Thursday, March 6, 2008

The War on Drugs

Kudos to the writers of The Wire.

2 comments:

smokestack said...

just out of curiosity, would you guys refuse to convict someone charged with a drug offense of you were on a jury? i would. with the same restrictions as the authors of the article - only the "drug" offense part and not associated violence offenses. Though I will soon be disqualified from jury service by virtue of being a lawyer. any thoughts?

J.R. McConvey said...

I'd definitely refuse. I don't know what the statistics are for drug convictions in Canada (although a quick statscan search brings this up: "The cannabis offence rate has risen approximately 80% from 1992 to 2002, largely the result of increased numbers of possession offences."), but I'm in full agreement with the writers of the article that anyone on trial for drug offenses should be acquitted, excepting instances where violence involved.

It's funny to survey different cultures' attitudes towards drug use. In Korea, drug offenses -- even ones that here would be considered laughably minor -- are classified as being worse than rape.