Likely AG Nominee Says No to Drugs

Published November 19, 2008 @ 05:31AM PT

The word is out: Eric Holder is Obama's likely pick for Attorney General. Holder is a veteran of the Clinton administration and is currently in private practice in Washington, D.C. Before working as Deputy AG under Janet Reno, he was a U.S. Attorney for D.C. and a judge in the district, and a strong proponent of strict drug laws and mandatory minimums.

From the Washington Times in 1996, via TalkLeft:

Eric Holder yesterday said he will seek to make marijuana distribution in the District a felony and reinstate mandatory-minimum sentences for convicted drug dealers. Mr. Holder,...said the D.C. Council's vote a year ago to repeal mandatory minimums was "misguided," leading to a backlog in the court system. He also warned that the city is on the verge of an explosion in violence associated with the sale and use of marijuana.

"The truth of the matter is that marijuana is a significant problem for the city," said Mr. Holder in an interview. "Crack cocaine still drives most of the violence in this city, but marijuana violence is increasing. We need to nip it in the bud."

Here's more from Holder, in an interview with Insight Magazine in 2000:

Insight: What examples of the human cost of drug abuse did you witness when you were walking the streets of the district?

EH: I saw it in a stark way when I was a judge in the district - when I actually had the people in front of me who were defendants of drug-related violence. It's not an overstatement to say the drug problem has fundamentally changed the district. There have been complaints that certain sectors, especially certain parts of our cities that are the most distressed, have been wiped out - a whole generation of young black men. Their lives have been ruined from involvement with drugs. It's breathtaking.

What concerns me is down the road. In 15 to 20 years we're going to see the effects of these young guys - there will be no young men and women to take leadership positions in the city. They are not going to be around. They will be dead or in jail or otherwise affected physically and mentally by drugs and they will not have the chance to lead traditional, productive lives.

Aside from a law-enforcement perspective, just as a citizen and a black man, that gives me great concern.

Insight: What did you do as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to combat the drug problem?

EH: I supported stiff penalties. I tried to get the city council to reimpose mandatory minimum sentences with regard to the drug cases we brought in Superior Court. Given the harm that drugs have done, I believe that mandatory minimum sentences are appropriate and make the [Superior Court's] drug court more effective.

Of course, drug laws aren't the only factor President-elect Obama considers in choosing an attorney general, or a vice president. But let's hope Obama listens to his own words in 2004, saying the war on drugs is "an utter failure" and supporting decriminalization of pot, instead of his drug warrior VP and AG.

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Comments (20)

I think mandatory minimums for marijuana are ridiculous. The violence caused by drugs does not happen because of pot. Crack, Heroin, cocain, E, these are the drugs that people get violent over. I am from Philadelphia, one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Ask our commish what efect marijuana has on the city and he'll laugh at you.

Posted by Sarah Gear on 11/19/2008 @ 07:03AM PT
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Marijuana is not a violent drug. The drug being in the black market causes the violence. Got to say i have never seen a person smoke marijuana or ingest marijuana and become violent, the drug has the opposite effect. This is just more propoganda crap. If it was legalized and regulated then there would be no gang violence, and terrorism asociated with it, We would have control of sale distribution and profits. We are just continuing on our blind path of ignorance if we follow mr Eric Holder.

Posted by Jason Rodin on 11/19/2008 @ 09:04AM PT
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I agree with the above statements. Some change! I think Obama is still trying to satisfy the nay sayers with his choice for AG. Fortunately, for him he does not have to satisfy others. He should really do what is right and what is symbolic of change and choose a few new faces. Holder is not a new face and his tactics are biased and traditional. I believe he knows that if the drugs were legalized there would be no competition and a smaller amount of people to exploit to aid in the big-business of the prison system. With mandatory minimums, this is where those who are arrested will end up.

Posted by Nicole Carter on 11/19/2008 @ 10:43AM PT
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Victimless crimes need to be decriminalized. The ruined lives Mr. Holder refers to have been ruined from involvement with the criminal justice system more than from involvement with drugs. You can recover from smoking marijuana. It is far more difficult to recover from a felony conviction and imprisonment. I agree with Mr. Holder when he says "It's breathtaking". But what I find breathtaking is for a black man in this country to ignore the genocide being perpetrated against his fellow black men and call for "stiffer sentences" for victimless crimes. What about what Bush and Cheney and their friends have done to us? Why not focus on them? I am against prosecuting people for victimless crimes.

Posted by Cheryl B on 11/19/2008 @ 11:52AM PT
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If the government wants to deter violent crime, focus on ways to improve social organization, not make it worse by putting a father or a mother away for having a little weed, leaving the kids with a broken home. That's how you start crime, not deter it. If it's really the drugs that our leaders want to make their mission to combat, then prioritize and start by focusing on drugs that don't come directly from the ground.

Posted by Wayne Parks on 11/19/2008 @ 05:06PM PT
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The prohibition of marijuana is turning otherwise law-abiding citizens into "Al Capone". If cannabis was legally regulated and controlled, you would have commercial businesses checking IDs, making sure that children did not have access to marijuana. You would have tax-paying businesses similar to Anheuser Busch, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, instead of organized crime such as Al Capone's illegal drug dealing of the 1920s. The fact is, marijuana is less harmful than either alchohol or tobacco; it is the prohibition that is causing the violence.

Posted by Paul Bartlett on 11/19/2008 @ 05:35PM PT
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One other note: Marijuana was legal in the United States until the head of the Bureau of Narcotics committed perjury before Congress in 1936. The government has been lying about it ever since.

Posted by Paul Bartlett on 11/19/2008 @ 05:45PM PT
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peoples lives are ruined because of law enforcement and laws that convict the 'criminals' ... not the drugs.people can recover from drug addiction but police records last a lifetime.
legalize it
give me liberty, not death and incarceration

equal rights

Posted by louis R on 11/19/2008 @ 06:46PM PT
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The black market is what causes violence. Prohibiting a substance is like giving dealers a buisness liscence. Why is it ok for people to drink alcohol which is widely known to cause violence, and kill people. But when it comes to something that creates a sense of pascifisim that's wrong. I'm not saying all drugs are ok. But Cannabis has some benefits for medical and spiritual use. Is it ok that a student that got arrested on a drug cause gets there aide taken away? If a person is given a felony for a drug charge that's gonna prevent them from finding work. Which causes a number of problems. And witha near a million arrests last yr for posession or marijuana alone, most being simple possesion, wouldn't that damage the economy? Unemployment, social issues, housing ect?

Posted by anonjff bllak on 11/19/2008 @ 11:44PM PT
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What we have to ask ourselves is what priorities have we most worried about. It would be my pleasure to have an attorney general that agreed with my own views on the drug war, however the incoming President it seems has decided that putting this black man into this position is something more important than justice for those who can benefit from canabis's medical benifits, or any harm a 60 plus year domestic war has on the black community, or anyone in Illinois for that matter. This issue was not raised in the campaign and I find it distressing that those who want this issue delt with; the drug war, would find it worth commenting on at this point. Senator Obama seems comfortable in this man being confirmable and it seems to me that he has other ideas of what needs to happen first for the country, and I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt until he is in office. I am personaly troubled with the potential hiering of a AG that thinks in these terms, yet I don't see a fight over an issue that most pot smoking americans would not admit to anyone at work or church or school or even to themselves at this point in the game to be beneficial or prudent to fight over. I didn't here the press or Mr. Obama say one thing about the drug war since he has been elected and I don't think he intends to be drawn into a fight that would detract from an agenda that has yet to be revealed or revialed. Any Gov. fearing republican or Fox news watcher it seams would love to get him on his heals and I think he's smarter than that. No attorney general makes law, they only enforce the ones there. So I say to those who want change to go out and effect it by writing the law makers and expressing your ideas, just expressing an opinion seems to me to be falling short of partisopating in democracy, and isn't that what needs to keep happening for us to get our country back?

Posted by Jason Zajac on 11/19/2008 @ 11:50PM PT
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One can only hope that President-elect Obama receives better advice and more thoroughly "vets" Eric Holder. A little more research into Eric Holder's public record in goverment service should give anyone pause before considering this man for the post of Attorney General. There are any number of more qualified persons who do not carry the baggage of past poor judgement and unethical behavior while serving the people of this nation.

Posted by Cynthia W on 11/20/2008 @ 12:50AM PT
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Rep. Jim Ramstad's name is being tossed around as a possible drug czar under Obama. He is a recovering substance abuser himself and has advocated treatment programs, so that sounds like a good thing.

But he has also consistently voted against medicinal marijuana laws. More of the same?

