'WAR ON DRUGS:' A FOUL TRAGEDY

We Democrats are at our worst when we try to emulate Republicans --
as we did in signing onto the "war" on drugs that has ruined so many
young lives.

The cruelty of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 is stark indeed, as
are the sentencing guidelines that impose mandatory minimum sentences
for minor drug possession -- guidelines in the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse
Act that sailed through Congress without benefit of public hearings,
drafted before an election by Democrats afraid to be labeled "soft on drugs."

As a result, a marijuana grower can land in prison for life without
parole while a murderer might be in for eight years. No rational
person can defend this; it is a Dostoevskian nightmare, and it exists
only because politicians fled in the face of danger.

That includes Bill Clinton, under whose administration the
prosecution of Americans for marijuana went up hugely, so that now
there are more folks in prison for marijuana than for violent crimes.
More than for manslaughter or rape. This only makes sense in the
fantasy world of Washington, where perception counts for more than
reality. To an old Democrat, who takes a ground view of politics --
What is the actual effect of this action on the lives of real people?
- -- it is a foul tragedy that makes you feel guilty about enjoying your freedom.

If suddenly on a Friday night the red lights flash and the cops yank
your teenage son and his little envelope of marijuana into the legal
meatgrinder and some bullet-headed prosecutor decides to flex his
muscle and charge your teenager -- because he had a .22 rifle in his
upstairs bedroom closet -- with a felony involving the use of a
firearm, which under our brutal sentencing code means he can be put
on ice for 20 years, and the prosecutor goes at him hammer and tong
and convinces a passive jury and your boy's life is sacrificed so
this creep can run for Congress next year -- this is not your cross
alone to bear. If the state cuts off your right hand with a meat
cleaver on my account and I don't object, then it is my cleaver and
my fingerprints on it.

I don't dare visit Sandstone Federal Prison here in Minnesota for
fear of what I'd see there: People who chose marijuana, a more benign
drug than alcohol, and got caught in the religious war that we
Democrats in a weak moment signed onto. God help us if we form
alliance with such bullies as would destroy a kid's life for raising
cannabis plants.