Category Archives: War On Drugs

CARSON CITY Nevadas war on drugs may be getting a makeover.

Assembly Bill 438 would put in place reduced penalties for offenses tied to controlled substances. Conflict over the measure is centered on the question of whether Americas decades-long war on drugs is working, and if Nevada should rethink its approach.

The war on drugs has been long and exhausting, and were not seeing any changes, Assemblyman Edgar Flores, D-Las Vegas, the bills sponsor, told the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Flores said Nevada has tougher drug penalties than the feds and stressed the need for low-level offenders to get treatment instead of prison time.

The bill has drawn support from public defenders and opposition from the Metropolitan Police Department. Supporters say a new approach is needed to provide treatment for addicts, pointing to Nevadas high incarceration rates.

The intent of this discussion and why were here today is me asking the state of Nevada to look at non-violent offenders who have flooded our prisons and we ask ourselves: Is that working? Flores said.

A spokesman for Metro, however, said sellers, not addicts have large amounts of drugs and called the bill a drug dealers dream come true.

The bill has a provision that provides a defense for someone who has been forced to engage in drug trafficking. Under the bill, possessing less than one gram of a drug would be a misdemeanor, with the exception of date rape drugs.

Penalties change

Lawmakers heard about the states drug laws from John Piro of the Clark County Public Defenders office. The existing structure, Piro said, is unfair, unworkable and does not give the judge any discretion.

Piro said the bill would put discretion back where it belongs with a judge.

State law does not require proof that the drugs were manufactured or intended to be trafficked for a trafficking conviction. The law also does not make a distinction regarding the type of drugs involved.

Currently, low-level drug trafficking is a felony with one to six years in prison for the possession of four to 14 grams of drugs. Mid-level trafficking, for possession of 14 to 28 grams of drugs, is a category B felony punishable by two to 15 years in prison. High-level trafficking involves 28 grams of drugs and is punishable by mandatory prison sentences of 10 years to life or 10 to 25 years.

Opposition and concerns

Chuck Callaway, representing Metro, urged lawmakers to reconsider. He said the department wants addicts to get help, but it has concerns about the rising violence tied to drug trafficking. About 20 percent of the murders this year in Clark County are drug-related, he said.

Callaway called the bill a drug dealers dream come true and noted that rather than saying the war on drugs has failed, its important to look for solutions.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-0661. Follow @BenBotkin1 on Twitter.

CHANGING PENALTIES

Assembly Bill 438 would create a framework for Nevada that would change the penalty for drug possession charge. The penalties would be:

A gram is about the same amount as whats in a packet of sugar.

Read more:

Measure aims for makeover of Nevada's war on drugs - Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Philippine ambassador to the United Kingdom, Antonio Lagdameo, has a unique perspective on the murderous war on drugs launched by President Rodrigo Duterte in mid-2016.

Members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives search the area during their anti-drug operaitons in Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines March 16, 2017.

2017 Reuters

In a letter published on Monday in the Guardian newspaper, Lagdameo asserted that Dutertes relentless campaign against illegal drugs is being waged with firm adherence to the rule of law, due process, and human rights.

If only.

In fact, since Duterte took office on June 30, 2016, police and unidentified gunmen have killed more than 7,000 suspected drug users and drug dealers. That death toll doesnt include the drug war victims Duterte calls collateral damage children killed by stray police bullets. Human Rights Watch research has turned the official narrative on its head: the 3,603 killings the police attribute to vigilantes and drug gangs are nothing more than a strategy to shield police and police agents from culpability in death squad-style extrajudicial killings.

Lagdameos statement doesnt just underscore his willful disregard of the brutality of Dutertes drug war. It also suggests he is unaware or unwilling to publicly acknowledge how Duterte has maderepeated calls for killings as part of his anti-drug campaign, which could constitute acts instigating law enforcement to commit murder. His statements encouraging the general population to commit vigilante violence could be criminal incitement.

The fact that Dutertes killing campaign has largely targeted urban slum dwellers could amount to crimes against humanity, as defined by the International Criminal Court, of which the Philippines is a member. On March 26, Duterte admitted that impoverished Filipinos constituted a large percentage of drug war victims and sought to justify those killings on the basis that he needed to clean up the Philippines.

