MUKASEY PUTS LATEST CRACK IN TRUTH ON DRUGS

This week, my phone has been ringing off the hook.

Mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, voices soft and shaking, ask
whether their loved one might be eligible for the new retroactive
crack cocaine reduction. When I tell them yes, they cry.

Many of those eligible for sentence reductions have no prior criminal
history and were convicted of simple possession. Many more were
convicted of distributing just a small amount of crack cocaine one time.

Nonetheless, U.S. Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey recently told Congress
that the early release of these offenders would unleash "violent
criminals" onto our streets and pose "significant public safety risks."

His warning is the most recent in a long line of blunders that began
with the death of Boston Celtics star draft pick Len Bias in 1986.

Since Bias' death, the onslaught of unsupported facts and overblown
rhetoric about the relative dangers of crack versus powder cocaine
has resulted in the disproportionate imprisonment of hundreds of
thousands of mostly young black men.

Instead of closing its eyes to this injustice, Congress should be
leading the movement to eliminate the disparity created by the crack
cocaine laws.

Mukasey's warning to Congress came four weeks before the effective
date of the U.S. Sentencing Commission's modest sentence reductions
for people previously sentenced for crack. The commission, appointed
by Congress, made its decision after taking testimony from criminal
justice organizations, practitioners, academics, judges and doctors,
who overwhelmingly agreed that the crack cocaine sentences are based
on false assumptions, do nothing to solve the drug problem, and lead
to unjust results.

Now, back to Len Bias.

Bias was drafted by the Boston Celtics on June 17, 1986, to the
delight of Massachusetts residents and sports fans everywhere. He was
then a 22-year-old African-American college student.

Two days later, he was dead. Reports that his death was caused by an
overdose of crack cocaine set off a virtual epidemic of articles and
television specials discussing the dangers of the previously
little-known drug. In the three months after Bias' death, more than
1,000 articles appeared. Time magazine made crack its "issue of the
year." ABC later described crack as "a plague that was eating away at
the fabric of America."

Today, although more than 65 percent of crack cocaine users are white
or Hispanic, 82 percent of those prosecuted and imprisoned for
federal crack cocaine offenses are African-American. They are serving
median sentences twice as long as their white counterparts, who were
convicted of possessing powder, not crack, cocaine. In 70 percent of
all crack cases, low-level street dealers receive longer sentences
than wholesale drug distributors.

These disparities exist, even though we know that the physiological
and psychoactive effects of crack and powder cocaine are virtually
identical. They exist even though the effects of prenatal exposure to
crack and powder cocaine are identical. They exist even though the
epidemic of violence and rapid spread to youth that crack was
supposed to create, never happened.

How did things go so wrong?

As it turns out, 1986 was the same year that longtime House Speaker
Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill was set to retire. Moved by the death of Bias
and its effect on his constituents, O'Neill requested that tough new
drug legislation be drafted in time to become law before the November
congressional elections. The legislation was hurriedly written during
the five-week summer recess. No hearings were held. No experts were consulted.

The legislation resulted in the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, and was
indeed passed before the elections. That act, and the 1988 act that
followed, contain a unique 100-to-1 sentencing provision requiring
judges to impose mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years for
anyone possessing with intent to distribute just 50 grams of crack
(about the size of a candy bar), and 5 years for simple possession of
5 grams. People convicted of possessing powder cocaine are not
subject to mandatory sentences unless they are convicted of
possessing with intent to distribute 100 times more powder.

The Sentencing Commission's recent attempt to ameliorate this
disparity touches just the tip of the iceberg. Still, it is a
beginning. Eligible crack offenders will generally receive a one-to
two-year decrease in their sentences. The commission calculates that
16,700 of the 19,400 offenders potentially eligible for the decrease
are African-American. In northern Illinois, 36 people will be
eligible for release this year.

And, although Mukasey neglected to tell Congress, the commission's
proposal gives the government the right to argue, in every case, that
an offender should remain in prison because of public safety concerns.

As for Len Bias-autopsy reports show he did not die of crack cocaine.
He died of an overdose of powder cocaine and alcohol.