The Twin Crusades Against Drugs and Guns

Americans are suffering the "unjust, cruel, and even irrational" consequences of the wars on intoxicants and firearms.

- By Jacob Sullum

Weldon Angelos grew up in a musical family. His father, a Greek immigrant, aspired to be a country singer, while relatives on his mother’s side were jazz and country musicians. Angelos’ tastes were somewhat different: By his early 20s, he had gotten a start as a rap producer.

Angelos had collaborated with well-known hip-hop artists, including Snoop Dogg. He had his own label in Salt Lake City, Extravagant Records. To supplement his income and support his two young children, Angelos also sold marijuana, which is how he ended up with a 55-year federal prison sentence.

That jaw-dropping punishment, demanded by a statute aimed at armed drug dealers, starkly illustrates how drug and gun laws interact to produce results that make a mockery of justice. In vainly striving to control inanimate objects they associate with disorder and violence, legislators create penalties that send human beings to prison for years, decades, and sometimes the rest of their lives. The combination of these twin crusades, both of which punish conduct that violates no one’s rights, is potent enough to override anything that stands in their way, including decency, proportionality, and respect for civil liberties.

‘UNJUST, CRUEL, AND EVEN IRRATIONAL’