Obama’s AG nominee supported 5-year minimum sentences for marijuana possession

Oh, the news just keeps getting better and better regarding President-Elect Obama’s nomination of Eric Holder as top cop in the nation Attorney General.  Yesterday I told you of Holder’s support of Rudy Giuliani’s “broken windows” theory of policing back in 1996 in Washington DC, and that Holder believed prosecuting minor marijuana possession was a key in preventing greater crime.

Now, thanks to some sleuthing by Steve Bloom at Celebstoner, we get this revelation that Holder in 1997 supported five-year mandatory minimum sentences for anyone caught possessing marijuana with intent to distribute.

To Eric Holder, the first black to lead the country’s largest US. attorney’s of office, marijuana is not just a gate way drug, it is an avenue that leads to violent crime and death. 

Holder is convinced that selling marijuana in drug-plagued D.C. should be a felony, not simply a misdemeanor as current law dictates. 

“I have taken a lot of grief for my attempt to make selling marijuana a felony in the district, not just a misdemeanor. I introduced the legislation in December that would make distribution and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana a five-year felony. I’ve been criticized for it by reporters in various publications, saying things like I have ‘reefer madness.’”

“Given the harm that drugs have done, I believe that mandatory minimum sentences are appropriate and make the [Superior Court's] drug court more effective.”

“For years law enforcement had the notion that nothing could be done to knock the crime rate down — and I reject that. I reject that! An efficient, well-run police department can be effective in reducing the crime rate, and I think an efficient, well-run, properly funded federal drug strategy can have an effect as well on the selling and use of drugs.“

Folks, this is getting scary.  Quotes like that I would expect from the drug czars of the past thirty years, but from the AG nominee of Mr. “Change I Can Believe In”?

The Senate Judiciary Committee will be running the confirmation hearings for Mr. Holder.  Use this link to contact the members of this committee (we’ll remind you again come January) and ask these senators to ask these questions:

In a 2008 Rolling Stone interview, President Obama said, “The notion that we are imposing felonies on [nonviolent, first-time drug offenders] or sending them to prison, where they are getting advanced degrees in criminality, instead of thinking about ways like drug courts that can get them back on track in their lives — it’s expensive, it’s counterproductive, and it doesn’t make sense.”  But in 1997, Mr. Holder, you pushed for felony 5-year mandatory minimums for possession of marijuana and said that “mandatory minimum sentences are appropriate”.  Mr. Holder, do you agree with your statements from the nineties about mandatory minimums, or do you agree with President Obama’s position now that imposing felonies and imprisonment for minor drug possession is expensive and counter-productive?

In a 2008 interview with Willamette Week in Portland, Oregon, President Obama was asked about ending federal interference from the Justice Department regarding the lawfully-run medical marijuana programs in Oregon and in the other dozen medical marijuana states.  Mr. Obama said, “I would [end the raids] because I think our federal agents have better things to do, like catching criminals and preventing terrorism. The way I want to approach the issue of medical marijuana is to base it on science.”  Speaking earlier to the Medford Mail-Tribune, Mr. Obama said, “My attitude is that if it’s an issue of doctors prescribing medical marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma or as a cancer treatment, I think that should be appropriate because there really is no difference between that and a doctor prescribing morphine or anything else…. What I’m not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue simply because I want folks to be investigating violent crimes and potential terrorism. We’ve got a lot of things for our law enforcement officers to deal with.”  But in 1996, Mr. Holder, you supported aggressively policing minor crimes like marijuana possession with intent to deliver for the “ripple effect” it has on fighting larger crime.  Mr. Holder, especially in the wake of the 2008 elections that saw 2-to-1 majorities pass medical marijuana in Michigan and decriminalization of marijuana in Massachusetts, do you still believe in agrressively policing minor marijuana crimes, or would you hold the Justice Department to President Obama’s promise to keep hands off the medical marijuana states?