But Lagdameo isnt the only Philippine official publicly soft-pedalling the appalling human toll of Dutertes drug campaign. On Monday, Philippine National Police Director-General Ronald dela Rosa declared that the 107 suspected drug users and drug dealers shot dead by police between March 6 and April 10 were proof the drug war was becoming less bloody. But dela Rosa has consistently resisted calls for an independent inquiry into the total 2,662 killings attributed to the police since July 1, 2016 by declaring it would harm police morale.

Filipinos deserve accountability for the human rights calamity that Duterte has unleashed on their country in the guise of a war on drugs, not cynical spin by diplomats and senior government officials.

Read the original here:

The Philippines' Cynical Apologists for Duterte's Brutal 'Drug War' - Human Rights Watch

For all the foolishness that's come out of Camp Runamuck since it opened its D.C. satellite camp in January, the appointment of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as the nation's top cop may well go down in history as the worst of it. (Although Scott Pruitt at EPA may give JeffBo a run for his money.) It is now conventional wisdom that one of the worst mistakes the country ever made was launching its idiotic, wasteful "war"on drugs. In the three decades in which this "war" has been waged, we have lost two generations of African-Americans to the prison system, shaved the Bill of Rights down to a nub, tied the hands of the judiciary, and, finally, made not an appreciable dent in the problem of drug use and drug addiction. We have blessed ourselves with private prisons and militarized police forces, so there is that.

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Prior to the ascension of President* Trump, there was a strong, evolving, and bipartisan consensus that it was time to call a truce on the "war" we were making on our own citizens. The country was getting sensible about marijuana and mandatory minimum sentences at the same time; conservatives abandoned simplistic law 'n order coding and hopped on the bandwagon of criminal justice reform; in many cases, they took the wheel on it. And, at least rhetorically, the response to the opioid crisis was more reasoned and measured than the response to the crisis of crack cocaine wasand the reasons for that are worth exploring. But nobody wants to, least of all JeffBo. Over the weekend, we learned that this brief, fragile truce had ended.

From The Washington Post:

Law enforcement officials say that Sessions and Cook are preparing a plan to prosecute more drug and gun cases and pursue mandatory minimum sentences. The two men are eager to bring back the national crime strategy of the 1980s and '90s from the peak of the drug war, an approach that had fallen out of favor in recent years as minority communities grappled with the effects of mass incarceration. Crime is near historic lows in the United States, but Sessions says that the spike in homicides in several cities, including Chicago, is a harbinger of a "dangerous new trend" in America that requires a tough response.

This Cook fellow seems to have a real hangman's view of the human conditionor, at least, the condition of humans who don't look like him. He also has a real gift for unintentional irony.

"The federal criminal justice system simply is not broken. In fact, it's working exactly as designed," Cook said at a criminal justice panel at The Washington Post last year.

I'll bet it is.

(To his credit, a federal judge in Baltimore has already kicked ol' JeffBo where the sun don't shine.)

What We Saw This Week Was Truly Unprecedented

Of course, the great body of the Republican Party is scared chicken of the issue, which makes those few sincere Republicans pushing criminal justice reform all the more remarkable. One of the latter is decidedly not Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

After GOP lawmakers became nervous about passing legislation that might seem soft on crime, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. "Sessions was the main reason that bill didn't pass," said Inimai M. Chettiar, the director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "He came in at the last minute and really torpedoed the bipartisan effort."

That's OK, because JeffBo has a couple of old standbys standing by.

Still, Sessions's remarks on the road reveal his continued fascination with an earlier era of crime fighting. In the speech in Richmond, he said, "Psychologically, politically, morally, we need to say as Nancy Reagan said 'Just say no.'"

And, of course, from a speech he gave in Richmond not long ago.

"When you fight crime you have to fight it where it is, and you may have at some point an impact of a racial nature that we hate to see. But if it's done properly it's the right thing."

Of course, what can possibly go wrong?

