DRUG LAW SENTENCES

Perhaps there is hope that a modicum of sanity will eventually prevail
in the nation's drug war, after all.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Tuesday, Barry McCaffrey -- the same
Gen. Barry McCaffrey who has been an ardent drug warrior and
previously served as the nation's drug czar -- co-authored a piece
calling for an end to New York state's "draconian" Rockefeller laws,
which mandate harsh prison sentences for even many minor drug offenses.

"The laws enjoy little public or political support," Gen. McCaffrey
wrote with co-author Mitchell S. Rosenthal. "Just about all interested
parties - legislators, advocates of various persuasions, and all
sectors of the criminal justice system - favor change."

The pair go on to recommend that most drug offenders receive
treatment, not prison time.

Of course change will be slow until politicians muster the will to
fight back against charges that backing such reforms means they favor
passing out joints to pre-teens. But the fact that a former drug czar
now argues that locking up nonviolent drug offenders makes no sense -
on the commentary pages of a newspaper whose editorial stance has been
virulently pro drug war - offers progress.