NORML’s Executive Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. joined a coalition of criminal justice and drug policy groups yesterday to testify against D.C. Council Bill 12-12, the “Distribution of Marijuana Amendment Act of 1997.” The bill, introduced by interim Council Chair Charlene Drew Jarvis (D), seeks to make the possession of more than one and one-half ounces of marijuana a felony offense and to reinstate mandatory-minimum sentences for various drug offenses. Backers of the measure claimed that enhanced penalties are necessary to combat an alleged increase in violence associated with marijuana trafficking in the city.
Stroup called the proposal a classic example of “bait and switch.” He noted that the bill would impose mandatory prison terms for all marijuana distribution and possession-with-intent-to distribute offenses regardless of whether any violence was associated with the event. “If violence is the reason for imposing harsh and unyielding mandatory sentences, the legislation should be targeted at violent offenders,” Stroup argued.
Stroup further testified that the Jarvis bill was unnecessary because the U.S. Attorney’s office already decides which District drug cases are most serious and should be prosecuted in federal court, and which are less serious and will be prosecuted in Superior Court. Those prosecuted under federal law are subject to the rigid sentencing guidelines and to all the mandatory penalties adopted by Congress, Stroup explained. “It [is] disingenuous for [D.C. prosecutors] to suggest that [their] hands [are] tied by the absence of mandatory penalties under D.C. law,” he said.
Stroup also argued that passage of the Jarvis bill will increase the number of non-violent offenders sent to prison in the District, and strip judges of their ability to mete out fair sentences that “reflect the individual facts of the case and the culpability of the individual defendant.”
NORML was joined by Drug Policy Foundation President Arnold Trebach, Families Against Mandatory Minimums President Julie Stewart, Mary Jane DeFrank of the Washington Capitol area American Civil Liberties Union, and a number of other witnesses.
For more information, please contact R. Keith Stroup, Esq. of NORML at (202) 483-5500.