The Most Important Piece of Legislation In Government

From Senator Jim Webb:

The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, introduced by Senator Jim Webb on March 26, 2009, will create a blue-ribbon commission charged with undertaking an 18-month, top-to-bottom review of our entire criminal justice system. Its task will be to propose concrete, wide ranging reforms designed to responsibly reduce the overall incarceration rate; improve federal and local responses to international and domestic gang violence; restructure our approach to drug policy; improve the treatment of mental illness; improve prison administration; and establish a system for reintegrating ex-offenders.


While I am wholly convinced that this commission will no doubt endorse marijuana's legalization, in most discussions pertaining to this bill, the legalization of marijuana has been carefully left out of the discussion, in fact, in the bill itself, marijuana is only mentioned once. Sec 2.10:

Despite high incarceration rates for drug-related offenses, illicit drug availability remains consistent. 86 percent of high school students report that it is `very easy' or `fairly easy' to obtain marijuana. 47 percent report the same for cocaine, 39 percent for crack, and 27 percent for heroin.


Instead the focus is on finding better ways to deal with non-violent offenders and cracking down on gangs. It doesn't take an anti-prohibitionist to realize that this is a roundabout way of ending the War on Drugs and replacing it with a sensible alternative. I'll be following this as it moves along.

Stay High,
-Reggie