Durbin wants to rectify 20-year-old “mistake” on cocaine penalties
Sen. Durbin
WASHINGTON — At the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a House member then, joined the legislative movement to impose harsh mandatory prison terms when the drug was in solid form rather than powder.
The disparity in sentencing — five grams of crack carries the same 5-year sentence as selling 500 grams of powder cocaine — since has become a flashpoint among African Americans who contend that young blacks are denied equal justice under the nation’s drug laws.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission has concluded that ending the sentencing disparity “would dramatically improve the fairness of the federal sentencing system.”
Today, Durbin set his sights on making that change by introducing legislation that he believes has a chance of passing this year despite the crowded congressional calendar.
“I made a mistake 20 years ago,” Durbin said of his 1980s vote in an interview with STLtoday this afternoon.
“I have now come to believe that this was a serious mistake and many people have languished in prison for years because we established an extreme sentence for crack cocaine as opposed to powder cocaine,” he added.
The legislation, which Durbin is co-sponsoring with nine other Senate Democrats, would eliminate the crack-powder disparity and impose the same sentence for both types of cocaine. It would also end mandatory sentences for possession of crack — but increase criminal penalties for drug offenses involving vulnerable victims and violence.
Durbin said that he is talking to Senate Republicans in the hopes of tailoring the legislation so that it can pass this year.
“I think we have a chance to move this forward,” he said. “If it gets bogged down in a partisan debate, it will be difficult.”
He spoke of a young woman in Alton who has been in prison for years under a mandatory sentence. “You ask, how is justice being served by keeping this woman in prison for 20 years for a handful of crack cocaine crystals?”
Dick, it all starts out as powder cocaine. The crack cocaine sentencing should stand, just lower the powder down to five grams to be fair. No racial disparity there. The crack cocaine epidemic is still the number one motivator of violence in the black neighborhoods. There are no drive bys in the tony neighborhoods where whites are doing lines.
I wish Illinois voters would also rectify a 27-year-old mistake, and give Dick Durbin the boot. Unfortunately, while Durbin wants to make a big deal out of trimming around the edges of drug laws, he is as unwilling as almost everyone else in office to put an end to the longest and most destructive war in American history, the “War on drugs.”
In Illinois, possession of more than 30 grams of marijuana is a felony, punishable by at least a year in prison for the first offense, and at least two years for the second offense. As idiotic as that is, Missouri’s law puts it to shame. In Missouri, possession of 35 grams, or cultivation of even a single plant, is a felony punishable by 7 years in prison. A few states have taken first steps toward legalizing marijuana, which by most accounts is less harmful than vodka. When they do, the feds step in, because marijuana is still illegal under federal law, regardless of what states do.
If Durbin wants to make meaningful changes to our ridiculous drug laws, I’ll be the first to applaud him. Today’s announcement is nothing but political grandstanding.
Are African Americans a bloc? In your little liberal, don’t have to think, just follow the flow, world, are all us African Americans alike? I got a clue for you - Babeblueox is right. Sen. Durbin, don’t decrease the penalty for the crime. Save more people by making all cocaine possession a serious crime. Some of us African Americans will strongly support you on that.
Gail
Until I read this article, I doubted that there was even one point on which I might happen to agree with Mr Kasoff, but I see that my doubts were misplaced. Mr Kasoff is right - the problem is not the disparity in penalties, the problem is that we even have laws against cocaine in the first place. I do not like cocaine use, but we would have far fewer shootings and muggings and other such violence if people bought cocaine like they buy cigarettes. Prohibition never worked with booze and it is not working with other narcotics. It is time to abandon the failed “War on Drugs.”
…It is time to abandon the failed “War on Drugs.”
— GrzeszDeL
11:24 am October 16th, 2009
I agree completely. However, we also need to abandon the “entitlements” and social engineering that force clean and sober taxpayers to support and enable drug users, alcohol abusers, and other parasites.
Gail,
That is the most ethical thing that I have ever heard concerning this issue.
Until that is done however, release these who are in prison due to these unfair sentencing guidelines.
@Babeblueox Your an idiot…most users of crack only have 5 grams of less. The key word here is they are users (substance abusers), who sell their bodies for drugs, lose their jobs to drugs, destroys there family structures and they steal and create more prison sentences for drugs. Crystallizing cocaine by cooking it makes it a new drugs, which alters the mind and heart rate differently. Drug dealers who are caught with 500grams are getting the same sentence as substance abusers, which is unfair (and that’s leaving out the race factor). You have drug dealers toting around tons of drugs and getting small sentences, when they are part of the bigger problem, especially since they set up shop in black communities.
On the race issue of it, whites tend to use cocaine and black cook cocaine to create crack. Therefore, the laws on the books now are biased and racist themselves.
This law definitely should be changed. Cocaine is Cocaine period. The sentences should be the same. In regards to crimes related to using drugs, I do not think prison is necessarily the best solution, intervention seems more sensible.. I anm going to write my ohio senators to tell them my views on the subject and urge them to support ending this travesty of justice.
Durbin wants a “do-over”.