53 Victims of the Drug War
by TChris
Because people sentenced for drug crimes are so often poor and disadvantaged, their shockingly harsh punishments gain little notice. Not so when prominent citizens are sent to prison.
David Collins of Pensacola, Florida "is among 53 mostly middle-aged and middle class defendants charged with offenses ranging from drug possession to trafficking." A state court judge today sentenced Collins to 3-1/2 years in prison.
Defense lawyer Drew Pinkerton said Collins, co-owner of Collins-Kiefer Seminars in suburban Gulf Breeze, will appeal but probably serve about 18 months even if he wins because Florida's drug trafficking law prohibits appeal bonds. "It's the most draconian law in the world," said Pinkerton, who insisted his client was a recreational user, not a trafficker. "This guy goes to prison for 42 months and half the burglars and robbers are walking around the street out there on probation."
Pinkerton says that prosecutors relied on "small amounts of cocaine possessed at various times to reach a total of at least 28 grams," a quantity that permits a trafficking conviction in Florida even in the absence of actual distribution.
Pinkerton said lawmakers never intended to turn small-time users into traffickers by totaling the cocaine they consumed over months or years.
Forty-one of the 53 accused were charged in state court. Most received probation or a short jail sentence. But 12 went to federal court, where at least one has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison.
Whether prosecutors abuse their charging authority in drug cases by seeking unwarranted punishment is a question that deserves, but usually evades, public scrutiny. When 51 average citizens become victims of the drug war, the public might start to wonder whether an unyielding criminal justice system is the best response to drug abuse.
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