Pubdate: Wed, 20 Apr 2005
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2005 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.charleston.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Author: Schuyler Kropf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

SENATE BILL WOULD TREAT DRUG OFFENSES THE SAME

For nearly two decades, the maximum penalty for possessing crack cocaine in 
South Carolina has been more than double that of powdered coke.

The reason, according to some, is rooted in stereotypes that crack is an 
urban drug used mostly by the poor, while powdered cocaine is the illegal 
drug of choice for wealthy suburbanites.

A measure quickly moving through the state Legislature would treat both 
addictive drugs the same -- a change advocates say corrects a knee-jerk 
approach to the war on drugs almost 20 years after the first crack arrests.

"The only answer I got was that people who used crack seemed to be more 
violent," said veteran state lawmaker Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Columbia, a 
longtime critic of prosecuting crack and coke differently. "That seemed to 
me so biased and so unfair."

South Carolina's penalties for crack and cocaine differ greatly. A first 
offense of possession of powdered cocaine is a misdemeanor carrying a 
prison sentence of no more than two years. A similar crack offense is a 
felony carrying up to a five-year prison sentence.

Under a bill the Senate passed Tuesday, a first offense for either drug 
would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to three years in prison.

The change comes as lawmakers seek uniformity in the state's drug 
possession laws, largely because of the recent appearance of 
methamphetamine, a manufactured and addictive form of speed taking root in 
the state.Under the bill, possession of meth would be treated just as 
cocaine and crack.

Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said 
lawmakers for years have been talking about the disparity in punishment for 
two forms of the same drug.

Crack, which is manufactured from cocaine, typically is smoked; cocaine, 
snorted.

Fair said the meth problem helped drive this bill. "It was an opportunity 
for people who were having trouble disagreeing on everything" to get 
together, he said.

"A drug is a drug, why the difference?" said Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, 
who favors the switch.

Charleston County's first crack-cocaine arrest occurred on July 11, 1986, 
when a migrant farm worker was busted on Johns Island.

Today, crack, cocaine and marijuana are the most predominant drugs on the 
county's prosecution docket.

"It certainly hasn't fallen by any means," said 9th Circuit Assistant 
Solicitor Daniel Dickert, who said crack and powder-cocaine prosecutions 
are about equal.

"Cocaine, crack and marijuana all seem to be on an even keel in Charleston 
County," Dickert said.

South Carolina's move to make its cocaine laws uniform is part of a 
national trend.

A recent study showed that about 40 states had done the same thing, said 
Eric E. Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation in 
Silver Spring, Md.

"I think it's long overdue legislation," said the Rev. Joseph Darby, first 
vice president of the Charleston branch office of the South Carolina NAACP. 
"I would hope now it will be followed by some serious reform of drug laws."

Fair, chairman of the corrections committee, said he didn't know what the 
change would do to the state's already crowded prisons.

"We'll just have to be prepared for that," he said.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where Fair expects it 
to pass before the session ends.
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