One of the most fundamental problems facing the American criminal justice system is debate over the answer to the following question: Is addiction a disease? Alcohol abuse was defined as an addiction by the American Medical Association in the mid 1960s, and drug abuse followed less than a decade later. Unfortunately, addiction is still widely…

Last week we wrote about a Utah man who has been in federal prison since 2004 and is currently serving a 55-year sentence. His crime involved selling a few hundred dollars’ worth of marijuana and being in possession of guns (even though they played no role in his drug dealing). How did a young man…

Several of our posts have focused on the sometimes baffling nature of America’s drug laws; particularly mandatory minimum sentences. Every year, non-violent drug offenders are given lengthy sentences that in some cases rival those given for much more serious offenses such as murder. A good example is a Utah man who is currently serving a…