Source: Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal Contact: Pubdate: August 22, 1997 Commission recommends restoring law aimed at smalltime drug offenders COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) The Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission wants to restore a provision to state law making it a crime for someone to intend to sell drugs. A majority of the commission recommended Thursday that the provision be added to a pending House bill. The provision was part of Ohio law until the Legislature completed an overhaul of criminal sentencing laws that went into effect last year. The provision would make it easier to prosecute smalltime drug offenders for drug trafficking. Offenders could be prosecuted for drug trafficking if prosecutors proved they intended to sell the drugs, no matter the amount. Officers would not have to witness a drug sale. Two years ago, the commission, established by the Legislature to rewrite sentencing laws, recommended that the provision be removed from state law to simplify Ohio's drug laws. But the commission changed its mind after learning the penalties for small amounts of drugs have been lowered to prevent prison crowding. Prosecutors also complain that a person can have up to 1 kilogram, or about $5,000 worth of marijuana, without being charged with a felony, said Lorain County Prosecutor Gregory White, a commission member. Police and prosecutors also told the commission they need the provision to use as a pleabargaining tool to get offenders to plead guilty to another crime. But defense attorneys on the commission oppose restoring the provision. They said it would cause crowding in Ohio's prisons and was unnecessarily punitive to smalltime drug users. ``I have real concerns about what this will do to the prison population. One of the things we wanted to do under the felony plan was to get those people out of prison, now we are going to be sending them back,'' said Rebecca Herner, a commission member who represents the Ohio PUblic Defender's Office.