FEDERAL JUDGES USE CLUB, NOT A SLAP ON THE WRISTS

In a court session last October that lasted only a couple of hours, Chief
U.S. District Judge Jack Shanstrom sentenced seven defendants in a
methamphetamine conspiracy case to a total of more than 215 years in prison.

Some defendants, already lapping at middle age, probably will never spend
another day outside prison walls. William Lanter, 45, got a 55-year
sentence. Vincent Martinez, 38, got 49 years. The youngest of the bunch,
Randy James, 27, got 19.

Federal drug sentences are an ugly hit. Parole has been abolished, and the
maximum good time a prisoner can earn is 54 days a year after the first
year. Felons convicted in federal court usually do about 85 percent of the
time the judge gives them.

It doesn't take much to rack up a big chunk of time at some distant federal
institution. According to Frank Flemming, chief of federal probation in
Montana, 5 grams of pure methamphetamine or 50 grams of a mixture containing
methamphetamine means an automatic five-year sentence. Fifty grams of pure
methamphetamine or 500 grams of a mixture containing the drug is a mandatory
10 years.

"Fifty grams - that's two ounces," said Mark Werner of Federal Defenders of
Montana. "You don't need any criminal history at all to get 10 years."

Previous drug convictions or convictions for crimes of violence can push the
sale of tiny amounts of the drug into a life sentence. Even with a clean
record, use of a gun in drug trafficking ratchets up the sentence.
Possession of most firearms in relation to drug trafficking brings a
mandatory five-year term to be served consecutively with the drug sentence.
A sawed-off shotgun adds a mandatory 20. If drug agents find a machine gun,
add another 30 years.

The risks are huge, and so is the lure of money and the prospects of a
steady flow of drugs to feed a growing habit. But if there are riches to be
found in the drug trade, they hide themselves pretty well from the parade of
drug dealers in leg irons shuffling into Shanstrom's courtroom. Most have
nothing to show for their months or years in the business. There is no
glamorous blonde whimpering on the courthouse benches, no Porsche parked
outside and no mansion on the West End. Most come to court in the clothes
they were wearing at the time of their arrest, and the only person in the
courtroom sharing the pain is the court-appointed attorney standing at the
defendant's side.

"In some of these conspiracy cases you can figure $2 million or $3 million
worth of dope was sold, but they're all broke," said Craig Williams,
resident agent in charge of the Billing DEA office. "The reason is they end
up using their own product. Very few people are getting loads and loads of
money."

Often there are other addictions to feed - like trips to Las Vegas to play
the tables or bet on sporting events. Lots of times, friends and customers
simply don't pay their debts.

"The lifestyle that goes along with use and abuse of drugs is very
unstable," Werner said. "There's no inclination to save the money that's
made. The drug promotes a lifestyle of living on the edge."

Werner isn't sure that methamphetamine users give much thought to the price
they could pay if a drug agent snares them in a deal.

"No doubt the big sentences are a remedy for removing certain people they
want out of the community," he said. "Whether it has a deterrent effect, I
don't know. I can't tell from our caseload."

There is no doubt in Werner's mind that the methamphetamine caseload in the
federal defenders' office is growing.

"It seems to me we're dealing with cases that have a lot more people and
larger amounts of drugs," he said. "I can't say whether that means there are
actually more drugs out there, or if more people are being arrested. But it
is amazing. They just keep coming."

There are two full-time attorneys in the Billings office of the Federal
Defenders of Montana. Federal indictments frequently list 10 or more
defendants. Out of those, the federal defenders can represent just one. They
have to find counsel for each defendant from a statewide panel of
experienced attorneys who have agreed to take criminal cases.

Recently, Werner had to round up enough lawyers to cover defendants in two
new methamphetamine indictments, each of which contains 14 defendants. He
figures he'll need 25 attorneys. There are only 10 or 11 on the Billings
panel, and some have probably been made ineligible by earlier representation
of another defendant in the case or one of the prospective witnesses.

To cover all the defendants, he'll need 17 attorneys from outside Billings.
Many will come from Bozeman, Great Falls and Helena.

"These people are really good about doing this," he said. But a lot of the
cases have some common link, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to
find qualified, experienced attorneys who don't have conflicts that keep
them from taking a case.

Werner observed that many of those convicted in the methamphetamine cases
have one thing in common.

"They have had a pretty long history of drug abuse and an early start of
drug abuse," the defense attorney said. "It's kind of shocking how early
they start using."

Although teenagers and 20-somethings are amply represented on
methamphetamine indictments, they are at least matched by those in their
30s, 40s and 50s. Many have had only limited drug use in their past,
Flemming said. But they try methamphetamine and "it just takes off in them."

A little bad luck, a couple of prior convictions and a rifle in the same
room as the stash, and it's off to the federal pen for 30 years. Sentences
in that range are no longer rare occurrences. The only hope of ever being
free again often rests in talking to the government. If a defendant
cooperates to the satisfaction of the U.S. Attorney's Office, the U.S.
attorney will bring a "Rule 35" motion to the judge recommending a sentence
reduction. The judge makes the final decision, and sometimes lops as much as
half off a sentence. More than a few drug dealers take the plunge.

Yellowstone County Attorney Dennis Paxinos has no quarrel with big federal
sentences, but he wonders how long the federal government can keep building
more prisons.

"If I were the drug czar of the world - if you were really going to wage war
on drugs, you'd have to take the profit motive away," he said. "You'd have
to put some shame or stigma on anyone who uses drugs."

His proposal is to legalize drugs - but only in one county in all the United
States. Anyone convicted of a drug crime would automatically be sent to
"Cocaine County," where users could legally indulge in any kind of drug they
desire. The catch is that once you're in Cocaine County you couldn't get out
without being clean for a least a year. Casual users won't be able to show
up for a weekend party and then cross the line back to the real world, he
said.

Paxinos said he would divide the county in half. In one half, users could
enjoy a drug free-for-all. In the other half, he would build the world's
finest treatment facility.

"You don't punish it, you just isolate it," he said. "I think it's the best
solution there is, unless we want to build prisons the size of the Empire
State Building.

" If we could eliminate meth from this community, we would have a very
genteel place to live."