The Mandatory Insanity Of The U.S. War On Drugs
A New U.S. House Approved Bill Recycles A Classic Drug War Policy Failure
Anyone who follows the modern political landscape in the United States today is by now quite familiar with the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results should be embroidered on Congressional flags at this point. Never was that more on display than with the recent passing of the HALT Fentanyl Act.
Approved in a bipartisan 289-133 vote by the Republican controlled House of Representatives this bill would add Fentanyl, and any substance even structurally related to Fentanyl, to the Schedule I list of controlled substances. Joining the likes of Heroin, Ecstasy, and Bath Salts. While that, in and of itself, doesn’t sound so crazy given the brutal impact the rise of Fentanyl has had on U.S. society, it’s the inclusion of mandatory minimum punishments in the bill that has many eyebrows raised.
Mandatory Minimums, really? Are we really so insane to think that somehow, dusting off some 1980’s and 90’s “Get Tough On Drugs!” style sentencing is the solution to this problem? “I mean, it worked so well with crack cocaine!” he says, dripping with sarcasm.
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