Pubdate: Wed, 15 Nov 2006
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2006 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Contact: http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/contactus.pl
Website: http://www.csmonitor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/83
Author: Eric E. Sterling
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Sentencing+Commission
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

EQUAL DRUG CRIMES NEED EQUAL JAIL TIMES

For a generation, antidrug policy has been built on mistakes and tough talk.

One of our most infamous contemporary laws is the 100-to-1 difference 
in sentencing between selling crack cocaine and selling powder 
cocaine. Under federal drug laws, prison sentences are usually tied 
to the quantity of drugs the defendant trafficked. For example, 
selling 5,000 grams of powder cocaine (about a briefcase full) 
results in a mandatory 10-year prison sentence, but so does selling 
only 50 grams of crack cocaine (the weight of a candy bar).

Working for the House Judiciary Committee in 1986, I wrote the House 
bill that was the basis for that law. We made some terrible mistakes.

Those mistakes, aggravated by the Justice Department's misuse of the 
penalties, have been a disaster. Conventional wisdom is that the 
100-to-1 ratio needs to be repealed. But that's an inadequate fix.

On Tuesday, the US Sentencing Commission - the independent agency 
that gives sentencing guidelines to federal judges and advises 
Congress - held hearings on this issue. If logic prevails, in the 
next Congress we may finally see an end to one of the most unjust 
laws passed in recent memory. And that might correct the biggest 
mistake of my professional life.

We still cling to 20-year-old ideas that crack is uniquely harmful: 
It is instantly addictive; it makes you especially violent; it causes 
women to abandon their babies; the babies of crack users will be 
basket cases. None of these are true.

Also, because crack is no longer a big news story, people mistakenly 
believe our anticocaine policy has worked. Not so. There is no 
scarcity of cocaine. Since 1986, the price of cocaine has fallen and 
the quality is better. Cocaine deaths have increased. The number of 
crack users is basically unchanged.

Drug sentences are on the national agenda again because civil rights 
supporters are justifiably outraged that almost all federal crack 
prosecutions involve people of color. And indeed, for years no whites 
were prosecuted for crack offenses in many federal courts, including 
those in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Denver, Dallas, or Boston.

Because of that, the myth developed that Congress intended to punish 
blacks - believed to be the crack users - with long sentences and let 
the white powder cocaine sniffers of Hollywood and Wall Street get 
away with light sentences. But that's not the case. Congress was 
trying to remedy a problem it believed afflicted the black community.

A second myth is that Congress chose a 100-to-1 ratio because it 
determined that crack was 100 times worse than powder cocaine. But 
the weights chosen (5 and 50 grams, versus 500 and 5,000 grams) 
weren't based on a comparison of the two drugs. Congress had no clear 
understanding of drug trafficking - or the metric system - and 
thought those weights indicated significant trafficking activity. In 
fact, tons (millions of grams) of cocaine are shipped to the US by 
the leaders, organizers, and financiers of the international drug trade.

The law was flawed, but the Justice Department still could have used 
it to target high-level traffickers. But research from the US 
Sentencing Commission shows that three-quarters of the federal 
cocaine defendants - both powder and crack - are just neighborhood 
dealers or couriers.

Congress should do what it tried to do in 1986 - make the Justice 
Department focus exclusively on high-level cases because state and 
local law enforcement cannot. There are three elements that would fix 
the problem: 1) Raise the quantity triggers for all drugs to 
realistic levels for high-level traffickers, such as 50 or 100 kilos 
of cocaine, and end the crack/powder imbalance. 2) Require the 
attorney general to approve prosecution of any case involving less 
than 50 kilos of cocaine. 3) Analyze federal drug cases district by 
district to identify agents and prosecutors who waste time and money. 
If only high-level dealers were being prosecuted by the feds, no one 
would have cause to complain about the race of the defendants.

A promising sign is that a few months ago, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) of 
Alabama, a former US attorney, introduced legislation to address the 
problem. Action on his bill is unlikely before Congress adjourns, but 
it had bipartisan support - a good sign that a political fix is viable.

The 20-year-old mistake of tiny quantity triggers has distracted both 
the Justice Department from the proper cases and reformers from the proper fix.

For a generation, antidrug policy has been built on factual mistakes 
and tough-sounding rhetoric. The American people simply need an 
effective policy. Truly, that would be tough enough.
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