Posted on: Monday, August 27, 2001

Editorial
Federal drug war stats suggest poor priorities

The nation's "war" on drugs is fought on at least two fronts: At the federal level and at the "street" level in individual states and communities.

And while there is obviously a need for both national and local efforts to discourage illegal drug use, there are signs that the federal portion of this effort is misguided at best and seriously wrongheaded at its worst.

This conclusion arises in the wake of the latest figures out of the Justice Department on drug prosecutions.

In releasing the report, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the numbers prove that "federal law enforcement is targeted effectively at convicting major drug traffickers and punishing them with longer lockups in prison."

But an analysis by the Washington Post of the data in the department release seems to suggest just the opposite. Some examples:

• Between 1984 and 1999, the number of drug suspects referred to federal prosecutors tripled, to more than 38,000. Of that number, 84 percent were prosecuted, raising drug cases as a percent of the total federal criminal caseload to nearly a third.

• Drug convicts now make up more than half of the federal inmate population.

All of this is impressive, but the report says that only about one-half of one percent of criminal referrals were for the most serious drug cases — "continuing criminal enterprises" — that suggest the activities of major dealers.

In fact, more than a third of all sentences involved quantities of drugs so small that no mandatory minimum sentence could be imposed.

Another striking fact was that about a third of federal drug referrals in 1999 involved marijuana, hardly the most dangerous of drugs.

In short the picture is of a drug prosecution strategy that is heavily focused on low-level, small time offenders who could be handled in state courts.

The proper federal role is in going after the major criminal enterprises whose activities cross state and international borders and whose ongoing conspiracies are beyond the capabilities of most local law enforcement systems.

The fact that the numbers suggest otherwise raise serious questions: Is the goal of the federal drug program to go after the most dangerous traffickers and most dangerous drugs, or is it to rack up good statistics?