Grinnell, Ia. – America needs to reconsider its punitive approach to "the so-called war on drugs," presidential candidate John Edwards said here today.

"We're not going to build enough prisons to solve this problem," he told a crowd of about 800 at Grinnell College.

The former North Carolina senator grinned when a young man sitting behind him on stage asked about drug policy. “Only on college campuses," Edwards joked before answering.

He said he’s especially concerned about mandatory minimum sentences for first-time drug offenders, which he said should be reconsidered. He added that too few drug offenders get treatment.

"You go to jail, you come out of jail, and a lot of people go right back to the environment that got them in trouble to begin with," he said. "…We need to get them the help that they need; if they need education, if they need job training, if they need drug rehabilitation." [Des Moines Register]

This is a big improvement following Edwards's very recent remarks claiming that discussion of marijuana decriminalization "sends the wrong signal to young people."

What happened? It really is kinda nutty to dismiss a puny little reform like marijuana decrim, only to then stand up weeks later and question the fundamentally punitive nature of the drug war on the whole. My guess is Edwards realized he wasn't scoring any points with that tired old "sends the wrong message" nonsense.

The mere specter of our massive criminal justice system -- bloated with non-violent drug offenders -- sends the wrong message to everyone. It's good that Edwards finally worked up the nerve to say so.