NOT SYMPATHY, BUT FAIRNESS

District Attorney David F. Capeless is correct - selling drugs is a serious
crime. This is true whether the dealers are hard cases from urban
Pittsfield or suburbanites from Great Barrington. In Great Barrington,
however, those arrested face school-zone charges designed specifically to
protect school children, and the case has not been made that there were
attempts to sell to students whose schools happen to be within the
1,000-foot zone. The law also fails to make a distinction between first and
habitual offenders or the amount of drugs sold. The mandatory sentence
does not fit the crime, and is indeed harsher than many recent sentences
for crimes of violence or drunk-driving. Those charged in Great Barrington
don't merit our sympathy but they do deserve fairness.