United Liberty

In today’s Wall Street Journal, there was an article written by Gary Fields titled Shorter Sentences Sought for Crack. The gist of the article is that the Obama Administration has told Congress that they favor equal penalties for crack and powder cocaine. Right now if you have five hundred grams of crack cocaine on you, you will be given a minimum sentence of five years. The same minimum goes for those who have only five grams on them.

I applaud the Obama Administration in this step towards equality (and towards what I believe should be the ultimate goal, ending the failed war on drugs). Some teenager may have just got in with the wrong crowd and be caught with five or six grams of crack cocaine, yet would be given that five year minimum prison sentence. Does that really make sense?

One statistic that is used in the article is the fact that more than 52% of the federal prison systems 204,000 inmates are serving time for drug crimes. Worth the taxpayer dollars? I would disagree. Plus, I see the current prison system as dysfunctional and grossly ineffective.

So here it is: I support this decision, President Obama! I don’t get to say it often, but I will say it whenever I have reason to.