Why Jeff Sessions Is So Uniquely Dangerous

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Jeff Sessions Suggests You Just Say Yes to the War on Drugs - Esquire.com

WNYC

A Return to the War on Drugs; What's in the New York State Budget?; Pulitzer-Winning Reporting; John Waters Says ... WNYC The Obama administration may have launched criminal justice reforms to reduce long prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders, but the new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, has plans to return to the crime fighting strategy of the so-called "war on ...

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A Return to the War on Drugs; What's in the New York State Budget?; Pulitzer-Winning Reporting; John Waters Says ... - WNYC

JALANDHAR: The war against drugs is making cops dust off old files pertaining to habitual offenders, and to their surprise most of the cases against these history sheeters are pertaining to drug trafficking. Making it mandatory for station house officers (SHO) to make entries in their own hand in a particular register at the police station has led to opening of history sheets of 369 drug peddlers in six districts of Jalandhar zone in the last four months.

The campaign to open history sheets on the basis of cases already registered against criminals was started from December 1 and already over 700 history sheets have been opened and over half of them face cases under the NDPS Act.

Sources said that several of these 369 persons with criminal record have serious criminal charges apart from drug peddling. Before this practice of basic policing was enforced in the last week of November last year, there were only 163 persons in all these six districts whose history sheets were opened by the police. It is learnt that all those against whom history sheets have been opened now had five or more cases registered against each of them but were not in the bad character (BC) list due to lapses in basic police practices. The BC list has names of those persons whose history sheets are maintained by the police.

It is learnt that even as maintaining Register No. 12 - in which a police station is supposed to maintain complete record about cases registered against a resident of the area under its jurisdiction even if the cases are registered at other places also - is an old practice but it was not being followed properly at police stations and history sheets of several of the habitual criminals were not being opened.

However, Jalandhar zone IG L K Yadav over four months back issued orders fixing responsibility of SHOs in making entries in their own hand in Register No. 12 about information regarding cases against criminals who happen to be residents of the areas under their jurisdiction. A few SHOs even faced action after they failed to strictly comply with the directions.

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War on drugs make history sheeters feel the heat | Chandigarh ... - Times of India

It was hard to tell whether Australias Federal Police authorities, along with their Victorian colleagues, were gloating at their latest effort. Thrilled at the unearthing of a stash of methamphetamine, a form of it colloquially known as ice, trumpeted as the biggest seizure in Australian history, there was a sense of achievement. They had gotten one up on the drugs gangs, inflicting a blow to the narcotics trade. Celebrate!

Such celebrations, however, are misplaced. For one, they seemed to follow similar celebrations in February, when $1 billion worth of liquid methamphetamine, concealed in gel push-up bra inserts, were uncovered.

Do these seizures suggest that the police and various enforcement authorities are gaining the upper hand, or perhaps foot dragging before ever enterprising and novel ways of adding to the narcotics market?

A stash of 903 kg of methamphetamines is certainly a remarkable quantity, secreted in boxes of wooden floorboards in an inconspicuous part of east Melbourne. We located 70 boxes of floorboards, chirped AFP assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan. In each of them was concealed between the floorboards two kilograms of methamphetamine.

But this suggests that there might well be much more, a drugs economy that is thriving in a hot house of high demand. Even Justice Minister Michael Keenan has conceded this point, noting that Australia has become one of the most lucrative markets for drug trade in the western world.

Tones of scolding severity duly follow when the phenomenon of drugs consumption is examined, notably among the researchers most interested in those habits of gradual yet mesmerising decay. There is no doubt Australia has a culture, especially among our young people, which does not see the taking of illicit substances or binge drinking as particularly detrimental to the health, claimed Professor Harvey Whiteford of the University of Queensland in 2013.

The police also annotate such findings with their suspicions about the inner drug devil in many an Australian. As Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Smith of the New South Wales Drug Squads Chemical Operation Unit claims with a Presbyterian fury, 1.3 million people in Australia have tried ice. Some of your friends and members of your family would have to have tried ice. The horror, the horror.

Last month, researchers released findings after examining, somewhat unglamorously, wastewater across 51 sites only to find that methylamphetamine was the most consumed illicit drug in the country. It topped the premier league table of items, beating a range of other contenders such as heroin and cocaine.

