Sen. Jim Webb introduces bill to keep drug users out of jail

By introducing a criminal justice reform bill that aims to fix the prison system and which would, among other things, essentially decriminalize drug use on a federal level, Sen. Webb is taking a strong stand on a topic where most politicians -- even though many privately agree -- prefer to keep their heads in the sand just to avoid any potential damage to their political careers. If passed (and if the legislative recommendations by the commission are eventually implemented), the bill, dubbed "National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009" would be a major slap in the face of the prison industry lobby and basically do away with most of what causes the USA to have the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. Here is Sen. Jim Webb's article on parade.com

We see this type of thing way too rarely, when someone like Ron Paul, Barney Frank, or Jim Webb, acts out of personal conviction, unafraid to break away from the paradigm of political conformism that ails Washington, introducing this topic into the discussion, even against the slim odds of the bill passing.

You can also listen to Webb talking about the new bill on the Diane Rehm Radio Show (links to audio stream inside) with many pro-legalization callers steering the conversation, which was covered in the Huffington Post. Here's a snippet:

"The reality of what we're doing right now is that all this incarceration has not stopped drug usage at all," said Webb.

Instead, he argued, chasing after drugs "has burned up so much of our law enforcement energy and money that we can't adequately focus on the areas that I'm really concerned about, a big part of that being transnational gang violence in this country. You don't have to go to the Texas border to see it. You can go to Fairfax County [in Virginia] and take a look at MS-13 and how they operate. So we need to take a holistic approach on this."

Caller after caller argued on behalf of legalization; Rehm noted that the subject is "always the first question." Webb didn't shy away from it. "It's a very real question. It's a very legitimate question," he told one caller, noting that the past three presidents and more than half of Americans have used illegal drugs at some point in their lifetimes.

"At some level, most people do enjoy their beer or whatever it is," Webb said. "On the other end of the rail, there is tremendous danger, particularly among young people, when you get to drugs, that we have to have some protections and some sort of education. There you have the question. It's a legitimate question. And the best way to deal with this is to put it in front of people who are going to look at all the ramifications of this and come up with something."