Just as President Obama dismisses legalization and taxation of marijuana as a "good strategy to grow our economy", Sen. Jim Webb has introduced a bill (along with Arlen Specter) to create a commission that would study the inequities of the criminal justice system, particularly drug sentencing, and make legislative recommendations. Webb said yesterday that "everything should be on the table" including the decriminalization of marijuana. He even left open the possibility of legalization, taxation and regulation.
I think they should do a very careful examination of all aspects of drug policy. I've done a couple of very extensive hearings on this, so we'll wait to see what they say about that.
The bill has the support of Patrick Leahy, Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham, the chairman and ranking Republican of the Crime and Drugs subcommittee. That’s obviously important so that there’s a bipartisan approach to a potentially polarizing inquiry.
Webb is on a roll after the passage of the expanded GI Bill and clearly is not afraid to take on difficult issues. In his recent book, "A Time To Fight", Webb wrote:
The time has come to stop locking up people for mere possession and use of marijuana. It makes far more sense to take the money that would be saved by such a policy and use it for enforcement of gang-related activities.
Moreover, Webb observes that incarceration appears to be racially biased:
Although African-Americans constitute 14 percent of regular drug users, they are 37 percent of those arrested for drug offenses, and 56 percent of persons in state prisons for drug crimes. It has been well documented that drug arrest rates for African-Americans in particular are disproportionate to their degree of drug use or drug selling.
Webb has made it clear, however, that he doesn’t want to empty the prisons of violent offenders. He says Americans want "to break the back of gangs" and that high level, hard drug dealers should still be targeted.
By concentrating on the social and economic costs of drug prohibition (particularly marijuana), Webb has constructed a winning strategy that sidesteps arguments about the health effects of marijuana, instead focusing on the failure of state and national drug policy. This is an approach both Dems and Repubs may be able to get behind. We'll see. I'm going to write letters to my Senators encouraging them to get on board. With a war at our southern border spilling over into Texas, and our costly prisons packed with non-violent drug offenders, this is in fact a serious issue and I give Webb a high-ten for running with it.