Pubdate: Wed, 28 Sep 2005
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2005 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Author: Steve Suo
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

PROPOSAL FOR METH SENTENCES DRAWS FIRE

Mandatory Terms - Some House Democrats Oppose Adding Prison Time, 
Saying That Approach Is Ineffective

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats on Tuesday sharply criticized a bill 
designed to curb the availability of methamphetamine in the United 
States, singling out a provision that would impose tougher prison 
sentences for trafficking.

At a hearing in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, the 
Democratic lawmakers said incarcerating drug dealers for longer terms 
has failed to stop drug addiction over the past two decades, while 
ruining lives in poor communities.

"Whether it's crack or meth, we've got a drug problem in America, and 
it's not going to be solved with mandatory minimum sentencing," said 
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

The opposition is unlikely to derail House Resolution 3889, which 
enjoys the support of House Republican leaders and the bipartisan 
Congressional Meth Caucus. The chairman of the crime subcommittee, 
Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., is a co-sponsor, and spokesman Ed McDonald 
said Coble hopes to schedule a vote soon.

Still, Tuesday's hearing made clear that any vote in committee or on 
the floor likely would be far from unanimous. Supporters had hoped to 
design a meth bill free of controversial elements that would slow its progress.

The hitching point in the bill is an expansion of the types of meth 
cases in which defendants could receive 10- and 20-year mandatory 
minimum sentences. For example, current law imposes a 10-year 
sentence for trafficking in 50 grams of meth. Under the bill, 
possession with intent to sell 5 grams of meth would draw a 10-year 
term. Five grams is about 50 doses of meth.

Most of the bill deals with increased international regulation of 
companies that buy and sell pseudoephedrine, the main meth 
ingredient. Little of that language came under attack at the hearing. 
And an industry association, the Food Marketing Institute, submitted 
a statement in support of the bill, praising international controls 
on pseudoephedrine.

Waters also made clear that she did not have a problem with precursor 
control or curtailing meth production in Mexico.

"Come in here and talk to me about (Mexico's president) Vicente Fox 
and what you're going to do with them and trade if they don't do 
something about the transporting of stuff across the border from the 
superlabs in Mexico," Waters said.

"But just to talk about young people who use this meth to get high 
going to penitentiaries, that's not doing anything to make me believe 
it's going to be helpful."

Democrats, who are in the minority in Congress, used the hearing to 
fire pointed questions about mandatory minimums at sponsors of the 
bill and an official from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Historically, there has been a racial component to discussions of 
sentences for drug crimes. African American lawmakers have long 
criticized the disparate impact on black communities created in the 
1980s when Congress enacted longer sentences for small amounts of 
crack cocaine.

Members of the crime panel on Tuesday said that longer prison terms 
were an equally ineffective way to deal with meth, whose users are 
overwhelmingly white.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the committee's top Democrat, said Congress 
has repeatedly tried the punitive approach with meth and other drugs 
- -- and failed.

"Meanwhile, the epidemic has grown exponentially," Scott said.

Scott, an attorney, reserved his closest cross-examination for Joseph 
T. Rannazzisi, deputy chief of enforcement operations for the DEA.

After a relentless series of questions, Scott concluded, "You did not 
reduce the incidence of crack use by having a draconian five-year 
mandatory-minimum sentence, did you?

"Putting it that way," Rannazzisi said, "I guess not."

Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., said punishment should be balanced by 
additional money to treat addictions.

"There's no reference in the legislation about treatment," Delahunt 
said. "You've got to attack this on the demand side."

Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn., a sponsor of the bill, defended the 
tougher criminal penalties by saying Congress must send a "send a 
strong signal" to drug traffickers.

"We've been sending messages," Delahunt responded. "I think there 
should be now conclusive evidence that just simply enhancing 
penalties is in no way going to reducing the trafficking in a 
particular controlled substance."

Apart from the criminal sentencing, 19 of the bill's 24 pages deal 
with greatly expanding controls over the pseudoephedrine trade 
internationally. It would require the State Department to estimate 
legitimate demand for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine 
worldwide, and compare that figure with actual production. Top 
importers who fail to control diversion to the meth trade could lose 
U.S. aid dollars.

It also would set quotas on imports to the United States based on 
medical need and allow the DEA to examine the sales records of the 
world's nine major manufacturers of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in 
India, Germany, China and the Czech Republic.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who is the lead sponsor of the measures, 
said some supporters wanted even more stringent penalties but that 
these had been removed to build bipartisan backing. Sponsors now 
include Democrats such as Reps. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., and Brian 
Baird, D-Wash.

Souder said he had little doubt the legislation would survive.

"We have overwhelming support," said Souder.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake