Drug war sense

federal inmates

I’ve always thought that there’s a lot that could be done to improve the state of the drug war without passing a single law. Police and prosecutors have a lot of discretion in terms of what priorities to maintain and which charges to file once someone has been arrested.

It sounds like the feds are about to exercise some sensible discretion:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is set to announce Monday that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs or large-scale drug organizations will no longer be charged with offenses that impose severe mandatory sentences.

Holder is calling for a change in Justice Department policies to reserve the most severe penalties for drug offenses for serious, high-level or violent drug traffickers. He has directed his 94 U.S. attorneys across the country to develop specific, locally tailored guidelines for determining when federal charges should be filed and when they should not.