NEW YORK–All last week my colleague, Anderson Cooper, fanned the flames of an already heated debate in this country: Whether to legalize marijuana. Anderson and his producers don't pretend to have the answer to the question, any more than to the multibillion dollar illegal drug problem in America. But the first step toward finding the answer begins with pot.

The War on Drugs has been an utter failure; we need to shift the paradigm from war to public-health, starting with nonviolent, first-time drug offenders.

Nearly 800,000 Americans are arrested every year for marijuana-related crimes (90 per cent of them for possession), with approximately 60,000 to 85,000 of them doing some time on those charges.

To impose felony convictions on people for possession of pot - sending them to prison, for an advanced degree in the criminal enterprise - is short sighted, expensive, counterproductive, and just doesn't make sense.

If nothing else, there's economics: Legalized marijuana would generate between $10 and $14 billion in savings and taxes every year. The government can regulate it and tax it.

But admittedly, it is not an easy question for a kid, like me, from the projects and a community ravaged by drug use.

Smoking pot is not lighthearted recreation. It is a drug, like heroin and meth.

And that is why President Obama will probably disappoint reformers. He is not likely to push for legalization; but he is also not likely to continue on a blind path of prohibition.

Given the passion and good policy arguments on both sides, perhaps the President should do something that hasn't been done since the 1970s - convene a blue ribbon panel of experts on drug policy. A Presidential Cannabis Commission, if you will. The commission can look at the issue, and send up some smoke signals on how best to proceed on the important issue of whether to finally legalize pot, or not.

–Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–Prisoners have no constitutional right to DNA testing that might prove their innocence, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has apparently decided that the finality of a conviction is more important than making sure the right person was convicted in the first place.

With all due respect to the court, this decision, which came down yesterday, is wrong. The case was brought by William Osborne, convicted in 1993 of a rape which he says he did not commit. For years, he sought DNA testing, but in Alaska, there is no law granting access to DNA. So Mr. Osborne took his case all the way up to the Supreme Court, which said yesterday that the states should decide, and found that Osborne's rights were not violated when he was denied access to the DNA in his case.

The Innocence Project has more than 250 active clients right now and thousands of cases in evaluation; and of course, they will continue to fight for and win DNA testing through the state courts. But for prisoners in those states that do not provide access, prisoners with nowhere else to turn but the federal courts, the Supreme Court’s decision is devastating.

So, it is more important now than ever that the last three hold out states - Alaska, Massachusetts and Oklahoma - pass laws granting access. DNA has played a role in at least 240 exonerations. In 103 of those cases, the test also identified the real perpetrator. Access to DNA testing should be a protected right for all prisoners with a valid claim of innocence. It is not just about the plight of the innocent. It is about truth and ultimate justice.

–Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking Barack Obama to take a more humane approach to flies in the White House. As in house flies. As if the president of the United States doesn't have bigger things to worry about. Apparently PETA doesn't think so because they are actually sending the "flyswatter in chief" a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher. The 'Katcha Bug' is a humane bug catcher of some sort, a device that would allow the President to trap a house fly and then release it outside. PETA says the device ensures compassion for the “smallest and least sympathetic animals” – the fly. (Last I checked the housefly was an insect. Not an animal, but that's another discussion for another day).

The current controversy started during a television interview at the White House on Tuesday, during which a fly went by. Ever cool, Mr. Obama shooed it. When that didn't work he waited for the fly to settle and smacked - dead. This was a show of strength from our president at a time when our country needs a strong leader.

As for the fly, I mean animal, if PETA really cares about their ethical treatment, it should take a look at Obama's voting record in the Senate, which was pretty good on animal rights.

And more to the point, what PETA is asking of our president would simply not be presidential.
It is precisely the kind of nonsense that makes PETA ineffective, if not a laughing-stock among do-gooder organizations. do we really want our commander-in-chief to carry a 'Katcha Bug' with him everywhere he goes? Or perhaps we want to spend our tax dollars to hire a 'Katcha Bug' carrier to walk with the president at all times. Maybe we ought to assign a secret service agent that task? Or perhaps the president should simply do what that old lady did, and swallow the fly?

-Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK – The families of two American journalists convicted of “hostilities against the Korean nation” and sentenced to hard labor in a North Korean prison camp are speaking out. The families of Euna Lee and Laura Ling say that yesterday’s news from North Korea said that the women had admitted crossing into the country illegally was the first (and only) word they have had about them since last week’s sentencing.

