Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2009
Source: State Journal-Register (IL)
Copyright: 2009 The State Journal-Register
Contact:  http://www.sj-r.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/425
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

MAKE U.S. DRUG LAWS MORE REALISTIC

PRESIDENT Barack Obama's request that Congress eliminate the 
disparity between sentences for crack cocaine and powder cocaine 
offenses would abolish a clearly discriminatory law.

In general, the Obama administration seems to be taking a more 
fact-based and less ideological approach to drug enforcement, a 
welcome change from decades of elected officials upping the ante on 
sentencing to prove who's the toughest on crime at election time.

The result of that has been 500,000 people imprisoned in the United 
States for drug crimes, more than all of more-populated Western 
Europe combined for all other crimes, according to the Drug Policy 
Alliance Network, a critic of U.S. policy.

A rethinking of the war on drugs (a term rejected last week by 
Obama's drug czar) has been slowly occurring since the late 1990s, as 
many have questioned its efficacy at reducing drug use and the human 
cost of sending so many to prison.

EVEN SPRINGFIELD has been forward-thinking, with aldermen approving 
an ordinance in February allowing police the discretion of whether to 
charge those with less than 2.5 grams of marijuana with a crime or 
simply cite them for an ordinance violation.

The change, endorsed by Springfield Police Chief Ralph Caldwell after 
the department discovered it worked in similar Illinois cities, 
allows officers to spare those who have a few joints from the stain 
of a criminal record for a mistake that's been a rite of passage for 
millions of Americans.

A change in U.S. sentencing law for crack and powder cocaine is 
critical because of the racial disparity in sentencing. Many view the 
current law as unfair and racist. It is. Consider:

* In 2006, 82 percent of those convicted of federal crack cocaine 
crimes were black.

* The same year, 58 percent of those convicted of power cocaine 
crimes were Hispanic, 27 percent were black and 14 percent were white.

* A person caught with 5,000 grams of powder cocaine will get 10 
years in prison. The same sentence is triggered for those with only 
50 grams of crack.

Congress set the penalties this way because it believed there was a 
link between violence and crack, a link disputed by U.S. District 
Judge Reggie Walton and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at a recent 
congressional hearing on the subject. Durbin voted for the laws 
creating the disparity.

"We were mistaken," Walton said. "There's no greater violence in 
cases before me."

"Each of the myths upon which we based the disparity has since been 
dispelled or altered," Durbin said. "Crack-related violence has 
decreased significantly since the 1980s, and today 94 percent of 
crack cocaine cases don't involve violence at all."

Eliminating disproportionate sentences will no doubt be a tough vote 
for Congress, with members who do so subjecting themselves to the 
tired old charge that they are soft on crime. But it's time for some 
political courage.

The nation's drug policy should weigh fairness, health, treatment and 
the cost of incarceration with the need for punishment. Obama's 
policies are moving the nation in that direction.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom