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Posted on 12/28/2014 12:57:39 PM PST by SoConPubbie
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While there are certainly areas that need improvement, I would not agree with everything here. I also think it sounds like many of the supporters ultimately want to get rid of all drug laws. That would be unwise.
It is tragic when someone is jailed on drug offenses when the issue is drug addiction. I would prefer sentences of treatment rather than jail. One thing jail should do FOR them is force them to be off the drugs for a time.
Until you have seen a life destroyed by drug addiction you can’t really know the depth of the addict’s need.
As for representation, Charles Koch makes a good point. He has been sued relentlessly. He fortunately can afford it. But not very many people can. Even in family law, sometimes the winner is simply the person with the most money.
Our judicial system is constantly under attack by greedy people suing like they plunk in quarters in a slot machine and by political losers trying to force their will on the republic via judicial fiat. Read the news and flip through the “attorney” section of the yellow pages and you will easily see who is winning: not the good guys.
Doesn’t sound like a federal issue to me, unless fed offenses are involved, many of which should be left to the states.
You'd think that good libertarians like the Koch brothers would know that.
Conservative mega-donor Charles Koch says reforming the criminal justice system to make it more fair to the “disadvantaged” will be a major one of his priorities in 2015 …The Koch brothers call themselves libertarian, not conservative.
If you could properly poll the American public, you’d find their single biggest concern is that of their personal safety (and their loved ones).
They don’t want to be killed, maimed, mollested, raped or robbed under physical threat. More specifically, they don’t want to be the victim of violent crime.
These crimes should be assigned the harshest of punishments, but this isn’t always the case.
Eight weeks ago, Harry Reid and the Democrat Party were running national ads attacking the Koch Brothers.
The Koch Brothers have supported Amnesty for years.
They have supported Leftist PBS programming for years.
Now, Charles Koch is calling for reduced prison sentences and fewer prosecutions, which means just one thing - more violent Black males wandering the streets, but not in the Koch Brother's neighborhood, just in our neighborhoods.
Boehner, McConnell, McCain, the Bush Family, the Koch Bothers...
The GOP is doomed.
I have forwarded this to some of my liberal friends...Freepers should forward this to others to dispel the myth of conservatives being racists.
I don’t really see Washington as the owner of a terribly legitimate domestic criminal justice system to reform.
It is when you get down to it inherently dangerous to leave Washington with any kind of army to enforce domestic edict using authority they dont justly have.
Perhaps state level reforms to make punishments better fit the crime. But there doest seem to be much point to reforms of Federal domestic pental codes except to dumb down it, particular in regard to IRS ‘crimes’ IE Obamacare pentiltiy.
The problem is that we don't really know how to effectively treat addiction.
Here's a site all in favor of "treatment." It has "relapse rates" at 40% to 60%.
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/frequently-asked-questions/how-effective-drug-addiction-treatment
Rand Paul's immigration speech...The Republican Party must embrace more legal immigration.[Posted on 03/19/2013 7:04:07 AM PDT by Perdogg]
Unfortunately, like many of the major debates in Washington, immigration has become a stalemate-where both sides are imprisoned by their own rhetoric or attachment to sacred cows that prevent the possibility of a balanced solution.
Immigration Reform will not occur until Conservative Republicans, like myself, become part of the solution. I am here today to begin that conversation.
Let's start that conversation by acknowledging we aren't going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants.
If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you...
This is where prudence, compassion and thrift all point us toward the same goal: bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society.
Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors.
Rand Paul calls on conservatives to embrace immigration reformLatinos, should be a natural constituency for the party, Paul argued, but "Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration." ...he would create a bipartisan panel to determine how many visas should be granted for workers already in the United States and those who might follow... [and the buried lead] "Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers...[Posted on 04/21/2013 1:52:42 PM PDT by SoConPubbie]
[but he's not in favor of amnesty, snicker, definition of is is]
With all the hollering about people in jail for non-violent drug crimes, an important issue is often forgotten.
In quite a few cases, a person is arrested for a violent crime, but prosecuted for the drugs they had on them.
Easier for the prosecution to prove in court than the underlying offense, so they plea bargain to the drug charge.
I have no idea how often this is the case, but I do know that the crime of which a person is convicted is not necessarily the only crime they have committed.
Well 40% to 60% means 40% to 60% are helped. There are some who, once addicted, never recover. So then focus on prevention. It seems to me that broad legalization would not in any way help on the prevention end of it.
I sat in a courtroom waiting to hear a relatives case and listened to a case of a very young womn who was standing before the judge for the second or third time on a drug charge. She was making promises that she probably was going to be unable to keep. So what, just let her go an overdoes? Honestly the financial drain on the public health system is probably far greater than on the legal system. Drugs are terrorism in chemical form.
How many violent crimes have some connection to drugs?
I am not saying the sentences may not be too harsh. I would have to look at specifics to give an opinion. I am saying that once hooked, druggies are moths drawn to flames. They will return and return and return and return. I think it is important to not just go from one failed solution to a bigger one.
My moth drawn to flame comparison is assuming the moth even gets a second chance. The flame may fry him the first time, the second time, or later, but it will fry him.
I don’t disagree.
“Treatment” doesn’t work in the way people who promote it seem to think.
Incarceration and the WOD certainly doesn’t “work.”
I sincerely doubt legalization of most (certainly all) drugs would work as well as libertarians want to think.
So what we have here is a huge giant problem we don’t really have any effective way to deal with. Possibly a solution could start with recognizing that fact. Rather than pretending one of the methods above is a solution.
I think it is a myth that extremely large numbers of prisoners are incarcerated for drug use. Now it's probably true a large percentage of prisoners are drug users. Also, it is a common practice for criminals to have their poroles violated for drug use.
A great many, but virtually all of them are connected to drugs by way of trade in said drugs being illegal, and thus given over to criminals who cannot resort to the courts to settle disputes, are unrestrained by the law from seeking to establish monopolies, and both settle disputes and establish local monopolies by resort to violence.
Compare the amount of violence associated with alcohol during Prohibition with that both prior and after. There may have been a drop in the number of bar fights involving drunks during Prohibition, but I suspect you'll find that the drop in fatalities from bar fights was more than offset by the the number of deaths from criminal syndicates defending their rum-running turf, once rigorous enforcement drove the mom-and-pop rum-runners on the Great Lakes out of business and turned the whole trade over to large-scale, ruthless, organized criminals.
Matt and I both know folks who have served 20 or 25 plus years for pot smuggling
No violence in their jacket
Several with life ...natural RUD life.....sentences
I know young black men with 20 year sentences for relatively small amounts of crack
The irony being black leaders originally clamored for crack enhanced guidelines
In 1984 we passed the SGA in GOP Congress and implemented in 1987
Some draconian..... to say the least
Some Freepers would prefer more...
Some say roll back some
We jail more than anyone this side of Russia
My biggest issue is the continual increase in criminalizing gun ownership
I think 20% of male adults are infringed to some degree
I don’t think there was more crime during Prohibition, just different crime. As for deaths, alcohol related deaths — from over consumption to drunk driving to impaired judgment — would surely be higher after.
Drug induced behavior is what I mean. Many criminals are high on drugs when the crime occurs. Even if legal, drugs still corrupt judgment.
There are many crimes that one could use the argument: No one would be arrested if this were not illegal. That’s a given because the crime would cease to be a crime. It doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be a crime.
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