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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFentanyl, Mandatory Minimums and the Death Penalty: Trump's War on Drugs
Don't let all the chaos and scandals of the Trump administration distract you from one of their most stunning successes: They've utterly changed the conversation in Washington when it comes to drug crimes. While a few prominent voices on Capitol Hill continue to call for doing away with mandatory minimum prison sentences, there's a new bill being pushed by top Trump allies inside the Capitol to actually extend mandatory minimums to more fentanyl dealers and to eventually even apply the death penalty in some cases.
"It's not just that it's so potent, but it's also that it's so concentrated. So, it poses a unique risk in the way that other drugs do not," Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) told reporters when he unveiled his bill at the Capitol.
Besides lowering the amount of fentanyl required to impose a stiff mandatory minimum on dealers, Cotton's Republican-sponsored bill also gives the Postal Service more authority and resources to stop the drug from flowing in at the nation's borders. Small amounts of fentanyl are being used to lace heroin and even some cocaine, which is partly why the overdose rate has soared in recent years. These lawmakers say that's why new legislation is needed that focuses on this opioid like a laser beam.
"To me, this is no different from somebody just taking a six-pack of battery acid and surreptitiously going into a grocery store and replaces the Bud Light and saying 'let's see what happens if somebody drinks it,'" Senator John Kennedy (R-LO), another sponsor of the bill, told reporters. "I can't guarantee it's going to stop every single one of them, but I can guarantee you one thing, the ones that get caught they're going to have a long time to think about it."
This group of lawmakers are trying to codify the tough-on-crime approach being espoused by President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But many former prosecutors are dubious of expanding mandatory minimums, especially like this bill does which is by dropping the current 40 grams required for a mandatory minimum down to a mere two grams, which could potentially net a lot of low level dealers and users instead of traffickers and cartels.
"I was in favor of them for a long time and then experience showed that they tied my hands," Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a former state attorney general, tells Rolling Stone. "But more importantly, the judge's hands
I mean, in terms of what the higher sentence should be and the lower, and at the end of the day it had very little deterrent effect."
Legal experts are wondering what data these tough-on-crime lawmakers are using as the basis for their new legislation.
"We've never found any evidence that increasing mandatory minimum sentences works," Ames Grawert, senior counsel at the Brennen Center for Justice, tells Rolling Stone. "Instead, most of the research we've done has shown that prison sentences can be safely decreased with or without any adverse consequences for public safety. This is exactly the wrong direction to be going."
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/fentanyl-mandatory-minimums-death-penalty-trump-war-on-drugs-w518495?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=032818_17
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)It left her stupefied and totally immobile, and we looked it up - a 100X more powerful than morphine and heroin.
She told him no more, good old hydrocodone was plenty good enough to keep the pain at a mild roar.
Now, I don't think anyone who sells and distributes these drugs is intending to kill the customer - that is a bad business model. Intent to kill is also required for capital crimes.
Our desire and demand for these drugs is the real problem. THAT's where all our effort should be focused!
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)It can be produced relatively easily and cheaply by those with limited knowledge and skill. What makes it attractive to the underground market is not just that it can be produced so easily and cheaply, but because its so potent its much easier to smuggle as you get a bigger payday from smaller quantity. Doubling down on the drug war is what insures the viability of the illicit fentanyl market.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)really wish that the "well-intentioned" anti-opiate hysterics would realize that they're not helping anybody by making it harder for pain patients to get necessary opiate medication. the people who are really potential ODers will just turn to street heroin/other opiates, and the risk of them overdosing will increase exponentially.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)The globalization of trade has also made it far easier to produce dangerous drugs on a global market. A wall isn't going to stop it. State sanctioned murder of dealers isn't going to stop it. Jailing users isn't going to stop it.
The so-called drug war has never made so much as a dent in addiction rates. It's never worked and never will. All drugs should be legalized. The ones that pose no overdose risk should be available OTC. The ones that do should be available with a prescription regardless of why someone wants them. Doing this would destroy the illicit drug market overnight. Nobody would have to get murdered because criminals control the market. Nobody would have to steal and rob to get their next fix. Nobody would OD because of the street variance of dangerous drugs. Addicts would be under a doctor's care and would be more likely to live functional lives.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)available for them to siphon off into their off-shore secret bank accounts.
spanone
(135,892 posts)trump the bad ass.