Oklahoma has the second-highest incarceration rate in the United States. As usual, nonviolent drug offenses are a large reason why.
Turns out, voters in the deep-red, Trump-loving state are as sick of the drug war as effete coastal liberals. On Election Day, when other states were legalizing marijuana, Oklahomans overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that reclassified nonviolent drug possession as a misdemeanor crime rather than a felony.
With 26.3 percent of the states prison inmates doing time for drugs, and another 23.3 percent in prison for nonviolent offenses of all kinds, Oklahomas drug problem was obvious, so State Question 780 was approved with 58.23 percent in support versus41.77 percent against.
One of the felony crimes reduced to a misdemeanor was possession of drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. As a misdemeanor, that transgression still carries a penalty of up to a year in jail. But thats not good enough for state lawmakers, who have enlisted some school superintendents in pushing to reopen that school-to-prison pipeline by making penalties for victimless crimes great yet again.
State Sen. Ralph Shorteys SB 512 would roll back almost all of the drug-policy reforms voters just approved.
Simple possession of any drug aside from marijuana would become a felony again, as would a second offense involving marijuanaand possession of any drug within 1,000 feet of a school could be punished with a state prison term, according to KFOR-4. If that goes too farand it doesa similar bill, the Keep Oklahoma Children Safe From Illegal Drugs Act, would merely reinstate the 1,000-foot felony zone around schools for simple drug possession.
A thousand feet is about three city blocks. So if youre caught with weed in your pocket at night or on the weekend, andsurprise!theres a school a few blocks away, well out of sight and certainly out of session, you could go to prison.
The law also includes felony punishment for possessing drugs in the mere presence of a child under 12 years old. Think of all the situations in which someone could have drugs on them in the presence of a child, and then think about going to prison. In fact, you would be guaranteed prison: A first offense carries a maximum penalty of five years, with the provision that at least 50 percent of it must be served.
This is exactly the kind of punitive measures Oklahoma voters just voted down.
Rep. Scott Biggs, the Republican behind the school zone push, justified undoing what the voters just did with the offensive and patronizing line being used by lawmakers in other states: The voters were too stupid to realize what they actually voted for.
Heres what he had to say in a KFOR interview:
After hearing from my constituents after the election, I believe there is a large group of voters that didnt understand that this state question would essentially decriminalize drugs in schools, parks and playgrounds, said Biggs. Im all for cleaning up our books to have a more efficient justice system but not at the expense of our children.
Keep in mind that drug sales is still a felonyand also note that a misdemeanor penalty is not decriminalization. In fact, in no way or form does a misdemeanor crime qualify as decriminalizationit still involves an arrest, a prosecution, a court date and potential jail time.
Either Biggs is high, or he has no idea what law he just introduced.
It would take a staggering misunderstanding of the situation to support such a swift return to the bad old days. And horrifyingly, school superintendents, whose ...