A South Korean activist holding pictures of U.S. journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling

Of course, Americans visiting other countries must follow their laws. If we don't, we will be subject to their system of justice, no matter how undemocratic it may be. In this case, however, Lee and Ling weren't in North Korea; they were in China. Even if they did cross the border, they have apologized, publicly, privately and repeatedly.

None of that matters, however, because this is much bigger than two women in search of a story. Lee and Ling are caught in the midst of a diplomatic standoff between North Korea and the United States, as North Korea's nuclear weapons program gains steam. It is clear the North Koreans want to use Lee and Ling to send a message; but it’s the wrong message.

Holding these women will only make matters worse for North Korea, in the eyes of the United States - and the United Nations. If compassion doesn't instruct the North Korean government to release Lee and Ling, hopefully smart diplomatic strategy will.

-Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–I grew up on the New York City subway, and I have a love-hate relationship with it: The rats, the heat, the unknown substances dripping on to my head.

The so-called "Subway Vigilante" Bernie Goetz

The old "Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" captured it back in it in all it’s gritty 1970s splendor. But that was fiction; fact is, nothing gets you where you need go faster.

You just need the psychological wherewithal to enter the belly of the beast. There is no way out, and you know it; but you try not to think about it, especially on days like today: The anniversary of the verdict in the case of the so-called subway vigilante. I thought Bernhard Goetz was guilty; but the fact that it all happened on the subway was not lost on me, or apparently on the jury, since they acquitted him of shooting four black teenagers late at night on the Downtown 2 express.

Most people thought his fear was reasonable; but even his supporters agreed that, if it hadn't happened on the subway, that fear would have been unreasonable.

Underground is just different. You feel trapped down there because you are.

But you make your peace with it, for convenience sake. (My commute is 18 minutes door-to-door. If I take the bus, it's 40. If I walk it's an hour.)

Bernie Goetz? That was a long time ago. So, it was all good until this: A new "Pelham" hit theaters, this week. Everyone's worst fears realized - terrorism underground. It’s one big giant flashback. Or is it a flash forward? Great.

Now I am back at my psychological square one: I have to start all over again, conquer my fear, step all the way in and watch the closing doors.

–Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–Lord have mercy! Madonna has just won the next stage of her legal battle to adopt a little girl from the southern African nation of Malawi. It is an answer to Madonna’s prayers, and no doubt little Mercy’s too.

Madonna with her son, a Malawian adoptee

I can understand the country's reluctance. No one wants to encourage baby marketing or child trafficking; but clearly that is not what the multi-millionaire pop star is about. She has two biological children and one little boy she’s already adopted from Malawi, several years ago. If little Mercy joins their family, he will have a sister who shares his history and cultural roots. He and Mercy will also share in a lifestyle far beyond the reach of most children in Malawi.

I know this, because I've been there. It is a beautiful place. The skies are clear and brightly lit with sunshine, the countryside is glorious and the people are warm, open and friendly. However, Malawi is also among the world's least developed and most densely populated countries. Life expectancy is just 37.8 years; infant mortality is 114 deaths per 1000.

There can be little doubt that Mercy will fare better here than she would there.

That is not to say that adoption of an African child by a wealthy white woman is the ideal in an ideal world. But we don't live in an ideal world. We live in world full of disparities - between black and white, rich and poor, east and west.

That Madonna wants to share some of her good fortune with these children speaks volumes about her character. That Malawi is finally ready to make the bittersweet decision to Mercy go - to free her to enjoy that good fortune - speaks volumes for the little country and what it will someday become.

Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–Finally, a verdict in the so called "fake Rockefeller" case. After 26 hours and 27 minutes of deliberations over five days, a Boston, Massachusetts jury found Christian Gerhartsreiter guilty of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, but not guilty of simple assault or furnishing a false identity to law enforcement.

Christian Gerhartsreiter walks out of courtroom in handcuffs after guilty verdict

The split decision helps us to understand what took the jury so long to reach its verdict. Put simply, the case wasn't as simple as it seemed.

First of all, it is not a crime to call yourself a Rockefeller or a Kennedy or anything else for that matter. It only became a crime here when Christian Gerhartsreiter gave the name "Clark Rockefeller" to police. The more serious charge, of course, was kidnapping; and while kidnapping is of course a crime, it was understandably difficult to convict a man for kidnapping his own child.

