cannabisnews.com: Few in Prison for Minor Drug Offenses, Experts Say





Few in Prison for Minor Drug Offenses, Experts Say
Posted by FoM on July 13, 1999 at 16:35:51 PT
Source: Fox News
WASHINGTON — People convicted of marijuana possession make up only a tiny percentage of the nation's prison population, drug experts said in arguing that legalizing or decriminalizing the drug would not ease overcrowding in prisons. 
Of the 1.8 million people in the nation's prisons and jails, only 3 percent are incarcerated on drug possession charges and fewer than 1 percent for marijuana possession, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University said in a report released Tuesday. These and other factors — such as the fact that most possession convictions involve large amounts or are the result of plea bargaining from more serious offenses — "make it very unlikely that decriminalizing marijuana would have any discernible effect on the nation's prison population.'' Advocates of legalization and decriminalization argue that non-violent drug offenders are unnecessarily taking up space in the nation's already overcrowded prisons at great cost to taxpayers. The report's release coincided with a House hearing in which law enforcement officials said they rarely seek prison terms for possession of illegal drugs. Still, advocates of easing drug laws said arrests for marijuana possession are at record levels, disrupting the lives of thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens. Thomas Constantine, recently retired head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said those serving federal and state sentences for possession were "infinitesimal'' in number. "Virtually all of our investigations are geared to individuals who sell drugs at enormous profits,'' he told the hearing of a House Government Reform subcommittee. In New York State, which has some of the nation's toughest mandatory sentencing laws, fewer than 10 percent of people with no prior felony record who are arrested for a felony drug offense receive state prison sentences, said state director of criminal justice Katherine Lapp. Those convicted and sentenced to time usually receive local jail time or probation, she said. Of those serving time for drug possession, 76 percent were arrested on more serious sale or intent to sell charges, she said. "In my county, we neither seek nor expect jail time for simple first-time possessors or addicts,'' said Charles Hynes, district attorney of Brooklyn's Kings County. Ethan Nadelmann, director of the New York-based Lindesmith Center, a research project of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, said in an interview that the reality is that a high minority of those incarcerated for breaking drug laws in New York state were not convicted of violent or predatory crimes and are not major drug dealers. "We have just swept tens of thousands of people into this prison system,'' he said. Soros has been active in promoting drug policy reform. R. Keith Stroup of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which supports decriminalization and regulated legalization, said marijuana arrests have doubled since President Clinton took office and that, according to FBI figures, police arrested a record 695,000 in 1997 on marijuana charges, most for possession. Most members of Congress are out of touch with their constituents, who "know the difference between marijuana and more dangerous drugs, and who oppose spending $25,000 a year to jail an otherwise law-abiding marijuana smoker,'' he said. But focusing on arrests "skews perception of what decriminalization or legalization would mean for the criminal justice system'' because few marijuana arrests end in felony convictions, the Columbia University center concluded. The center's chairman, former health department secretary Joseph Califano, said he did oppose mandatory sentences for young people possessing small amounts of marijuana, saying prosecutors and judges should be given wide discretion in order to encourage teens to stop using the drug. comments newsdigital.com© 1999, News America Digital Publishing, Inc. d/b/a Fox News Online.All rights reserved.© 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved.4.46 p.m. ET (2046 GMT) July 13, 1999By Jim Abrams, Associated Press 
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