Gene Healy Says Obama Is Right on Clemency for Non-Violent Drug Offenders

Last week, leading conservatives raised the alarm about yet another terrifying instance of "presidential lawlessness" from President Obama. What is it this time? New revelations of dragnet spying? Targeting more American citizens with flying robot assassins? Nope: He's going to let more nonviolent drug offenders out of prison. Some conservatives are caterwauling, but Gene Healy says that after more than a trillion dollars and incalculable human costs, and a four-decade war on drugs has helped give us an incarceration rate that's unrivaled—and unenvied—in the Western world, the president's decision is the right one.