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Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday that he has directed his federal prosecutors to pursue the most severe penalties possible, including mandatory minimum sentences, in his first step toward a return to the war on drugs of the 1980s and 1990s that resulted in long sentences for many minority defendants and packed U.S. prisons.
[...] In the later years of the Obama administration, a bipartisan consensus emerged on Capitol Hill for sentencing reform legislation, which Sessions opposed and successfully worked to derail.
In a two-page memo to federal prosecutors across the country, Sessions overturned former attorney general Eric H. Holder's sweeping criminal charging policy that instructed his prosecutors to avoid charging certain defendants with offenses that would trigger long mandatory minimum sentences. In its place, Sessions told his more than 5,000 assistant U.S. attorneys to charge defendants with the most serious crimes, carrying the toughest penalties.
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Memorandum on Department Charging and Sentencing Policy - US Department of Justice PDF
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @11:23AM (5 children)
About ten years ago people followed the money and found out that the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah controlled around 80% of the world drug trade. Then you stopped hearing about it, and now the schools are teaching kids to support Islam while the big social media companies are banning atheist groups. This is probably not a coincidence.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @12:06PM
> the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah controlled around 80% of the world drug trade.
Apparently they also supply 100% of your hallucinogenics.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday May 16 2017, @12:08PM (3 children)
About ten years ago people followed the money and found out that the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah controlled around 80% of the world drug trade.
That's a ridiculous claim to make. First, it ignores recreational drugs that are widely legal, alcohol and tobacco. Second, the only illegal drug primarily produced in the Middle East is heroin. While that has significant value, it's far from the only illegal drug. Third, Eastern Asia, Americas, and European trade are collectively dominated by other ethnic groups.
Finally, if those groups were really so strongly in control of roughly 1% of the global economy, we'd see the money and we wouldn't first hear of this claim from an AC ten years later.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @01:38PM (2 children)
You forgot to include Marijuana, legal in many countries and quite a few US states now. Near legal in yet more countries.
Its ok, I know you don't approve, only tea and biscuits for that old boy!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @03:21PM
What about SSRIs and opioid-based pain killers? If I'm not mistaken, both are highly addictive, and withdrawal from an SSRI drug can involve psychosis, seizures, and hospitalization.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 16 2017, @11:32PM
As to marijuana, I voted for its legalization in the US state of Colorado.