Who would've thunk it? Turns out that former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) doesn't believe in jail terms for drug users. At least I guess that's what this story means:
U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a musician in his own right, helped secure the release of Atlanta R&B producer Dallas Austin from a Dubai jail after a drug conviction, the senator's office confirmed Saturday. In a statement released through his staff, the conservative Republican said he was contacted by Austin's attorneys, then called the ambassador and consul of the United Arab Emirates in Washington on Austin's behalf. A Grammy winner who has produced hits for Madonna, Pink and TLC, Austin was arrested May 19 and convicted of drug possession for bringing 1.26 grams of cocaine into Dubai.
Surely Hatch thinks regular old Americans are due the same consideration as a Grammy-winning singer. He'd advocate the release of any American convicted of possessing 1.26 grams of cocaine, right? Or are politicians hypocrites? Could it be that they think average Americans like Richard Paey should go to jail for using large amounts of painkillers, but not celebrities like Rush Limbaugh? Could it be that they laugh about their own past drug use while supporting a policy that arrests 1.5 million Americans a year, as a classic John Stossel "Give Me a Break" segment showed? (Not online, unfortunately, but you can read a commentary here.) Putting people in jail for using drugs is bad enough. Putting the little people in jail while politicians chortle over their own drug use and pull strings to get celebrities out of jail is hypocrisy on a grand scale.