This post notes the findings of drug legalizer Jacob Sullum and UC Irvine criminologist Mona Lynch. The main point argued is that the Sessions charging memo will have less effect than had been thought at first. This is because drug pushers theoretically eligible to avoid a mandatory minimum under the more lenient, Eric Holder regimen often were never going to get one anyway, either because they qualified under the long pre-existing statutory Safety Valve, or because they assisted the government. I believe this conclusion is correct.
The point I want to make stems from the following paragraph discussing Prof. Lynch's view that the impact may indeed be limited, and may
...only increase the divide between jurisdictions that collectively eschew aggressive federal drug prosecutions and those that dive back into the harsh practices of an older era.
The words "older era" struck a chord. As the post notes four paragraphs earlier, the "older era" was the period before the date Eric Holder issued his charging policy. That would be August 2013 -- three years and nine months ago.
I grew up in day of hula hoops and the Beatles. To say that 2013 marks the "older era" truly warms the cockles of my cold, old, law-and-order heart.
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