Former Orange County Judge Jim Gray served on the bench for 25 years and has been advocating legalizing drugs since 1992. He has had a ring side seat at the criminal justice system that serves non-violent drug offenders so poorly:
If Gray had his way, no one under 21 could buy drugs. But anyone older than that could legally buy marijuana — which, he says, causes nowhere near the amount of death and disease as alcohol. The state would need to see how that works, he said, before moving on to legalizing the sale of harder drugs. Sure, he says, legalization might lead to more toking at first, but he believes drug use would wane when it’s no longer forbidden and the novelty wears off.
I’m not sure I agree, but I do buy into Gray’s argument about who the winners are in the current system.
First, there are the drug lords in Mexico and beyond. Then the drug gangs that peddle the stuff here. Next come the law enforcement agencies, prison contractors and prison guards, which use the war on drugs to demand more resources. And finally, there are the politicians who have wooed voters since the Nixon administration by pledging to support the war on drugs.
“My personal opinion,” says Gray, “is that we couldn’t have done worse if we tried.”
via – The Los Angeles Times “Former judge fired up on making pot legal“
Judge Jim Gray–smart, reasonable, experienced–would have made a much better California governor than Arnold Schwarzenegger.