Grim's reporting has an interesting disclaimer - earlier work writing for a separate advocacy group was independent from this report, the group not being his story source.
Ramstad's history supports a view that if the job were his, DEA and other federal attention would be less incarceration-punishment oriented for possession offenses, and more focused on keeping citizens productively in the economy, aka rehabilitation, treatment, etc.
First time possession offense incarceration and mandatory sentencing for specific offenses has to be resulting in a lot of plea bargaining, defendants pleading to attempted possession and such fictions where a lesser plea (without jail time) is arranged to keep the court calendar volume lower, etc. Diversion into counseling and treatment programs is possible.
Yet there cannot be too much of that, or else the profitability of those for-profit privately run prison firms will not do as well as their advocates and investors might wish. (Click on the below image to read BBC opening paragraphs, or read the entire story at the link just given).
