Pubdate: Sun, 04 Jun 2006
Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
Copyright: 2006 The Salt Lake Tribune
Contact:  http://www.sltrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/383

JUDICIAL OVERDOSE: 'DRUG-FREE ZONES' TAKE IN TOO MUCH TERRITORY

The drug war is its own drug. You start with a little, and pretty 
soon you just need more, and more, until it has consumed your life.

Unable to stem the demand for illegal drugs, and unwilling to fully 
fund workable alternatives such as treatment and drug courts, 
lawmakers around the country have become addicted to applying 
criminal justice solutions to a public health problem.

The result has been similar to the individual who is disappointed to 
find that casual use of a softish drug hasn't solved all of his 
problems so, instead of getting clean, he moves on to larger amounts 
and/or harder drugs.

In Utah, as in other states, one step up the crack-down ladder was 
the idea of the "drug-free zone." The law draws a circle, usually 
with a 1,000-foot radius, around a school and adds extra penalties 
for those caught peddling drugs within that area. The reasonable idea 
is to come down harder on the scum who sell dangerous drugs to school 
children than on those who deal to, say, fellow members of their 
motorcycle gang.

Utah, though, doesn't just draw such circles around schools and 
churches. It applies the stiffer penalties - the first-degree felony 
standard more commonly applied to killers and rapists - to drug 
crimes committed within 1,000 feet of shopping centers, parks, 
shopping malls, sports facilities and parking lots.

But it can be difficult to find a part of any town that isn't that 
close to one of those uses. Thus there are many more long - and, to 
the taxpayers, expensive - prison terms for minor offenders who were 
never even accused of pushing drugs to children.

And, according to current and former members of the Utah Board of 
Pardons and Parole, it has also encouraged law enforcement agencies 
to deliberately stage their stings and undercover buys within those 
zones. That gives them a hammer to elicit guilty pleas out of 
suspects who might have beat the rap if they had gone to trial, but 
who didn't want to risk first-degree sentences that, in theory, could 
stretch into life in prison.

The parole board and the Utah Sentencing Commission have seen that 
this particular anti-drug law amounts to a judicial overdose, and 
they are asking the Legislature to ease up. That's exactly what it should do.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman