COURT RULES ON DISPARATE DRUG SENTENCES

In a little noted decision last month, the U.S. Supreme Court gave
judges more discretion in sentencing crack cocaine defendants.

In effect, it was a repudiation of the get-tough sentencing guidelines
imposed in the 1980s during the so-called war on drugs, an effort that
mostly failed.

The 7-2 ruling will affect the sentences of some 19,000 federal
prisoners, the majority of whom are African American.

The unfairness of the law was a key in the court's decision. The
sentencing guidelines required a mandatory minimum five-year prison
sentence for trafficking in 5 grams of crack cocaine, or 100 times as
much as the powdered form of the drug.

The high court ruling came in a case challenging an appellate court
decision overruling a trial judge's sentence that was below the
federal guideline.

Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reversed the
appellate court, noting "the District Court properly homed in on the
particular circumstances of the case and accorded weight to the (U.S.)
Sentencing Commission's consistent and emphatic position that the
crack/powder disparity is at odds with."

The federal Sentencing Commission has significantly reduced the ratios
to be used in future cases and voted unanimously to apply them
retroactively.

Immediate fears in the law enforcement community that thousands of
inmates suddenly would be dumped into society are unwarranted. The
Sentencing Commission says only a fraction of inmates will be released
anytime soon and most releases will span a period of years, not months.

The ruling returns the power to judges to determine the severity of
sentencing depending on the circumstances of the case, and not the
hysteria surrounding a particular drug.

Regarding cocaine, we have always known where it comes from and how it
is used, but have been unable to stem its inward flow. Meanwhile, mom
and pop meth labs are pumping out a new generation's drug to destroy
minds and bodies.

Apparently the act of locking up great numbers of people and throwing
away the keys was not the way to victory in the drug war.

Unwittingly, perhaps, the high court may be challenging us to find a
better way.