LET THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL...

But why don’t we take all this a stage further? The last time I heard a number quoted, it was that a tad more than 80% of the hideously massive US prison population was locked up for crimes that had, at very least, an indirect connection with the sale and use of recreational drugs. Clearly the nation – whether it admits it or not – is conducting a radical rethink of the War on Drugs. Here in LA we have a de facto decriminalization of marijuana and pot shops are opening up on what seems to be every goddamned corner (although still they are still charging prohibition prices – but that’s another story.) What’s annoying me in this instance is that while middle class stoners who can afford the doctor’s $100 fee for a medical marijuana card talk smugly about the joys of their Purple Urkle, the poor bastards who were criminalized in the bad old days still rot in the slam. (Some for long stretches under the mandatory minimums of yesteryear.) And that fucking sucks.