Saturday, December 1, 2007

How political decisions are made This is such an amazingly spot-on description of how politicians make decisions related to the drug war... Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is pressing ahead with plans to create mandatory minimum prison terms for drug crimes in spite of two studies prepared for his own department that say such laws don't work, and are increasingly unpopular as crime-fighting measures in other countries. "Minimum sentences are not an effective sentencing tool: that is, they constrain judicial discretion without offering any increased crime-prevention benefits. Nevertheless, mandatory sentences remain popular with some Canadian politicians." It costs a lot and it doesn't work. Let's do it! 7:36:38 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

How America Lost the War on Drugs Ben Wallace-Wells' extensive article in Rolling Stone chronicles a litany of failures in the modern age of the war on drugs -- failures of politics, judgement, and personality. While I'm not sure I agree with all of Wallace-Wells' assumptions (such as whether, if smarter decisions had been made, significant "victories" in the war on drugs would have been possible), the article is an essential primer for understanding this war. 11:14:25 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []