I know a lot of people are terrified of this substance, and granted it is a bad drug, but trust me, this is good.
The new sentencing guidelines with reductions in crack cocaine sentences went into effect two days ago. In two days, the courts have granted 400 motions for sentence reductions. A few inmates have been able to leave jail immediately.This is just a tiny step towards common sense sentencing. All it means is that some addict who got caught with a couple of grams of crystalized cocaine won't be spending the same amount of time in jail as the guy who got caught with an ounce or two of powder. The program should be expanded to include more offenders. It would minimally ease jail overcrowding at the very least.
On the other hand this is bad.
Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced Tuesday by a City Council committee.
Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) persuaded the Health Committee to ban possession of "self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width," after picking up 15 of the bags on a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through a West Side park.
Health Committee Chairman Ed Smith (28th) said the ban is part of a desperate effort to stop what he called "the most destructive force" in Chicago neighborhoods.They always justify these lamebrained measures as being "for the children" don't they? Any reasonably sane person understands that it's what is in the bags that is dangerous and banning them will simply cause the dealers to switch to different packaging. Meanwhile, some thrifty granny who saves those tiny bags that hold the extra buttons for her sweater because they might come in handy someday, faces a $1,500 fine when the SWAT team busts down her door by mistake.
"We need to use every measure that we possibly can to stop it because it is destroying our kids," he said.
Proving once again that prohibition addiction is the gateway to stupidity.
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