For such reasons, this is a battle, if not a poorly described war, that is unwinnable against basic human wishes and market demand. Experimentation and temptation is all, and the world of testing is becoming more diverse than ever. Law and medical authorities are desperate to stifle the interest, and are failing. The central problem is the nagging obsession with drugs as a matter of law and order.

Those participating in the market know this better than anybody else. Even Gaughan concedes with detectable admiration that the methods of novelty in this case on the part of the drug traders were considerable. (One has to beef up the opposition to show your own efforts are worthwhile.) You can appreciate the concealment method used in this particular activity is quite complex, quite unique. It wasnt something we had seen previously. The sentiment is often noted.

The battle against drugs was lost in the United States at enormous cost, becoming a continental affair of devastating consequences to security and welfare. Other countries, lagging in efforts to legalise certain drugs and attempts to control the narcotics market, find themselves at the losing end. Warring against desire and instinct eventually unravels. The cartels, and those connected with the prison industrial complex, profit.

It is precisely for such reasons that Portugal decriminalised the use of all drugs, whatever their rank of severity, in 2001. The result? Portugal has 3 drug overdose deaths for every million citizens. The EU average, by way of contrast, is 17.3 per million.

In Australia, a few politicians have decided to shift the emphasis. The Greens leader, Senator Richard Di Natale, himself a former drugs and alcohol doctor, convinced his party in 2016 to abandon absolute opposition to the legalisation of illicit drugs. Its time we recognise this as a health problem not a law and order one. We have to have an open, honest conversation about this and stop pretending were winning this war.

Whether it is the heavy hand of the law, or some clumsy variant of it, the campaign against drugs is simply going the way of those who cash in on it, a vast sprawl of vested interests. In the end, the very existence of the police and the enforcement complex thrives on such spectacles, on the illusion of safety and security. As this happens, sickness prevails as the money runs out the door.

In the meantime, lawyers and members of the public will be treated to the picture of overly enthusiastic ministers and police commissioners keen to get the message across that arrests are taking place and drugs seized with dedicated efficiency. During such a process, the rule of law is bound to take a battering, not least of all the presumption of innocence. Grainy images of various suspected figures are already doing the rounds through the papers.

The ministers traffic in votes and illusions, and finding drugs provides a false incentive for both. What is needed, as The Age editorial surmised in November last year, is a policy in favour of a harm minimisation strategy based on decriminalisation, regulation and education. Paramilitary approaches should be ditched, and resources channelled into health. Portugal, not the United States, should be seen as the model here.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

Scoop Media

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Ice and Busts: The Lost War on Drugs in Australia - Scoop.co.nz (press release)

Like most wars, the war on drugs has many combatants and many casualties.

On Tuesday, law enforcement officials and recovery leaders are scheduled to gatherat the Shelbyville Boys Club, 710 S. Miller Ave.,in a public forum to raise awareness of the issue locally and whats being done about it.

An online service is needed to view this article in its entirety. You need an online service to view this article in its entirety.

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Go here to read the rest:

War on Drugs focus of latest Town Hall - Shelby News: Local News - Shelbynews

It was hard to tell whether Australias Federal Police authorities, along with their Victorian colleagues, were gloating at their latest effort. Thrilled at the unearthing of a stash of methamphetamine, a form of it colloquially known as ice, trumpeted as the biggest seizure in Australian history, there was a sense of achievement. They had gotten one up on the drugs gangs, inflicting a blow to the narcotics trade. Celebrate!

Such celebrations, however, are misplaced. For one, they seemed to follow similar celebrations in February, when $1 billion worth of liquid methamphetamine, concealed in gel push-up bra inserts, were uncovered.

Do these seizures suggest that the police and various enforcement authorities are gaining the upper hand, or perhaps foot dragging before ever enterprising and novel ways of adding to the narcotics market?

A stash of 903 kg of methamphetamines is certainly a remarkable quantity, secreted in boxes of wooden floorboards in an inconspicuous part of east Melbourne. We located 70 boxes of floorboards, chirped AFP assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan. In each of them was concealed between the floorboards two kilograms of methamphetamine.

