SENATE BILL WOULD TREAT DRUG OFFENSES THE SAME

For nearly two decades, the maximum penalty for possessing crack cocaine in
South Carolina has been more than double that of powdered coke.

The reason, according to some, is rooted in stereotypes that crack is an
urban drug used mostly by the poor, while powdered cocaine is the illegal
drug of choice for wealthy suburbanites.

A measure quickly moving through the state Legislature would treat both
addictive drugs the same -- a change advocates say corrects a knee-jerk
approach to the war on drugs almost 20 years after the first crack arrests.

"The only answer I got was that people who used crack seemed to be more
violent," said veteran state lawmaker Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Columbia, a
longtime critic of prosecuting crack and coke differently. "That seemed to
me so biased and so unfair."

South Carolina's penalties for crack and cocaine differ greatly. A first
offense of possession of powdered cocaine is a misdemeanor carrying a
prison sentence of no more than two years. A similar crack offense is a
felony carrying up to a five-year prison sentence.

Under a bill the Senate passed Tuesday, a first offense for either drug
would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to three years in prison.

The change comes as lawmakers seek uniformity in the state's drug
possession laws, largely because of the recent appearance of
methamphetamine, a manufactured and addictive form of speed taking root in
the state.Under the bill, possession of meth would be treated just as
cocaine and crack.

Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said
lawmakers for years have been talking about the disparity in punishment for
two forms of the same drug.

Crack, which is manufactured from cocaine, typically is smoked; cocaine,
snorted.

Fair said the meth problem helped drive this bill. "It was an opportunity
for people who were having trouble disagreeing on everything" to get
together, he said.

"A drug is a drug, why the difference?" said Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg,
who favors the switch.

Charleston County's first crack-cocaine arrest occurred on July 11, 1986,
when a migrant farm worker was busted on Johns Island.

Today, crack, cocaine and marijuana are the most predominant drugs on the
county's prosecution docket.

"It certainly hasn't fallen by any means," said 9th Circuit Assistant
Solicitor Daniel Dickert, who said crack and powder-cocaine prosecutions
are about equal.

"Cocaine, crack and marijuana all seem to be on an even keel in Charleston
County," Dickert said.

South Carolina's move to make its cocaine laws uniform is part of a
national trend.

A recent study showed that about 40 states had done the same thing, said
Eric E. Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation in
Silver Spring, Md.

"I think it's long overdue legislation," said the Rev. Joseph Darby, first
vice president of the Charleston branch office of the South Carolina NAACP.
"I would hope now it will be followed by some serious reform of drug laws."

Fair, chairman of the corrections committee, said he didn't know what the
change would do to the state's already crowded prisons.

"We'll just have to be prepared for that," he said.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where Fair expects it
to pass before the session ends.