Take another crack at that cocaine law

[madmusic]

By Eric E. Sterling, ERIC E. STERLING, president of the nonprofit Criminal Justice Policy Foundation in Silver Spring, Md., was counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, principally responsible for anti-drug legislation,
November 13, 2006

ONE OF OUR MOST infamous contemporary laws is the 100-1 difference in sentencing between crack cocaine and 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) gets 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 Conventional wisdom is that the 100-1 ratio needs to be repealed. But that's an inadequate fix.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Sentencing Commission — the independent agency that gives sentencing guidelines to federal judges and advises Congress — will hold 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.

more: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-sterling13nov13,0,3353997.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

[Nozebro]

1. The MOST "terrible" mistake was criminalizing what we ingest.

If Mr. Sterling was as interested in justice as in making himself look better, he'd advocate legalizing natural drugs and taking a closer look at those UNnatural ones that have so many adverse and side effects that it takes up a whole page of 4 pt. type to list them all.

[nashville_brook]

3. i so totally agree

the "drug war" bandwagon was pure grandstanding.

makes you wonder... if an administration came up with a self-righteous slogan RE legalizing natural drugs, if the whole political landscape wouldn't fall over itself to make it happen. it's HERD behavior, not leadership.

we need some "working dog" democrats to tend the cattle.

[madmusic]

4. Man, at least they are looking at it now.

At least there is a crack in the dam.

[sui generis]

2. it is a travesty - particularly since

the irony is that 5,000 grams of pure powdered cocaine would make roughly 8 - 9,000 grams of crack depending on the original purity and other factors.