POTUS Ponders Drug Sentencing Reform after Kanye Rendezvous
As Americans and the world at large continue to reexamine the realities of the failed war on drugs, a number of citizens have been in the President’s ear on the subject.
Earlier this, television star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian met with President Trump at the White House to discuss the subject of prison reform, in a conversation that eventually led to the Commander in Chief to commute the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson – a woman who was sentenced to life for a drug conviction.
Now, after hearing similar pleas for reform from Kardashian’s husband, eccentric rapper Kanye West, the President has signaled a willingness to indulge in future drug sentencing reform.
“You have many people like Mrs. Johnson,” Trump said on Fox News. “There are people in jail for really long terms.”
Notably, Trump did not say the solution is more commutations, although those would certainly be welcome. “There has to be a reform, because it’s very unfair right now,” he said. “It’s very unfair to African-Americans. It’s very unfair to everybody.”
Trump had high praise for criminal justice reforms in Texas and Georgia, which in recent years have seen falling crime rates even as they reduced their prison populations. “They really have done a tremendous job with reform,” he said.
These comments, which may seem surprising from a man who has consciously cultivated a tough-on-crime image, reflect the influence of people Trump respects, people like his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a supporter of the conservative reform organization Right on Crime. And yes, people like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
These statements come within hours of Canada’s incredible legal maneuver in which the national prohibition on marijuana has been lifted.
The United States certainly stands to profit should they follow suit, not only for the green gold rush that recreational and medicinal marijuana has proven itself to be, but also with the possibility of year round exports of the cash crop to Canada during our ally’s long, cold winters.
