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. e 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 offenders for mandatory sentencing, low-level offenders 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.
