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| Hatch Bill That Stiffens Drug Penalties is OK'd |
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Posted by FoM on November 12, 1999 at 09:17:59 PT By Lee Davidson, DN Correspondent Source: Deseret News 
The Senate sounded a bugle-call charge Wednesday to escalate the war on drugs by adopting sweeping legislation by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
On a close 50-49 vote, it approved a wide array of new legal weapons against methamphetamine labs; stiffened penalties for selling drugs near schools or to minors; reduced disparity in punishments for selling powder and crack cocaine; and banned posting recipes for illegal drugs on the Internet. "Drug use is a poisonous, nationwide epidemic," Hatch told the Senate. "We must fight this plague for the sake of our children and our grandchildren. The Senate attached Hatch's somewhat controversial anti-drug legislation to a popular bill to overhaul bankruptcy laws. A similar bankruptcy bill passed the House 313-108 in May. Most Republicans voted for Hatch's Senate amendment, while most Democrats opposed it. An example of the split between parties on how to address drugs came in different proposals on how to adjust penalties for selling crack and power cocaine. Laws passed at the height of the crack epidemic mandate a five-year minimum prison sentence for selling just 5 grams of crack. But under current law, a dealer would have to sell 500 grams of powder cocaine to receive the same penalty. As Hatch noted to the Senate, many "believe that the harsher penalties for crack cocaine generally unfairly affect minority Americans and the poor" because they tend to buy the cheaper crack. So both parties sought to narrow the gap. Hatch's bill reduces it by toughening penalties for selling powder — mandating five years in prison for selling just 50 grams. But Democrats wanted to narrow the gap by making sentences for crack dealers more lenient. Hatch said the Democrats' proposal to reduce crack penalties "would send absolutely the wrong message to the American people, especially given the disturbing increase in teenage drug use during much of the Clinton administration." However, the American Civil Liberties Union attacked Hatch's measure, saying it "would pack the federal prisons with thousands of nonviolent offenders and force taxpayers to foot the bill." Hatch said his amendment provides especially needed provisions to stiffen penalties for manufacturing methamphetamine — also known as meth, speed, crank or ice — which is often made from legal chemicals through dangerous procedures in labs at homes or motels. "The smallest amounts of these chemicals, when mixed improperly, can cause explosions and fires," Hatch said. They also create toxic wastes that have cost millions of dollars to clean. "In Utah alone, there were 266 lab seizures last year, a number which elevated Utah to the unenviable position of being ranked third in the nation for highest per capita clandestine lab seizures," Hatch said. Hatch said stiffening the penalties — plus authorizing more Drug Enforcement Agency officers to help fight meth — should slow the growth. He noted that the number of meth labs seized has almost doubled each year since 1995. The bill also beefs up penalties for selling drugs near schools or to minors, requires federally funded schools to expel students who sell drugs or have large amounts on school grounds, and bans advertising drug paraphernalia or recipes for illegal drugs on the Internet. It also contains an interesting non-drug provision. It requires the FBI to prepare a study on what threat may be posed by President Clinton's recent grant of clemency to convicted Puerto Rican terrorists. Hatch complained that the administration has not responded well to requests for information about threats by the group. He said his amendment ensures "that the FBI can fully assess this risk, and that the Congress and the American people are fully apprised of the FBI's findings." Deseret News Related Articles: Senate Stiffens Cocaine Sentencing - 11/10/99 Senate Adopts Measure To Reduce Cocaine Disparity - 11/10/99 Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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Comment #2 posted by Doug A on November 12, 1999 at 10:30:20 PT:
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Here we go with the CHILLLDRUUUNN again!
>bans advertising drug paraphernalia or recipes for illegal drugs on the Internet.
I would like to know how this IDIOT proposes to enforce this nonsense. The 'Net, is, of course, worldwide, and his mindless legislation is not going to be enforceable on a server in, say, Europe. What does he propose, erecting a "mega-firewall" to block content coming into the US that he finds "objectionable?" Besides, the freedom to post information about drugs in this country is protected by the 1st Amendment.
These "anti-drug" (of course, not anti-alcohol or tobacco) hypocrites have already trashed the 4th amendment. What is the purpose of a Constitution anyway, if a bunch of Reefer Madness-crazed, lying RepubliCrats can bend it or break it to serve their pointless agenda?
| Comment #1 posted by observer on November 12, 1999 at 09:40:21 PT |
More lies from a professional propagandist. Legal drugs like aspirin kill far more than illegal drugs. Prohibitionists like those of Hatch's ilk engage in the wort kind of hypocrisy.
> Hatch told the Senate. "We must fight this plague for the sake of our children and our grandchildren.
More prohibitionist propaganda. The only thing fascists like Hatch have planned for "our children and our grandchildren" is a cell in a prison, slave-labour for UNICOR. Great for business, if you in a police union, jailkeeper's union, association of prosecutors, are a drug dealer (dealers love prohibitionists like Hatch: such policy is like money in the bank for the dealer of illegal drugs), or other profiteer from the police state.
To this article's credit, they provided some opposing viewpoints. Notice, however, how Hatch himself scrupulously avoids emphasizing PRISON for adults Amercians. Much better, propagandists like Hatch know, to speak of "our children", instead.
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