DRUG PENALTIES WILDLY OUT OF PROPORTION

Dear Editor: Here are headlines and leads for two stories appearing in
your April 16 issue.

Crack dealer gets 20 years prison: "A Madison crack cocaine dealer got
20 years in prison without parole at his sentencing on Wednesday.
Leroy Sharp, 31, pleaded guilty in January to distributing nine grams
of crack."

Bank robber gets 78 months in prison: "A man who robbed a half-dozen
Madison area banks in 2008 will spend 13 months in prison for each of
the armed robberies."

So one bank robbery (ARMED robbery) is worth 13 months in the slammer.
And so is half a gram (0.001 pounds) of crack.

Insane. Literally insane! Non compos mentis!

People in the 22nd century will look back at us with the same sense of
amazement and disgust that we feel in looking at the Salem witch trials.

And we can't even claim, as the witch burners did, that we didn't know
any better. We've got the example of Prohibition. Once again, the
"cure" does far more damage than the "disease" could ever do.

Richard S. Russell

Madison