Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders support marijuana reform, citing faulty data

The “war on drugs” has become a chief target for Democratic presidential hopefuls who use outsized rhetoric to say drug laws, particularly those regarding marijuana, are filling the nation’s prisons and jails with nonviolent offenders who shouldn’t be behind bars.

Front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton blamed “low-level offenses that are primarily due to marijuana,” while Sen. Bernard Sanders said states should consider legalizing marijuana out of fairness.

Wall Street CEOs aren’t held accountable, “and yet we are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana,” Mr. Sanders said.

 

There is only one problem with the rhetoric: It is factually wrong.

“The statement that the prison population is mostly low-level marijuana offenders is utterly totally bogus; there is not a shred of validity in it,” said Jonathan Caulkins, a public policy professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Mr. Caulkins said that while 20 percent of the U.S. prison...

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