Very, very few people are in prison for mere possession (of a personal use amount). And if they're in jail, it's for a brief period. Hell, my guess is that they're not even arresting marijuana users in California, much less jailing them.
We are not locking up mere users "to serve five or 10 or 20 years in prison". Those are the hardcore, scumbag drug dealers and traffickers who, IMO, belong there.
Thank you...who cares whether or not President Bush used in the past? I certainly don't. Why should it matter whether or not he is using NOW, provided that he does so responsibly & respects the rights of others?
I used to smoke cigarettes for 19 yrs...I quit a lil over 2 yrs ago, & if you wanna discuss withdrawal symptoms, THAT is an addiction I wish I had never gone thru. It took almost 5 months for me to begin to feel confident that I wasn't a nicotine addict anymore, & the process was a complete hell to deal w/. (due to the major stomach cramps, headaches, sleeping pattern disturbance, lack of appetite...). Makes me wonder why tobacco is legal.
No, Conason does NOT have a valid point, because he failed to write this column during the eight years of the Clinton "presidency". EVERYONE knows that Clinton did drugs. Only the American Left "knows" that "Bush did cocaine". Writing this column during the Clinton regime could have made a difference for the "unjustly incarcerated". Since he failed to write it then, this column is merely for political points, just like a "growing numbers of homeless" column.
Conason is a joke.
Do you understand my point?