PORTLAND CHIEF WANTS TOUGHER PENALTIES FOR COCAINE CRIME

Police Chief James Craig's Idea Gets A Mixed Reaction From Lawmakers
Because Of Prison Overcrowding.

PORTLAND - Police Chief James Craig says cocaine is at the root of
much of the city's crime and he would like to see the laws reflect
that.

Craig says he plans to meet with other police chiefs, legislators and
prosecutors in an effort to make possession of cocaine a felony rather
than a misdemeanor, which it is typically for a first offense.

"Crack cocaine breeds violence," Craig said. "Crack cocaine will
destroy this community if we don't stay ahead of it."

Maine law says that possessing less than 4 grams of cocaine base, also
called crack cocaine, or 14 grams of powder cocaine, is a misdemeanor
for the first offense. A second offense is a felony, as is possessing
more than those amounts.

Craig said Maine is unusual in treating simple possession of cocaine
as a misdemeanor.

Rep. Anne Haskell, D-Portland, co-chair of the Legislature's Criminal
Justice and Public Safety Committee, says she is open to listening to
Craig's proposal.

"I'd be glad to have a conversation with Chief Craig and take a look
at the kinds of things he's seeing. He's the person on the ground,"
she said.

Haskell said that increasing the severity of criminal penalties would
have a cost because it would put more people in prison.

"If what he's seeing out there is what's happening, then folks ought
to be held accountable, but we would have to find the money to do
that," she said.

The committee's Senate chair, Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, was less
receptive.

"We're not going to start enhancing some of these crimes to fill up
our prisons more than we have now," he said. "The Legislature was very
good at enhancing crimes and the time served, and we got ourselves in
a pretty good mess."

Gerzofsky said cocaine is addictive and a scourge, but committee
hearings have shown that prescription drug abuse is a more serious
problem in Maine.

Without a prescription, possession of oxycodone or hydrocodone,
regardless of quantity, is a felony.

Federal sentencing requirements have been relaxed somewhat on crack
cocaine compared with powder cocaine.

For more than two decades, crack cocaine was treated much more
seriously than powder cocaine, with mandatory minimum sentences of
five years for 5 grams or more. The disparity was reduced, though not
eliminated, in a bipartisan vote in Congress this summer.

Craig said his call for making possession of a small amount of crack
cocaine a felony is not targeting the minority community for unfair
treatment.

Portland is not like other major cities in the country. Here, most of
the people who use crack cocaine are white, not minorities, he said.

Craig said he wants to make the penalties more severe to prevent the
city from following major U.S. cities where crack cocaine has hurt the
quality of life.

Craig said two home invasions, three robberies and a stabbing in one
week were all connected to drugs.

Guns were used to threaten residents in the home invasions on Park
Street and East Kidder Street. In each case, investigators believe
drugs were at the heart of the dispute.

A string of robberies in one night led to charges against a Standish
man, who told police he was high on cocaine and stealing to get more.

A stabbing Aug. 29 on Richmond Street stemmed from a confrontation
over crack cocaine, police said.

Often, possessing just a couple of grams of crack cocaine broken into
individual doses, called rocks, indicates that a person is selling the
drug, Craig said.

More severe penalties for crack cocaine have influenced the drug
trade, said Roy McKinney, director of the Maine Drug Enforcement
Agency. Often, suppliers will transport the drug as powder and hold
off processing it into cocaine base until just before it is to be
sold, he said.

McKinney said about 40 percent of the agency's investigations deal
with cocaine, on a par with diversion of prescription drugs.

More severe sentences for first offenses would give police greater
leverage to encourage suspects to provide information, which is where
most drug intelligence comes from, he said.

Stiffer penalties also increase the chances that a user will seek
treatment, or be forced to by incarceration, he said.

McKinney noted that possessing any amount of heroin and
methamphetamine is a felony.

"Usually, what the Legislature and any policymakers are looking at is
the level of crime associated with those drugs," he said.

Craig said crack cocaine is highly addictive and highly profitable,
which could lead to violence as dealers compete for turf.

"Once the gangs start territorializing where cocaine is sold, then
we're going to see the real violence," said Craig, who led a gang unit
in the Los Angeles Police Department. "I saw the devastation of drugs
in L.A. When crack cocaine came on the scene, the gangs and violence
really erupted."