Saturday Data: Bipartisian Push Back on Sessions' Drug War.

 

Marijuana

    Alabama's Jeff Sessions called for harsher penalties for drug crimes last week, suggesting longer penalties. 
     That's a reversal of recent years when reformers promoted less prison time and more treatment. From a Rolling Stone article:  

"It's worth noting that there's a disconnect between Jeff Sessions and the President, and it's not clear who is actually in charge," Piper says. "The president put Jared Kushner in charge of his task force for looking at criminal justice reform – Jeff Sessions preemptively undermined the work Jared Kushner is doing. So does the administration oppose reform? Because it's already clear where Jeff Sessions stands."
With the exception of outliers like Sessions, criminal justice reform is one of the few issues on which there's bipartisan consensus.
"This is not a Republican or Democrat idea, this is a common sense idea," (Democratic Vermont Senator Patrick) Leahy said.

     Of course Rolling Stone has always been a pro-drug legalization publication, from it's name on down. I wonder what percentage of their regular readers voted in 2016?