"I saw at close range the failure of the U.S. War on Drugs, with absurd sentences, (including 20 years for marijuana offences, although 42% of Americans have used marijuana and it is the greatest cash crop in California.) A trillion dollars have been spent, a million easily replaceable small fry are in prison, and the targeted substances are more available and of better quality than ever, while producing countries such as Colombia and Mexico are in a state of civil war.
I had seen at close range the injustice of sentences one hundred times more severe for crack cocaine than for powder cocaine, a straight act of discrimination against African-Americans, that even the first black president and attorney general have only ameliorated with tepid support for a measure, still being debated, to reduce the disparity of sentence from 100 to one to 18 to one."
Conrad Black on his time in prison:
http://bit.ly/czVmzQ
1 comment:
I wonder whether he used his famous grasp of logic to put together the link between policies he has spent a lifetime advocating in organs such as the National Post and the disparity and injustice he witnessed firsthand in an American prison.
Sadly, probably not.
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