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The Ohio Senate addresses a glaring disparity in punishment
Published on Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
In the 1980s, as cocaine powder and its cheaper derivative, crack, took hold across the country, violent crimes soared. Draconian sentences were imposed for drug offenses, with the goal to take drug kingpins and dealers off the streets for a long time. The goal was defensible. Still, the laws made an artificial distinction between cocaine powder and crack, creating indefensible disparities in punishing drug trafficking and possession.
Under the current drug-possession law in Ohio, for instance, 25 grams of crack is equivalent to 500 grams of cocaine powder. Both carry the same mandatory prison sentence. It takes 100 grams of crack to be labeled a ''major drug offender,'' same as possessing 1,000 grams of the powder.
The disparities have disproportionately penalized African-American offenders, the poor and low-level dealers and addicts who favor the cheaper cocaine derivative. The result is that minority offenders serve much longer prison sentences than whites convicted in powder cocaine offenses.
It is important that Ohio ''equalize'' the penalties. All the same, the Senate's approach, which would raise the penalties for powder cocaine offenses to match the current ones for crack, is disappointing. Ohio's jails and prisons already are bursting with drug offenders who will benefit more from treatment than long stretches behind bars. Revising the penalties upward means more Ohioans will serve longer sentences, with a higher cost to the state.
The cocaine scourge of the 1980s spawned a war on drugs with outrageous, tough-on-crime measures (such as ''three strikes and you're out'') with questionable results. It is for good reason the U.S. Sentencing Commission recommends reduced sentences. It is time to move beyond the hysterical response of the '80s and look for reasonable alternatives to reclaim lives damaged by cocaine.
Get the full article here.
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