the war against the war (on drugs)
The so-called War on Drugs is illogical and a huge waste of taxpayer money. Politicians on the left and right, however, have thus far lacked the courage to question the idea of criminal punishment of those who only hurt themselves.
But perhaps we the people can express our dissatisfaction with this policy through jury dissent, as the writers of The Wire suggest (hat tip: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Blog):
If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun’s manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens.
A great idea, no doubt. But Radley Balko rightly notes that it’s one that won’t be easy to implement due to prosecutors’ ability to pick drug war opponents off the jury pool and judges’ instructions that would inhibit jurors exercising moral authority.
