Attorney General: Drug Sentences Need Reform, Too Many In Prison

Originally published at blog.NORML.org

In an interview earlier this week with National Public Radio, US Attorney General Eric Holder publicly acknowledged the obvious:

-There are too many citizens in prison on low level drug charges

-The mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines employed by the federal government should be reformed

-The inherent outcome of the federal criminal justice system affirms serious racial disparities exist

Holder: “The war on drugs is now 30, 40 years old. There have been a lot of unintended consequences. There’s been a decimation of certain communities, in particular communities of color.”

“[W]e can certainly change our enforcement priorities, and so we have some control in that way,” Holder said. “How we deploy our agents, what we tell our prosecutors to charge, but I think this would be best done if the executive branch and the legislative branch work together to look at this whole issue and come up with changes that are acceptable to both.”

Listen to interview here.

The Drug Policy Alliance has multiple suggestions on how President Obama and Attorney General Holder ‘can go big’ in their last three years in office to substantively reform the failed war on some drugs.