But this suggests that there might well be much more, a drugs economy that is thriving in a hot house of high demand. Even Justice Minister Michael Keenan has conceded this point, noting that Australia has become one of the most lucrative markets for drug trade in the western world.

Tones of scolding severity duly follow when the phenomenon of drugs consumption is examined, notably among the researchers most interested in those habits of gradual yet mesmerising decay.

There is no doubt Australia has a culture, especially among our young people, which does not see the taking of illicit substances or binge drinking as particularly detrimental to the health, claimed Professor Harvey Whiteford of the University of Queensland in 2013.

The police also annotate such findings with their suspicions about the inner drug devil in many an Australian. As Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Smith of the New South Wales Drug Squads Chemical Operation Unit claims with a Presbyterian fury, 1.3 million people in Australia have tried ice. Some of your friends and members of your family would have to have tried ice. The horror, the horror.

Last month, researchers released findings after examining, somewhat unglamorously, wastewater across 51 sites only to find that methylamphetamine was the most consumed illicit drug in the country. It topped the premier league table of items, beating a range of other contenders such as heroin and cocaine.

For such reasons, this is a battle, if not a poorly described war, that is unwinnable against basic human wishes and market demand. Experimentation and temptation is all, and the world of testing is becoming more diverse than ever. Law and medical authorities are desperate to stifle the interest, and are failing. The central problem is the nagging obsession with drugs as a matter of law and order.

Those participating in the market know this better than anybody else. Even Gaughan concedes with detectable admiration that the methods of novelty in this case on the part of the drug traders were considerable. (One has to beef up the opposition to show your own efforts are worthwhile.)

You can appreciate the concealment method used in this particular activity is quite complex, quite unique. It wasnt something we had seen previously.

The sentiment is often noted.

The battle against drugs was lost in the United States at enormous cost, becoming a continental affair of devastating consequences to security and welfare. Other countries, lagging in efforts to legalise certain drugs and attempts to control the narcotics market, find themselves at the losing end. Warring against desire and instinct eventually unravels. The cartels, and those connected with the prison industrial complex, profit.

It is precisely for such reasons that Portugal decriminalised the use of all drugs, whatever their rank of severity, in 2001. The result? Portugal has 3 drug overdose deaths for every million citizens. The EU average, by way of contrast, is 17.3 per million.

In Australia, a few politicians have decided to shift the emphasis. The Greens leader, Senator Richard Di Natale, himself a former drugs and alcohol doctor, convinced his party in 2016 to abandon absolute opposition to the legalisation of illicit drugs.

Its time we recognise this as a health problem not a law and order one. We have to have an open, honest conversation about this and stop pretending were winning this war.

Whether it is the heavy hand of the law, or some clumsy variant of it, the campaign against drugs is simply going the way of those who cash in on it, a vast sprawl of vested interests. In the end, the very existence of the police and the enforcement complex thrives on such spectacles, on the illusion of safety and security. As this happens, sickness prevails as the money runs out the door.

In the meantime, lawyers and members of the public will be treated to the picture of overly enthusiastic ministers and police commissioners keen to get the message across that arrests are taking place and drugs seized with dedicated efficiency. During such a process, the rule of law is bound to take a battering, not least of all the presumption of innocence. Grainy images of various suspected figures are already doing the rounds through the papers.

The ministers traffic in votes and illusions, and finding drugs provides a false incentive for both. What is needed, as The Age editorial surmised in November last year, is a policy in favour of a harm minimisation strategy based on decriminalisation, regulation and education.Paramilitary approaches should be ditched, and resources channeled into health. Portugal, not the United States, should be seen as the model here.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMITUniversity, Melbourne. Email: [emailprotected]

NOTES

http://www.smh.com.au/national/ice-worth-1-billion-seized-in-joint-crime-group-operation-20160215-gmu4nz.html

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/the-war-on-drugs-has-failed-and-australia-must-change-its-policies-20161129-gszwmj.html

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Ice and Busts: The Lost War on Drugs in Australia | Global Research ... - Center for Research on Globalization

WGN Radio

Exploring the link between police violence and the war on drugs WGN Radio Host and producer Christopher Johnson and co-producer Derek L. John join Justin to discuss the new Audible audio documentary series, 100:1 The Crack Legacy. Derek and Christopher talk about where this project began, the origins of the crack epidemic ...

