post 20.
You did once — didn’t work out too well for you.
Locking people up for drug use was never right. Conservatives should oppose that and the usurpation of our rihts by the so called war ondrugs. Even if they vote demonratic they should still be released.
It is hard for any of us law and order pro military if you don’t like it you can leave conservatives to accept that the police are now an instrument of political enforcement of laws and our military will soon be an adjunct to leftist causes everywhere.
Who do you think you are fooling appealing to “moder_ator”?
? Why do you think I am trying to “fool” anyone?
I have seen families and lives ruined by drug use. I differ. As far as the Constitution goes, states via the 10th amendment are permitted to govern themselves...
The problem with a mass release of felons via federal fiat is that the rule of law is undermined...that is how I see it.
Taking a few egregious examples and pardoning those folks might be advisable, but a mass exit is madness.
“Locking people up for drug use was never right. Conservatives should oppose that and the usurpation of our rihts by the so called war ondrugs. Even if they vote demonratic they should still be released.”
Nobody is in prison just for drug use! That is just propaganda from liberals that bring out that debunked talking point.
Anyone that was busted for using drugs and sent to prison,...already had a rap sheet a mile long, or was out on parole and was busted with drugs and sent back.
Remove all the career criminals and drug traffickers, and nobody is in prison for using drugs.
Aw, I don’t have enemies, buddy. Just friends who sometimes praise Obama. Like you. :-)
Good for you, let them live in your neighborhood. This thug culture is killing our small towns and costing our towns the safety we had with the enforcement of laws. All the clown is doing is like what has been said on these post, lining up more low brow votes.
The Great Choom Pardon of 2016?
You are right! I just retired from the being a prison guard. Never had a crook in there that was given a sentence for smoking a joint, they are being picked up for trafficing and destroying children with their “goods”.
Some are on parole for armed robbery etc, and wind up being set back for drug possession, but it is just liberal BS to say they are there just for using drugs.
It just doesn’t happen.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Contraband law is inherently Tyrannical.
Contraband law has been used to justify massive violation of the Fourth Amendment. In fact, it really can't be enforced any other way.
If anybody, drug user or not, commits a actual crime of force or fraud, then I say prosecute them for it.
But NOBODY belongs in prison for possessing the wrong plant, medicine, or recreational chemical.
The overtly authoritarian prohibitionist mind is no different than any leftist "well meaning", nanny-state Tyranny-for-our-own-good mindset.
Trampling the Fourth Amendment is a corollary of Prohibition. As long as prohibition exists, so too will all the evils which flow from it, unconstitutional and otherwise.
I much prefer the "evils" which result from the challenging, scary concept called Freedom.
I hear what you are saying...and it definitely is worth considering.
Do you think the Founders were considering this when they created the Fourth amendment? I always thought it was about concerns other than medicinal and recreational drugs.
The states, too, may find a reason to keep their locales free of drug use; do you think the 10th amendment gives them a reasonable latitude to govern themselves the way they see fit?
Behaviours and activities and that are manifestly evident of illegal activity ought to curbed, don’t you think? You say contraband law “has” been used to justify violations of the Constitution, and you are correct, but are there ANY instances where you can think that contraband law is acceptable? To put it antoher way: Does the constitution HAVE to be violated in order to enforce contraband law?
By the way, you have, imo, been the most reasonable poster of someone who disagrees with me on this thread. :)
The Choom Gang takes care of their dealers.
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