EQUAL PENALTIES ASKED FOR CRACK, POWDER COCAINE

HARTFORD -- As momentum builds in favor of equalizing penalties for dealing
crack or powder cocaine, legislators were unsure Monday if pending
legislation to that end would pass this session.

Proponents of Raised Bill 6635, An Act Concerning the Illegal Sale or
Possession with Intent to Sell of Cocaine said that crack and cocaine are
two forms of the same drug, yet state penalties are stiffer against those
caught with crack.

Connecticut law stipulates a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in
prison for people found with half a gram of crack. Offenders with cocaine
are not subjected to that same sentence unless they possess 28 grams.

The result, supporters of the bill said, is a glaring racial disparity. Most
offenders found with crack are minorities in urban settings while powder
cocaine dealers tend to be suburban whites.

The proposed legislation would impose the mandatory minimum at one ounce of
either crack or powder cocaine and of heroine.

Language to equalize the penalties was deleted last year as part of a bill
to reduce prison overcrowding.

State Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, House co-chairman of Judiciary,
said at the time state research had shown half the people arrested for drug
law violations are white. But among those who end up in jail, one out of 10
are white.

"That's not a white issue. That's not a black issue. That's a human race
issue," Michael Blain, director of public policy for the New York City-based
Drug Policy Alliance, said during a press conference. "We have gone from
slavery to prison systems."

State Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, the Senate co-chairman of Judiciary,
said some legislators have difficulty understanding that a disparity exists,
but a growing number of them are starting to agree that penalties should be
comparable.

The Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on Raised Bill 6635 and a
number of others Monday, including electronic recording of interrogations,
law enforcement access to telephone and Internet records and a ban on
operating miniature motorcycles or pocket bikes on public highways and
sidewalks.

McDonald also is a member of the Transportation Committee, which voted
Monday in favor of a statewide pocket bike ban. The New Haven Board of
Aldermen is reviewing an ordinance amendment restricting the bikes.

State Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, who sits on Judiciary and supports
equalizing cocaine sentences said the battle for approval "is really the
suburbs vs. the cities."

Both crack and cocaine lead to addiction, Walker said.

"It needs to be addressed equally," she said, but she did not have a sense
of whether the bill will garner broad-based support.

McDonald said the committee has until April 15 to take action.