22.3 - Returning to the bad old days of the drug wars

Returning to the bad old days of the drug wars

Too racist to be a judge

In a memo to federal prosecutors made public on May 12, Attorney General Jeff "too racist to be a judge" Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to seek the maximum punishment for drug offenses, directing them to file "the most serious, readily provable" charges that carry the most substantial punishment, including mandatory minimum sentences.

This was after he spouted that hoary bit of doggerel, "Just say no," as if addiction were something you could just stop doing or as if dealing with the emotional pressures and stresses that lead to drug abuse and addiction is the same as deciding not to have that second doughnut.

It is a reversion to the worst of the bad old says of the utter failure that was the war on drugs.

How bad is it?

former recipient of the Clown Award

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget and former recipient of the Clown Award, is proposing cutting the budget of the Office of National Drug Control Policy by 95%, essentially eliminating it.

Now, a good part of what the agency does involves law enforcement: coordinating with police and so on. But another good part of what it does is public-education campaigns and even more importantly sharing and disseminating information and resources on drug treatment.

We're losing more people to opioid overdose right now than we lost to AIDS at the height of the epidemic - but all these dimwitted buffoons can think of is "lock 'em up."

One light note in all this: The compromise bill to fund the government through September includes an extension of a provision that bars the Department of Justice from going after marijuana growers, sellers, and users in places that have legalized medical marijuana. Which I bet has Jeffey-boy steaming.