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Exploring the link between police violence and the war on drugs - WGN Radio

In Texas, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has drawn a direct line between marijuana arrests and the overburdened criminal justice system.

Harris County

When Kim Ogg ran for district attorney in Harris County, Texas, she pitched herself as a progressive whod change the war on drugs ideology that has clogged the county jail with nonviolent marijuana users. Upon her election, Ogg made good on that promise, announcing a program that will allow county residents caught with 4 ounces or less of marijuana to stay out of jail in exchange for taking a four-hour, $150 class on decision-making. The new district attorney estimates the program will divert 12,000 people from jail each year and save the county, which includes the city of Houston, more than $10 million annually.

For a long time, Houston was known for its incredibly harsh drug penalties. Oggs predecessor, Devon Anderson, was also known for prosecuting trace cases, in which a minuscule amount of cocaine is detected, as felonies. Anderson launched a meek diversion programit was open only to first-time offenders who possessed less than 2 ounces of marijuanaafter Ogg first presented her own plan during her unsuccessful 2014 district attorney campaign. Ogg, by contrast, has drawn a direct line between marijuana arrests and the overburdened criminal justice system. At 107,000 cases over the last 10 years, we have spent in excess of $250 million collectively prosecuting a crime that has produced no tangible evidence of improved public safety, she told reporters in February.

The Harris County district attorney isnt going out on a limb here. Local law enforcement, including Harris Countys sheriff and the Houston police chief, advised her on the diversions programs design and support its implementation. One of the reasons [Harris County jail] is costly is because we cant manage the population we have, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said during a local media interview about marijuana policy. The war on drugs has been a failed policy for over 40 years. We tried it. It didnt work. We need a new direction.

Oggs progressive platform also extends to bail reform. Since taking office, she has directed prosecutors in her office to release people awaiting trial for misdemeanor offenses on their own recognizance rather than relying on a cash-bail system that leaves the less affluent no choice but to lose their freedom.

This approach to low-level offenses comes at a time when the federal government seems poised to crack down on marijuana under the false guise of public safety. In a speech about violent crime, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the drug only slightly less awful than heroin. During his tenure as a U.S. attorney in Alabama, 40 percent of the convictions from Sessions office were for drug offenses. Sessions recent comments about marijuana were also in step with Trumps law-and-order presidential campaign, which relied on fearmongering rhetoric and misleading statistics about rising violent crime rates.

Anxiety around the tension between state and federal marijuana laws is nothing new. Though the Obama Department of Justice was less overtly hostile toward marijuana reform than Sessions has been thus far, the Obama administration did oversee numerous busts and raids of licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

The tension between federal and local authority here stems from the fact that both have the authority to enforce drug laws. Historically, the federal government has depended on states to enforce laws prohibiting low-level drug use, although the feds are technically well within their rights to enforce federal laws prohibiting such use.

As public opinion shifts dramatically toward support of legalization and decriminalization, district attorneys are paying attention.

In practice, the existence of programs like Oggs demonstrates the power that local district attorneys maintain when it comes to reform. The choice to prosecute low-level marijuana offensesor notremains in the hands of local prosecutors, and many local officials are choosing to move forward with reform efforts that are not in keeping with the harsh rhetoric emanating from the Trump White House and the Sessions Department of Justice.

In Nueces County, Texas, home to Corpus Christi, newly elected district attorney Mark Gonzalez announced plans in January to stop sending people to jail if theyre caught with 2 ounces or less of marijuana. Instead, county residents will have the option to take a drug class and pay a $250 fine. Those who cant afford the fine can perform 25 hours of community service instead. And this program isnt limited to first-time offenders: People in Nueces County wont be looking at jail time for a second or third marijuana-related arrest.

