Sessions moves to lengthen drug sentences

[Origanalist]

MAGA

"This policy affirms our responsibility to enforce the law, is moral and just, and produces consistency," Jeff Sessions writes. | AP Photo


Sessions moves to lengthen drug sentences
AG rolls back Obama-era policy that allowed many to escape stiff mandatory minimums
By JOSH GERSTEIN 05/12/17

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reversing one of the central elements of the Obama administration's criminal justice reform agenda: a Justice Department policy that led to prosecutors in drug cases often filing charges in a way that avoided triggering mandatory minimum sentences in federal law.

Sessions is withdrawing a 2013 directive from Attorney General Eric Holder that instructed federal prosecutors not to specify the amount of drugs involved when charging low-level and non-violent drug offenders. That policy effectively gave judges discretion to set sentences lower than the mandatory punishments ranging from five years to life in prison federal law dictates when someone is convicted of a crime involving a certain quantity of illegal drugs.


In a memo distributed to federal prosecutors nationwide Thursday, Sessions said the department default in future cases will return to a previous policy of filing the most serious charge available against a defendant under the provable facts.

"It is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense," Sessions said in the directive, dated Wednesday.

The attorney general suggested that moves to lessen the impact of mandatory minimums should come from Congress, rather than being unilaterally implemented by the Executive Branch.

"This policy affirms our responsibility to enforce the law, is moral and just, and produces consistency. This policy fully utilizes the tools Congress has given us," he wrote.

Sessions' move bucks a growing trend in recent years—in Washington and in states across the country—to abandon some of the harshest sentencing policies created in the 1980s-era war on drugs. Many experts say those laws and sentencing rules led to drug offenders spending decades in prison or even receiving life behind bars, when lesser sentences would have been adequate. The laws also ballooned the prison population, leading to costs that were unsustainable for some state governments.

continued...hxxp://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/12/mandatory-minimum-drug-sentences-jeff-sessions-238295

[CaptUSA]

stiff mandatory minimums

Did someone say, "stiff mandatory minimums"?!

[Origanalist]

Did someone say, "stiff mandatory minimums"?!

Ewwww, it's "frothy"...

[shakey1]

... and this is progress????

[dean.engelhardt]

The laws also ballooned the prison population, leading to costs that were unsustainable for some state governments.

Better buy correction company stocks and profit from all the cancer patience put in jail for smoking pot.

[JK/SEA]

Better buy correction company stocks and profit from all the cancer patience put in jail for smoking pot.

as far as i know, no one is put in jail for pot these days in Washington State unless you consider a DUI for smoking weed as a base line.

do you have a source for this pot causing cancer comment?....

[shakey1]

as far as i know, no one is put in jail for pot these days in Washington State unless you consider a DUI for smoking weed as a base line.

do you have a source for this pot causing cancer comment?....

I think he meant smoking pot for chemo cancer treatment.

[William Tell]

Good work Trump supporters! MAGA! Increasing drug sentences will expose how much of a failure the WOD is, if he goes for capitol punishment it will expose it even faster and lead to its End!

/sarc

[JK/SEA]

Good work Trump supporters! MAGA! Increasing drug sentences will expose how much of a failure the WOD is, if he goes for capitol punishment it will expose it even faster and lead to its End!

/sarc

pot good.

heroin bad.

Sessions wants to go after big time dealers of heroin. I know he mentioned weed, but i think this is to help legitimate growers and sellers in this countrty. Eliminate the foreign competition that smuggles questionable weed that may not be that healthy to use due to growing standards, or lack thereof.

[William Tell]

pot good.

heroin bad.

Sessions wants to go after big time dealers of heroin. I know he mentioned weed, but i think this is to help legitimate growers and sellers in this countrty. Eliminate the foreign competition that smuggles questionable weed that may not be that healthy to use due to growing standards, or lack thereof.

Yes. We need to Make the War on Drugs Great Again. If we catch them all and deport the bad ones and only let the good ones back in we will finally have successful prohibition policy that works.

[JK/SEA]

Yes. We need to Make the War on Drugs Great Again. If we catch them all and deport the bad ones and only let the good ones back in we will finally have successful prohibition policy that works.

well, in Washington State, the people have spoken.

he ain't gonna do $#@! about weed.

[CaptUSA]

pot good.

heroin bad.

Sessions wants to go after big time dealers of heroin. I know he mentioned weed, but i think this is to help legitimate growers and sellers in this countrty. Eliminate the foreign competition that smuggles questionable weed that may not be that healthy to use due to growing standards, or lack thereof.

[JK/SEA]

weed is a billion dollar industry....

Sessions ain't gonna win this one.

[specsaregood]

I was just thinking this morning on the golf course that what this country really needs is more people in jail for longer periods of time. /maga

[surf]

pot good.

heroin bad.

Sessions wants to go after big time dealers of heroin. I know he mentioned weed, but i think this is to help legitimate growers and sellers in this countrty. Eliminate the foreign competition that smuggles questionable weed that may not be that healthy to use due to growing standards, or lack thereof.

I know you're local, but the highlighted portion sounds like a politician justifying the ridiculous bureaucracy and tax system that keeps good weed selling for over $10/gram. as a local myself, I can honestly say that I have never heard of anyone smoking unhealthy weed. bad, overpriced weed, yes.

heroin may be bad. the drug war is worse.

