Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jul 2000
Source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (TX)
Copyright: 2000 The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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NEW MEXICO DEFENSE ATTORNEY ADVOCATES LESSER DRUG PENALTIES

SANTA FE (AP) A defense lawyer suggests New Mexico could reduce crowding in
its prisons, save money and cut crime by lowering the penalties for drug
possession and emphasizing treatment for addicts.

"I am here today because I am appalled by the number of individuals being
sentenced to prison for possession of drugs and low-level trafficking,"
Jacqueline Cooper, an Albuquerque public defender, told the interim
legislative Courts and Criminal Justice Committee on Friday.

"We need to treat drug offenders for what they are. They are addicts ...
they are mentally ill people with substance-abuse problems," she said.

She proposed reducing first and second drug-possession charges to
misdemeanors with mandatory treatment as a condition of probation. Current
law considers possession of drugs, even trace amounts, fourth-degree
felonies.

Cooper also proposed setting penalties according to the amount of drugs
being given away or sold.

"The vast majority of the trafficking cases are for one-rock (crack) sales
to undercover police officers, and these people are drug addicts," she said.

"People who sell one rock of crack cocaine are not the same as people
selling 1 kilo of cocaine. They should not be treated the same," Cooper
said.

Dealers caught twice selling small amounts of crack now face a mandatory
18-year sentence, about the same as for raping a child, and three years more
than a conviction of second-degree murder carries, Cooper said.

But Rep. Joe Mohorovic, R-Albuquerque, said reducing penalties for low-level
drug deals is moving in the wrong direction. Mohorovic, who coaches
football, said his 13-year-old players often are approached after practice
by gang members trying to entice recruits by giving away crack cocaine.

"This proposal will curtail law enforcement's ability to crack down on gang
recruitment," he said. "Those gang recruiters, they don't need drug
treatment. They don't need counseling. They need to go to jail."

William Parnall, president of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers
Association, turned the argument around. A 13-year-old football player who
accepts that crack should receive drug counseling and not be saddled with a
fourth-degree felony, Parnall said.

"A football player with a crack problem should have a different penalty than
the one who is providing the stuff, who really is trafficking," Parnall
said.

Rep. R. David Pederson, D-Gallup, said it "doesn't seem to make a lot of
sense" that penalties for possession of illegal drugs, other than marijuana,
do not differentiate between amounts.

According to Cooper's statistics, about 20 percent of prison admissions in
New Mexico in 1996 and 1997 were for drug offenses.

The legislative committee is expected to further consider the proposal, and
whether to support it during next year's legislative session, in November.

Of 1,377 people sent to prison in fiscal year 1997, 286 were convicted of
breaking drug laws 94 percent of them convicted of possession only. Cooper
said it will cost an estimated $26 million to keep those 286 drug offenders
from 1997 jailed for the length of their sentences.

Making first- and second-possession charges misdemeanors would keep
offenders from being "stripped of their constitutional rights," including
the right to vote, bear arms and serve in the military, for substance-abuse
problems, Cooper said.

Because misdemeanor cases move more quickly through the courts, offenders
could promptly be put into treatment, rather than returned to the streets to
continue using drugs and committing crimes while awaiting trial, she said.

The state District Attorneys Association plans to draft a response to
Cooper's proposal, said District Attorney Henry Valdez of Santa Fe. He said
one concern is that drug dealers will adjust to take advantage of
misdemeanor penalties for low-quantity sales.

"If you set it at a fifth of a gram, that's what people are going to sell,"
Valdez said.
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