In a rare display of drug policy sanity, the Trump administration has recommended a nearly total defunding of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, ONDCP. The proposed 95% reduction in the drug czar’s office would eliminate some of the drug war’s most harmful programs. The ONDCP must, by charter, […]

Former President Bill Clinton shocked a lot of political observers with his response to Black Lives Matter activists protesting his 1994 crime bill and the inflammatory language Hillary Clinton used to promote the bill. Clinton not only defended his bill, but his wife’s statements about “superpredators” that we needed to […]

The political debate around Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill is rather complicated complicated as Hillary Clinton championed the bill but Bernie Sanders voted for the legislation, so he can’t get a free pass. Sanders does note that he criticized parts of the bill and ultimately voted for the bill because […]

Hillary Clinton’s contribution to our era of mass incarceration has garnered increased media attention after Black Lives Matter protester Ashley Williams asked Clinton for an apology during a fundraiser in South Carolina. Criminal justice reform has been a big issue between the Democratic front-runner and challenger Bernie Sanders throughout the […]

Bernie Sanders lost narrowly to Hillary Clinton in Nevada, but he stuck to his common themes in his concession speech, including criminal justice reform. Senator Sanders again stressed the absurdity of people getting criminal records for marijuana offenses while Wall Street crooks don’t suffer any punishment. Former Secretary of State […]

Bernie Sanders has a remarkable history of being on the right side of the important civil rights battles of the day. Has he been perfect, of course not, but the smear that he has been absent on issues that matter to African American communities and all people of color seems […]

CNN broke the news that Bernie Sanders has earned the endorsement of Ben Jealous, former head of the NAACP. Senator Sanders, like then-Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 primary, has started way behind in African-American support. Candidate Obama flipped black voter support following his inspirational victory in the Iowa caucus, […]

There has been a complaint I’ve read lately that I believe originated with the estimable Michelle Alexander and her book “The New Jim Crow”, but I’m reading it echoed elsewhere. The complaint, in one form or another, is that African-Americans (and Hispanics) bore the brunt of marijuana prohibition, and when […]