Obama Favors Changes in Drug Sentencing

[Hollow Shells]

Obama Favors Changes in Drug Sentencing
By NEDRA PICKLER – 14 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama said Friday that as president he would relax drug sentencing laws and address vast racial inequities in the justice system as part of his crime policy.

The Illinois senator said he would review mandatory minimum drug sentencing and give first-time, nonviolent drug offenders a chance to serve their sentence in drug rehabilitation programs instead of prison.

"If you're convicted of a crime involving drugs, of course you should be punished," Obama said in a speech at Howard University's opening convocation. "But let's not make the punishment for crack cocaine that much more severe than the punishment for powder cocaine when the real difference is where the people are using them or who is using them."


More at link...
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jcrWmUZ4LJplqh32PTP1s1rdbnhQD8RUL6O00

"If you're convicted of a crime involving drugs, of course you should be punished,"

This makes no sense to me. Why people think that drug users should be punished is beyond me. Seems like thought crime to me.