Local officials, too, remain free to side with the Sessions approach if they so choose. D.A. Brett Ligon of Montgomery County, Texas, north of the Houston area, was quick to express his disgust with Oggs diversionary efforts, telling reporters in February that his turf will not become a sanctuary for dope smokers.

In Arizona, Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall campaigned against a proposition to legalize medical marijuana in spite of the initiative garnering support from 57 percent of voters. In the time that LaWall, who is serving her sixth term, has been in office, the percentage of black, Latino, and Native American residents in the county jail has skyrocketed. When pressed to discuss the racial disparities in the incarcerated population, as well as the large percentage of nonviolent drug offenders, LaWall said in April 2016 that the right people are in prison.

Then theres former county prosecutor Aaron Negangard of Dearborn County, Indiana, who last year told the New York Times that he is proud of the fact that we send more people to jail than other countries and (in the spirit of Sessions) believes that marijuana is a gateway drug to heroin.

Oggs policy will likely reduce arrests and prosecutions for marijuana use and possession, but it wont be a panacea. Consider the case of Brooklyn, New York, where former District Attorney Ken Thompson announced in 2014 that his office would stop prosecuting some low-level marijuana offenses. That same year, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and thenPolice Commissioner William Bratton announced that the New York Police Department would begin issuing summonses instead of making arrests for low-level marijuana possession. A failure to appear in court for a summons triggers an arrest warrant. According to Harry Levine, a Queens College professor of sociology who has collected and studied data on marijuana arrests in New York City, there are now 1.5 million open criminal, arrestable warrants for noncriminal offenses. The system continues to produce arrests as a matter of course, said Levine.

If Harris County residents who are diverted out of the jail system fail to pay their fines or show up for decision-making classes, will the county issue criminal arrest warrants? (Oggs office has not responded to requests for comment.) In New York City, Levine notes, blacks and Latinos have been disproportionately targeted for drug offenses. In Harris County, too, black residents are three times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession. Theres absolutely no attempt [in New York or Harris County] to remedy the massive racial disparities, which are at the heart of this thing, said Levine.

While marijuana legalization and decriminalization campaigns have done little to address the disproportionate arrests of blacks and Latinos across the country, a decline in arrest rates for drug offenses doesnt just benefit white marijuana users. One common myth pushed by district attorneys who oppose decriminalization and legalization is that marijuana use contributes to rising crime rates. But places that have taken these steps have seen no such increase. In Colorado, property crime and homicide rates actually dropped slightly in the two years after marijuana was legalized. And in Washington, violent crime rates fell by 10 percent between 2011 and 2014. Both states legalized marijuana in 2012.

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The legalization movement in Washington was preceded in 2003 by a Seattle initiativethe first of its kind in the countryto make marijuana possession the lowest enforcement priority for the Seattle Police Department. Marijuana-related arrests, prosecutions, and jail sentences were reduced by 67 percent in 2004, and property and violent crime didnt rise in tandemnumbers that paved the way for the state to fully legalize marijuana less than a decade later. Dominic Holden, who led the campaign for the Seattle initiative, faced strong opposition from City Attorney Tom Carr. After the campaign won, Carr continued to push back against Holden. The blowback finally stopped in 2009 when the city attorney was defeated in a re-election campaign by an opponent who ran on a plan to stop low-level marijuana arrests and prosecutions. Politicians are afraid of looking soft on crime or drugs, so you have to create a punishment that is worse than that, said Holden. You have to create an environment that makes it toxic to their career to be accused of wasting resources for their office by punishing otherwise law-abiding, productive citizens [for marijuana offenses].

Twenty-six states plus D.C. have now legalized marijuana in some form, whether for medical or recreational use. As of last fall, 57 percent of Americans were in favor of legalizing marijuana, according to the Pew Research Center. As public opinion shifts dramatically toward support of legalization and decriminalization, district attorneys like Ogg are paying attention. Her win in a county that has historically opted for conservative candidates signals a shift that more hard-line prosecutors would be wise to heed. Voters are ready to elect prosecutors who recognize marijuana isnt a threat to public safety. District attorneys who dont understand that will get a good sense of the will of the people when they lose on Election Day.

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