UNFAIR

Cruel Drug Penalties

CORPORATE criminals who pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars from
Enron, WorldCom and other looted businesses may never spend a day in prison
- - but a generous Charleston volunteer must serve 17 years in a cell because
he became hooked on crack cocaine.

Rigid federal sentencing guidelines mandated the severe punishment for Levi
Phillips, 50, once a Charleston High School and West Virginia University
basketball hero, because he was caught three times with crack.

US Judge Joseph Goodwin and federal prosecutors expressed regret at the
cruel punishment.

"The sentence is reflective of a lifetime spent as a drug addict, but
interspersed with extraordinary community service and a life well led by
serving children," the judge said. "...It is virtually a life sentence. I
don't think you deserve it, but the law says you do."

Phillips is admired in the Kanawha Valley for running youth and adult
basketball leagues, and for leading a senior citizens group. But those
attributes couldn't deter mandatory federal drug laws, which impose a
minimum of 17.5 years in prison on each "career" drug offender.

Last month, Judge Goodwin told Charleston Rotary Club that US drug
sentencing laws are painfully unfair. We agree.

As we noted Tuesday, one American religious denomination has proposed that
the billion-dollar "war on drugs" be halted, and narcotics be considered
purely a medical problem. Such decriminalization would free hundreds of
thousands of Americans from prison. Under that policy, cocaine addicts like
Phillips would be sent to treatment centers.

It makes more sense than the punitive system that wrecks too many American
families.