Capricious Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Hurting America's Future

Mandatory minimum sentencing, sentencing requirements imposed by state legislatures and the Legislative Branch of the federal government, is a clear violation of the principle of "separation of powers" that strips judges of their fundamental duty of administering justice considering the circumstances surrounding the cases they oversee. Mandatory minimum sentencing is infamous for being unfair to minorities, but it also harms a disproportionate number of young people of all races. Each year, tens of thousands of young Americans are imprisoned and tens of thousands more lose their student aid eligibility due to capricious mandatory minimum sentences, mostly for minor drug offenses.

Mandatory minimum sentences ruin the educational and economic opportunities of young Americans in a number of outrageous ways. Consider the following tragic stories:

• A 17 year-old student with special needs was given prison time after being pressured by an undercover police officer to sell marijuana
• A 24 year-old college student was sentenced to life in prison for being present at a drug transaction
• A 26 year-old single mother of three was sentenced to life after allowing her boyfriend to store cocaine at her house
• 200,000 American college students have lost their financial aid eligibility due to prison time from mandatory minimum sentences

Truly tragic. Fortunately, Alex Kreit, Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is providing a free web-based program to equip participants with the knowledge and the tools they need to help end the injustice of mandatory minimum sentencing. You can find out more about Professor Kreit's program, part of the Learn Liberty Academy at The Institute for Humane Studies, by visiting the program's registration page.

Empowered by the education Professor Kreit provides, you can then work with organizations such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums and Students for Sensible Drug Policy to help end mandatory minimum sentencing.

Seth Mason, Charleston SC

State Marijuana Legalization Approaching Critical Mass

The push to legalize marijuana on the state level has been spreading like wildfire. In the course of 2 years, 20 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for medical use, and 2 states have legalized it for recreational use. Here's what the scoreboard looks like as of today:

There's a "high" probability that, this year, 2 of the light-green states on the preceding map (Oregon and Alaska) will turn dark green as state legislatures in the Beaver State and The Last Frontier approve possession of cannabis for recreational use. Outright legalization in 2014 is also a possibility in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Additionally, 6 states (Kentucky, Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York, and Tennessee) will consider bills this year to legalize medical marijuana. And get this: this year, even Alabama will consider a bill to decriminalize!

It's possible that, by year's end, more than half of the states will have either legalized or decriminalized marijuana.

As "purple" and "red" states start to embrace legalization or decriminalization, the building momentum will become unstoppable. At that point, Washington will have no choice to but to anger its Big Pharma financiers--who spend millions of dollars annually to lobby Uncle Sam to keep marijuana illegal--and consider legalization on a federal level.

And that, my friends, will be a huge blow to crony capitalism and spell the beginning of the end of the disastrous War on Drugs.

Seth Mason, Charleston SC

The Definitive War On Drugs Infographic

Perhaps it's time to rethink the War on Drugs? Presenting the economic and human costs of the longest, bloodiest war in U.S. history: