Italy Poised to Release 10,000 Cannabis Inmates

Italy is poised to release about ten thousand inmates due to a shift in sentencing laws that eases punishment for cannabis use, growth and possession. The change comes as a result of the striking down of a law that previously tripled cannabis related sentences.

The estimate is that about 40% of Italian inmates were convicted of drug related crimes. In reality, this “new” law is not new at all. The Italian judicial system is rather reverting back to the previous law (prior to the ludicrous mandatory tripling of sentence law). After this takes effect, hard drugs like cocaine and heroin will result in much longer sentences than cannabis infractions. For some it means they would be released on time served, for others it’s a reduction in sentencing from 6-20 years down to 2-6 years.

Franco Corleone, member of the human rights group Society of Reason stated, “…the so-called drug war as conceived in North America has been lost and it’s time to return to rational rules that distinguish between substances.”

Carlo Giovanardi, Senator and one of the original authors of the triple-sentence law said the ruling was “…a devastating choice from a scientific viewpoint and in the message it sends to young people that some drugs are less dangerous than others.”

*sigh*

It’s at once comforting and confounding that this is occurring in a country outside of America. I’m happy for the inmates who will get some of their lives back, but I think the old law is also too strict. Even 2-6 years for cannabis possession is insane. On the other hand, that comment from Senator head-in-his-ass up there seems like it fell right from Kevin Sabet’s mouth. Even more infuriating is that he invokes science then goes on to de facto claim that all drugs are equally dangerous.

It is that kind of talk from politicians that is far more dangerous than the drug itself. Some young people do take what their elected leaders say as gospel, seeing them as smart, authoritative bodies. When these young people are out at a party and they happen to try cannabis for the first time and realize that it’s not nearly as scary as they have been told, they are likely much more apt to try something hard that really will hurt them because they assume that if the authority figure was so off on pot, they’ve got to be off on the hard drugs too.

It’s the same shit we deal with from our politicians, but I was hoping that America was alone in this anachronistic cannabis perspective.

As an interesting side note, the entire country of Italy has roughly 60,000 inmates and is the most overcrowded jail system in the European Union. America, by comparison, was approaching more than 2.5 million inmates as of 2012. The number has surely climbed since. Now, from a statistical perspective, America has a much larger total population so the number of inmates should be expected to be higher. But even an apples to apples comparison tell us that Italy, with the most crowded jails in Europe, incarcerates 8 times less people than America does. I don’t even know where to begin the discussion of the many, many flaws of the US justice system, but I thought it was worth noting.