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/1108/Ramstad_for_Drug_Czar.html

Posted by Matt Kelley on 11/20/2008 @ 05:21AM PT
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I agree with most of what is being said on this blog except that Eric Holder's position on mandatory minimum sentences and his position against legalizing marijuana are not trivial details. These positions are the issues that set the tone of prosecution, criminalization, incarceration, and life-ruining decisions that affect all of us. Many of us believe we need to concentrate on building more schools, not more prisons. And, we need to stop prosecuting victimless crimes - especially smoking marijuana - which has medicinal purposes and is extremely unlikely to lead to any violence if it is legalized. I agree that discussing these issues is not the same as influencing the outcome and therefore is not a completely satisfactory passtime. I applaud any appointee who does not believe in torture and who will honor and uphold the constitution but I would like to see even more improvement.

Posted by Cheryl B on 11/20/2008 @ 07:48AM PT
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I live in Texas. I worked so long and so hard for Obama that I am saddened and concerned about the cabinet he is forming. Eric Holden came under Janet Reno's wing shortly after the murder of 84 people in Waco, by the FBI, ATF and Janet Reno's orders, given by B. Clinton. Next, it looks like Hillary Clinton will become our Secretary Of State. She was sleeping next to the man who made the horrid decision to use CS tear gas on the Branch Davidians (or whatever). Let us not forget that 21 of those burned alive were children. Being Christian and Episcopal, I do not fully understand cults, but I do undertstand human rights.
Everything America stands for fell on that day. I freely worked and sweated enough hours for our President elect , that I feel he should at least, listen to my concerns. The world is watching.Our country is on it's knees. The CHANGE promised is growing bitter.

Posted by poet abbey on 11/20/2008 @ 01:10PM PT
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Let's just legalise everything. Freedom of Choice, isn't that what it is all about. We should be able to do whatever we want. Drugs only hurt people when you make it so hard to get them. All people want is to get high. Why should that be any of your business. We need to make life more fair, that seems to be what it is all about. I thought we were going to have change, what happened to that?

Posted by Gary T on 11/23/2008 @ 04:06PM PT
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What a pity! With the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons_in_the_United_States), you'd think we'd be asking ourselves...why...and how much it costs us in taxes?
And the cost of prisons doesn't cover the money we will be paying to support the families of people who wind up in jail and can never get a good job again.
Let's hope Holder has a change of mind and heart!

Posted by Patricia Martin on 12/02/2008 @ 05:47PM PT
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The United States has built a huge infrastructure to investigate a prosectue drug crimes. The drug war is not about protecting society from the dangers of drug use. The entire criminal justice system would have to be restructured if drugs were legalized or even if marijuana alone were legalized. Police departments would have much more free time if drugs were legal. It's sad that this country of "free" citizens can't enjoy a little recreation without the risk of encarceration. It's even sadder that individuals with serious drug problems become prisoners instead of patients. Much of the western world, out side of the United States, is taking "radical" approaches to drug problems. They are treating people instead of punishing people.
It's sad that two of my friends have died from drinking alcohol and a third was seriously injured yet accept the social risks of alcohol consumption while criminalizing a relatively harmless substance like marujuana. I would feel safer riding in a car with a person who is high on marijuana than a doctor or police officer who has gotten 6 hours of sleep in the past three days. The people I know who smoke marijuana have only been harmed by the criminal justice system, not drug use.
Unfortunately there are thousands of people across the United States who make their living from frighting illegal drugs and several states such as North Carolina and Tennessee that earn millions of dollars in revenue from unauthorized substance taxes.
The drug war is not about protecting citizens or about human justice. It's about money and politcs and its one of the biggest hypocricies of government and one of the biggest exploitations of the American people of the past 100 years.

Posted by Tony Adames on 01/09/2009 @ 07:40AM PT
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This guy is so blind to the truth.

Posted by Luke Gustafson on 01/12/2009 @ 03:05PM PT
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you guys forget. They dont want to listen to the poeple. Normal people would laugh at this. How does goverment get so out of touch with the people? It makes me sick to my stomach that our opinoins are lost due to deaf ears. Does anyone see the hypocrysis in this. One poeple no voice.

Posted by Jared Babin on 01/17/2009 @ 10:07AM PT
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ERIC HOLDER!!? GET A CLUE!!

Posted by derrick steele on 04/01/2009 @ 10:00AM PT
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Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.