Here are a few facts for a complex issue.As of September 30, 2016, 49.1 percent
of federal inmates were drug offenders. One finding in a government was drug
mandatory minimum penalties applied more broadly than Congress may have
anticipated. While some legislative history leading up to the passage of the Anti-
Drug Abuse Act of 1986 suggests that “major” traffickers would be subject to the
ten-year drug mandatory minimum penalty and “serious” traffickers would be
subject to the five-year penalty, they often apply to offenders who perform
relatively low-level functions. For example, nearly one-third (32.2%) of Couriers
and more than one-quarter of Mules (25.4%) were convicted of such offenses.
In other words,lower-level drug offenders were caught up in the mandatory
sentencing guidelines intended for major players in the drug trade.Even with a
safety valve to assist low-level offendersformandatory sentencing, low-
leveloffenders tended not to qualify. The report is available
at:https :// www . ussc .gov/sites/default/files/ pdf /research-and-publications/
research-publications/2017/20171025_Drug- Mand -Min. pdf (Links to an external
site.)
I am not suggesting that drug crimes should not be prosecuted, but it is not
simple to uphold the law while showing compassion, helping people, and keeping
society safe.
