obama commutes sentences for crackheads

[Anarchist420]

[link]

that is good, but several issues remain:
he only commuted them when it would have come at no cost to him to do what dr. paul wouldve done.

he apparently favors the war on drugs because simply wants to reduce disparities. just like he has never favored repealing the death penalty, he has just wanted it to be more evenly distributed.

the drug war is anti-market like everything the State does and i believe that's why hillary clinton favors it.

 

[HomerJS]

BTW - OP since done of the people pardoned were arrested for use they were not crackheads. They were sentenced for conspiracy involving distribution of crack.

 

[brycejones]

BTW - OP since done of the people pardoned were arrested for use they were not crackheads. They were sentenced for conspiracy involving distribution of crack.

Details, they don't matter.....

 

[rommelrommel]

BTW - OP since done of the people pardoned were arrested for use they were not crackheads. They were sentenced for conspiracy involving distribution of crack.

Yeah, crack dealing is a lot better than using crack.

 

[xj0hnx]

Yeah, crack dealing is a lot better than using crack.

No one is talking about the "morality" of using/selling crack dimwit.

 

[Thump553]

Those were all people currently in prison sentenced under mandatory rules since repealed. If they were sentenced under current law for the same offense they would have already served their maximum sentence.

This seems to be a totally appropriate use of the presidential commutation power to me.

 

[HomerJS]

Yeah, crack dealing is a lot better than using crack.

they weren't dealing either

 

[werepossum]

Those were all people currently in prison sentenced under mandatory rules since repealed. If they were sentenced under current law for the same offense they would have already served their maximum sentence.

This seems to be a totally appropriate use of the presidential commutation power to me.

Agreed.

 

[rommelrommel]

they weren't dealing either

"Possession with intent to distribute cocaine base; use of a minor to distribute cocaine base"

Sounds like dealing to me. You trying to say that you're not a crack dealer if you have your minions doing the actual sales?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I know one of the guys he commuted was imprisoned for essentially introducing two guys to each other that sold crack. He did not partake in the drug nor the dealing nor did he profit from it.
Again its wrong to do this but a 30 year sentence (I could be off a few years here). No white kid has ever been convicted of something like this and if they were people would be pissed.

 

[Sonikku]

Details, they don't matter.....

They don't really when you think about it. You can get 99.99% of what you need to know in a media stories headline.

 

[Jhhnn]

"Possession with intent to distribute cocaine base; use of a minor to distribute cocaine base"

Sounds like dealing to me. You trying to say that you're not a crack dealer if you have your minions doing the actual sales?

Sigh. That's not the point, at all.

At the federal level, there's huge sentencing disparity for crimes involving base and powder coke. The former you smoke in a pipe, while the latter you put up your nose or inject into your veins. It's all the same poison.

The powder is traditionally favored by whites, the base by blacks. Sentencing disparity can't really be justified. Either path leads to the same ruin all too often. Sentencing requirements don't reflect that, prompting the Chief Executive to exercise his Constitutional powers to correct injustice, prompt Congress to address it through legislation.

The WoD has failed. Huge prisons sentences are ineffective as deterrents. There will always be more than sufficient bold individuals & groups to satisfy America's cravings.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, either. I applaud legalization of MJ & some sort of saner approach wrt other drugs. This is a start in the right direction, no matter who does it.

 

[rommelrommel]

I understand that but people seemed concerned somehow about whether these guys were crackheads or dealers or what.

War on drugs is a joke, just legalize this shit. I'm sure that the hundreds of thousands in jail on BS drug charges feel a lot better today after Obama commuted a handful of sentences.

 

[Jhhnn]

I understand that but people seemed concerned somehow about whether these guys were crackheads or dealers or what.

War on drugs is a joke, just legalize this shit. I'm sure that the hundreds of thousands in jail on BS drug charges feel a lot better today after Obama commuted a handful of sentences.

Gotta start somewhere, gotta take the first step. Greeting it with derision doesn't exactly encourage more of the same.

Dealers, users, whatever. At the street level, such distinctions shift with the wind. I lived the life decades ago, a constantly shifting line of supply & role shifting as required. You do what you can to get what you want, which is to be connected.

 

[werepossum]

Sigh. That's not the point, at all.

At the federal level, there's huge sentencing disparity for crimes involving base and powder coke. The former you smoke in a pipe, while the latter you put up your nose or inject into your veins. It's all the same poison.

The powder is traditionally favored by whites, the base by blacks. Sentencing disparity can't really be justified. Either path leads to the same ruin all too often. Sentencing requirements don't reflect that, prompting the Chief Executive to exercise his Constitutional powers to correct injustice, prompt Congress to address it through legislation.

The WoD has failed. Huge prisons sentences are ineffective as deterrents. There will always be more than sufficient bold individuals & groups to satisfy America's cravings.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, either. I applaud legalization of MJ & some sort of saner approach wrt other drugs. This is a start in the right direction, no matter who does it.

Sentencing disparity was because white cocaine, a drug of the affluent, does not typically bring with it a crime wave as does crack cocaine.

Seems to me the war on drugs is backward. The concern should be the crimes against others, not self destruction per se, assuming it's adults. Therefore, increase the penalties for those crimes. As it stands, we put people in prison for using or distributing drugs, but all too often those who commit the crimes get only probation. Especially if they have money.

 

[Jhhnn]

Sentencing disparity was because white cocaine, a drug of the affluent, does not typically bring with it a crime wave as does crack cocaine.

Seems to me the war on drugs is backward. The concern should be the crimes against others, not self destruction per se, assuming it's adults. Therefore, increase the penalties for those crimes. As it stands, we put people in prison for using or distributing drugs, but all too often those who commit the crimes get only probation. Especially if they have money.

You know not of what you speak. Virtually all cocaine enters this country as hydrochloride, earlier referred to as powder or white cocaine. It is easily convertible to base/crack. White people who use the stuff usually buy larger quantities, because they can, convert it themselves. black people often start out with less money, buy smaller quantities ready to toke. Few serious users just snurfle it up their nose for long at all.

Either way, people get way, way out there, totally nuts. Richard Pryor explained it very well. It simply overwhelms some people.

There's just as much crime associated with it among whites as among blacks, it just takes a different form. More embezzlement, theft, scamming & scheming of all sorts. Lots of burglary, the old reliable. Less strongarm stuff, which is to be expected. There's also more IV use of cocaine hydrochloride among whites than readily meets the eye.

 

[rommelrommel]

You know not of what you speak. Virtually all cocaine enters this country as hydrochloride, earlier referred to as powder or white cocaine. It is easily convertible to base/crack. White people who use the stuff usually buy larger quantities, because they can, convert it themselves. black people often start out with less money, buy smaller quantities ready to toke. Few serious users just snurfle it up their nose for long at all.

Uhhhhh no.