[eganist]

> Pretty obviously because—

It's not. It might seem to be the case to you, me, and others with some understanding of the legal system in the United States, but when we consider the background knowledge of the legal system required to understand how cases are adjudicated, this is objectively quite generally not obvious.

> (Relatively few people are at this point in jail for smoking pot, for whatever that's worth to you).

Compared to what? If Virginia is any indication of trends among non-decriminalized or non-legalized states, it's relatively high. (I'm nitpicking, of course: there's a substantial difference between jail and prison; I'm assuming your definition—innocently, mind you—does not distinguish between the two.) https://ww.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/n...

[tptacek]

Virginia should jail fewer weed users. I mean, it's going to legalize recreational marijuana within the next 10 years like everyone else; the ship has sailed. What are we arguing about?

What's obvious is that a complicated white-collar fraud case is harder to prosecute than a trivial drug possession case. You don't need to know anything about the criminal justice system to grasp that.