BRING DRUG PENALTIES INTO LINE

Members of the General Assembly have finally approved a bill that would end
the disparity in sentences for those convicted of possession of crack
cocaine and powdered cocaine and could help put more emphasis on getting
treatment for drug addicts. The bill was approved by the House of
Representatives on a vote of 92-52 and won passage in the Senate by a 21-15
vote.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell, whose office said she is studying the bill, should have
no reservations about signing it into law.

Legal experts, including Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano, have
for years advocated equalizing the sentencing rules. Opponents of the bill
are mostly Republicans. They have argued over the amount of crack as
opposed to powdered cocaine that should be set as the level for similar
penalties.

That's no reason to veto the bill as a number of Republican lawmakers have
urged.

Current law specifies that a person arrested for selling or possessing a
half gram of crack, a refined form of cocaine, faces the same mandatory
minimum sentence of five to 20 years in jail as someone who sells or
possesses an ounce of pure cocaine.

Under the approved bill, a person would have to possess an ounce of crack
to trigger the same penalty. The Republican alternative that failed to win
approval would have set the amount of crack or powdered cocaine that would
prompt that sentence at half an ounce (14 grams).

Few defendants are convicted under the current crack statute. But
prosecutors use its tough penalties to intimidate scores of street addicts
- -- people who really should be in treatment centers and mental hospitals --
to plead to reduced charges that carry a mandatory minimum sentence of
three years jail time. The practice contributes appreciably to prison
crowding and to the state's costly corrections budget.

Mrs. Rell should sign the bill.