| Mar 22, 2017 | Environment / HealthAttorney General Jeff Sessions recently called marijuana use a “life-wrecking dependency” that is “only slightly less awful” than heroin. Really? If that were true, maybe my little brother would be alive. I don’t know the full story of my...
| Jan 20, 2016 | Rights / DemocracyYou may have heard there’s a growing political movement against mass incarceration. Someone should clue in the judges. In the past 30 years, federal judges have turned to imprisonment — as opposed to probation — as the punishment of choice for even minor crimes,...
| Sep 9, 2015 | Rights / DemocracyA New York Times obituary for Julian Bond, the civil rights icon who passed away this August, described the late leader as a “persistent opponent of the stubborn remnants of white supremacy.” Remnants? Hardly. Notwithstanding the hard-won gains of the 1960s, race...
| Jul 29, 2015 | Food / FarmingWith marijuana prohibition finally ending in states and cities across the land — including full legalization in Alaska, Colorado, Washington State, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. — who could be better than my friend Willie Nelson to lead the way for weed quality and...
| Jul 15, 2015 | Peace / SecurityIn becoming the first president ever to visit a prison with his trip to the medium-security El Reno Federal Correctional Institution near Oklahoma City, President Barack Obama has signaled that he’s serious about pushing prison reform before he leaves office....
