Mitch Daniels' pot luck: the Indiana governor's escape from prison taught him the importance of being tough on drug users.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Columns

IN FEBRUARY, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told The Daily Princetonian that "justice was served" when he was arrested for marijuana possession during his junior year at Princeton four decades ago. But like many pot smokers who became politicians, Daniels, a potential contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, seems to have two standards of justice: one for him and one for anyone else who does what he did.

Although Daniels was caught with enough pot to trigger a prison sentence, he got off with a $350 fine. Yet he has advocated "jail time" for "casual users"--a stark illustration of the schizophrenic attitudes that help perpetuate unjust drug policies.

According to the Princetonian, "officers found enough marijuana in [Daniels'] room to fill two size 12 shoe boxes" Under current New Jersey law, possessing more than 50 grams of marijuana is a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison. Given the amount of pot Daniels had, he easily could have been charged with intent to distribute, which under current law triggers a penalty of three to five years.

At the time of Daniels' arrest in May 1970, New Jersey's marijuana penalties were even more severe. Six months after his arrest, the state Supreme Court decided a case involving an 18-year-old who received a sentence of two to three years after police found a pot pipe and part of a joint in his house.

Concluding that "the sentence was entirely too harsh," the court ruled that "a suspended sentence with an appropriate term of probation is sufficient penalty for a person who is convicted for the first time of possessing marihuana for his own use." But given the legal situation prior to this ruling, Daniels was very lucky to escape with no more than a fine. This lenient treatment was possible because he did not plead guilty to marijuana possession--only to the lesser offense of "maintaining a common nuisance."

In 1989, when he was president of the Hudson Institute, Daniels recounted his brush with the law in a Washington Post op-ed piece. Amazingly, he did so in support of harsher treatment for "casual users," who he said were getting off too lightly.

"Absent a resumption of enforcement against the casual user," Daniels wrote, "we will neither...