That leaves the assault and battery with a deadly weapon; and that's where Gerhartsreiter really ran into trouble because, as relatively benign as this case seems, as compared to all the rapes and murders we cover on cable, there is a real victim here: Howard Yaffee, the social worker who took it on the chin to protect his charge - little Snook’s, the child at the center of this mess.

Add to that, the whole question of insanity - which is never simple and it's really no wonder the jury was out for so long.

So whatever you think of their verdict, there is no doubt this jury took its time with the facts; these jurors wrestled with the law. There can really be no question that this jury got it right.

–Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK – The shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum by a self-described anti-government racist is just the latest example of the rising tide of hate in America. Barack Obama may be the President, but we'd be foolish to we think that racial hatred is a thing of the past. It's not.

FBI investigators in front of the bullet-ridden door at the Holocaust Memorial Museum

Extremism is undeniable to those who have the courage to look at the facts. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups across America, rising unemployment, anti-immigrant sentiment, and the fact that we have our first African-American president are inspiring a new generation of angry young men - and no small number of women - to extremism and hate.

Today marks the anniversary of the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy Mcveigh; but white supremacism and anti-government hate did not die with him. The militia movement receded from the headlines post 9/11, but it is alive and well.

The shooter at the Holocaust Museum, James von Brunn, had a long history of hate. A security guard there, Stephen Johns, was shot and killed doing the job he was hired to do, protecting citizens at a museum dedicated to tolerance. Ultimately, Johns was defending our freedom, including the freedom of people like von Brunn to harbor hate.

Extremists do not, however, have the freedom to act on their hate; so, we must be vigilant about exposing it - and stamping it out.

-Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–After weeks of waiting, Robert Higbee heard the words he wanted to hear: Not Guilty.The state trooper was acquitted of all charges related to a car crash that killed two teenage sisters one night in 2006. Trooper Higbee never denied that he caused the crash in pursuit of a speeder, but insisted throughout that it was an accident and that he'd followed police procedure.

Robert Higbee walks out of courthouse after being cleared by jury

The New Jersey jury believed Higbee and found him not guilty.

This is the right result in the controversial case and here's why: The criminal justice system is about just that, criminal justice. It is not about civil justice or turning back the hands of time, no matter how much we may want to do so. The criminal courts cannot be all things to all people. They do not provide some sort of cathartic rush that will ease the pain of a parent who loses a child; and a verdict in a criminal case - guilty or not - never, ever provides closure.

No one seems to understand this more than Maria Caiafa, the mother of the two young girls who lost their lives in this case. Before the trial began she saw her way, through her grief, to hug Robert Higbee; and after the verdict, she met briefly with him, behind closed doors. What was said between them, we will never know. It was a private moment and that is as it should be.

Maria Caiafa seems to understand better than anyone that to send Robert Higbee to prison would only have compounded this tragedy. Even as a free man, Higbee will never be free of the knowledge that he killed her girls. That is punishment enough.

–Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–Two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, have been convicted of "severe crimes" in North Korea. North Korea is not a country known for its fair trials, so we don't know what these “severe crimes” are; but we do know that the women had previously been charged with “hostile acts” and espionage - which, of course, fuels rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea and calls for a delicate diplomatic balancing act.

Euna Lee, left, and Laura Ling

There is the humanitarian issue: trying to get these women out; and there is the political issue: North Korea, its nuclear testing and relationship with the rest of the world.

There are no diplomatic relations between the U.S. and North Korea.

This whole mess with Laura and Euna started when they were filming a documentary on the North Korean border with China. The North Koreans say the women crossed the border illegally; but the women say they didn't intend to cross over and that, if they did, it was a mistake for which they have apologized.

No foreign diplomats or members of the press were permitted to witness the trial, which we are told lasted five days. The North Korean government simply issued a statement through its press agency to say that the trial had confirmed the charges.

Now, the U.S. State department is expressing concern. Laura's famous sister, former View co-host Lisa Ling, herself a journalist, is speaking out.Their families are distraught. Their colleagues are outraged. Euna's little girl just wants her mother home.

But instead, the women are facing 12 years hard labor in a North Korean prison camp. The 12-year sentence is considered by some to be a message from North Korea to the U.S.

Let’s hope we can send the appropriate message back, one that will convince the North Koreans to send Laura and Euna home.

–Jami Floyd, In Session anchor