GROUP KNOCKS ILLINOIS ECSTASY LAW

Says Education Is Needed, Not Lengthy Prison Sentences

A California attorney said Monday that a bill increasing the penalties for
selling the street drug ecstasy in Illinois is too harsh and that the state
should focus on education instead.

Richard Boire, who runs the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, said a
four-year minimum sentence for possessing 15 or more doses of ecstasy is
excessive.

"It's awfully harsh," Boire said. "A lot of people will be sacrificed to
deter them from taking this drug."

Last spring, the General Assembly passed House Bill 126, which makes it a
Class X felony to possess with intent to distribute 15 to 200 doses of
ecstasy, a drug popular among people who attend raves - all-night,
musically driven parties. The bill brings penalties for ecstasy possession
and distribution into line with other controlled substances such as
cocaine, heroin and LSD.

"If these are Draconian, then all of our penalties are," said DuPage County
State's Attorney Joseph Birkett, who lobbied for the bill. "I don't happen
to agree with that. To have an effective deterrent, you have to have
stronger penalties."

Boire agreed that a long prison sentence is a deterrent, but only for the
person in prison.

"This is not something that should be addressed by putting the users in
prison," he said. "We ought to be using education. What are the dangers and
benefits of ecstasy? What should you know before taking this?"

Boire has been involved in a number of drug issues, including use of drugs
in religious ceremonies and medical use of marijuana.

"I am not pro-drug, I am pro-mind," Boire said. "If I'm promoting anything,
I'm promoting a fundamental right for each person to control their own
mind. This is not simply a war on drugs, it's a war on authorized and
unauthorized mental states."

When the ecstasy bill was before the General Assembly, only one legislator
- - Sen. Robert Molaro, D-Chicago - voted against it. Molaro said the state
should first educate people about the ramifications if they are caught
selling the drug under the new law.

Ecstasy has been blamed in a number of deaths because it can raise body
temperature to very high levels. Birkett said ecstasy is replacing
marijuana as the drug first tried by young people.

The drug is also lucrative for dealers because it costs pennies to produce
and is sold for $25 to $45 a dose.

"The profit incentive is tremendous," Birkett said. "If (dealers) know that
by dealing this drug, they could end up facing a penitentiary sentence, it
does provide an effective deterrent."

At the same time, Birkett said, the new law will not be used without
discretion.

"The dealers are going to the pen, that's where they belong," Birkett said.

"We're not going to be seeking to send a kid away for 20 years (for simple
possession)."

Ray Serati, a spokesman for Gov. George Ryan, said the bill is still under
review by the governor.