[phill4paul]

Hopefully, Sessions 46dd chess gambit to get lawmakers to change drug laws will play out in the long run.

[dannno]

as a local myself, I can honestly say that I have never heard of anyone smoking unhealthy weed. bad, overpriced weed, yes.

It's legal in California now too, and I can attest that brick weed from Mexico is often dubious quality.

As for the thread topic, this is definitely a disappointment, but like phill said hopefully it will get congress to act and change the laws.

[LoveRonPaul]

I'm torn on this issue.

On one hand, I believe people should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, including take any drug they please.

On the other hand, I've seen so many lives, so many families, ruined by drugs.

I feel like in giving people freedom, we're also giving them the rope to hang themselves with.

It's a complex issue, isn't it?

[JK/SEA]

I know you're local, but the highlighted portion sounds like a politician justifying the ridiculous bureaucracy and tax system that keeps good weed selling for over $10/gram. as a local myself, I can honestly say that I have never heard of anyone smoking unhealthy weed. bad, overpriced weed, yes.

heroin may be bad. the drug war is worse.

do you have evidence imported weed is not full of pesticides and chemical fertilizers?....

someone close to me is a level 4 grower in Washington State, and all the weed he grows is suitable for vegans.

[Origanalist]

Yes. We need to Make the War on Drugs Great Again. If we catch them all and deport the bad ones and only let the good ones back in we will finally have successful prohibition policy that works.

The war o drugs is like communism, it just hasn't been done right yet. We just need the right people in charge.

[phill4paul]

I'm torn on this issue.

On one hand, I believe people should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, including take any drug they please.

On the other hand, I've seen so many lives, so many families, ruined by drugs.

I feel like in giving people freedom, we're also giving them the rope to hang themselves with.

It's a complex issue, isn't it?

Not complex at all. People should be free to hang themselves with any rope they choose. When it comes to freedom there either is or there is not.

[tod evans]

Not complex at all. People should be free to hang themselves with any rope they choose. When it comes to freedom there either is or there is not.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to phill4paul again.

[CaptUSA]

I'm torn on this issue.

On one hand, I believe people should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, including take any drug they please.

On the other hand, I've seen so many lives, so many families, ruined by drugs.

I feel like in giving people freedom, we're also giving them the rope to hang themselves with.

It's a complex issue, isn't it?

Not complex. You cannot "give" people freedom. You can only take it away. Freedom is the natural state if governance and oppression is removed. And who'd to say they don't take that rope and build themselves an escape ladder? Or maybe a lasso? To paraphrase Jefferson, I'd rather deal with idiots hurting themselves than idiots hurting me!

[tod evans]

Sessions moves to lengthen drug sentences

Rather see Sessions neck lengthened.....

[William Tell]

I'm torn on this issue.

On one hand, I believe people should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, including take any drug they please.

On the other hand, I've seen so many lives, so many families, ruined by drugs.

I feel like in giving people freedom, we're also giving them the rope to hang themselves with.

It's a complex issue, isn't it?

No. I mean unless the fact that some people use guns to do crime makes you torn between being a second amendment activist and a Moms Demand lackey.

[dannno]

I'm torn on this issue.

On one hand, I believe people should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, including take any drug they please.

On the other hand, I've seen so many lives, so many families, ruined by drugs.

I feel like in giving people freedom, we're also giving them the rope to hang themselves with.

It's a complex issue, isn't it?

Well drugs are illegal, and people's lives are still not only being ruined by drugs, but even more by the war on drugs.

Ron Paul asked a crowd full of people in South Carolina during a debate a long time ago whether they would go out and do heroin if it were made legal, if they needed the government to tell them what to do, and he got a huge applause.

[dean.engelhardt]

as far as i know, no one is put in jail for pot these days in Washington State unless you consider a DUI for smoking weed as a base line.

do you have a source for this pot causing cancer comment?....

I think he meant smoking pot for chemo cancer treatment.

Yes, I meant people using pot to tolerate chemo treatment.

I understand that no one in Washington state is going to jail over pot right now, but it is still a schedule 1 drug. If the feds want to, they could start enforcing federal drug laws. I think Jeff Sessions wants to: http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...ijuana-214501?fb_comment_id=1171919976191177_1172159776167197&co mment_id=1171964592853382&reply_comment_id=1172159 776167197#f82799f7cdc629

[Zippyjuan]

We don't have enough people in jail yet. Gotta stop that soaring crime rate.




https://twitter.com/EricHolder/statu...Fid%3D47371598

[Anti Federalist]

I was just thinking this morning on the golf course that what this country really needs is more people in jail for longer periods of time. /maga

I was thinking the same thing myself...more police officers too...need more police officers.

[Anti Federalist]

I'm torn on this issue.

On one hand, I believe people should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, including take any drug they please.

On the other hand, I've seen so many lives, so many families, ruined by drugs.

I feel like in giving people freedom, we're also giving them the rope to hang themselves with.

It's a complex issue, isn't it?

Not torn in the least.

We have an absence of freedom now, yet people still, as you noted, destroy themselves with drugs.