Word: reform
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...traffickers, not small handlers. But the reason they have gained little in their fight is that some state legislators believe the changes in the law were enough and that many of those who have already been released are really major drug traffickers who should still be imprisoned, and further reform could prove dangerous...
...reform and as a result, we provided for discretion and reductions in sentencing," said State Sen. George Winner, who explained that the changes have already resulted in loopholes for people who once controlled major drug operations. "I am not in favor of further weakening the drug law sentencing provisions. I agree that the drug kingpins should have the stiffest penalties, but some of them are using the reforms to their advantage and getting out. As a result of these things, I think we should go slow about...
Until they win a change in sentencing guidelines, activists hope to win support for their cause simply by spreading the word. They hope a planned wide release of a documentary entitled Lockdown USA, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006, will help restart a push for reform. "The problem is that they are using a prison cell to address what should be public health issue," says Gabriel Sayegh, a project director at the Drug Policy Alliance. "This isn't the criminal justice system we're supposed to have in this country...
...Venezuela's President last December, I had a long talk with National Assembly Deputy and constitutional lawyer Carlos Escarra inside the legislature's colonial-era chamber in downtown Caracas. Escarra, a close Chavez ally, is a driving force behind the campaign to eliminate presidential term limits in Venezuela - a reform that Chavez's critics fear would let him rule for life and create a left-wing dictatorship...
...Escarra was telling me then what Chavez himself told his critics this week from his lectern at the National Assembly, as he formally proposed the term-limit reform and a host of other constitutional changes: "I recommend," said Chavez, "that they take a Valium." In other words, Chill out. If French Presidents can seek re-election indefinitely, say the chavistas, why can't Venezuela's? If Americans could re-elect Franklin Roosevelt four times, they ask, why can't we re-elect Chavez as many times...