Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986

Last updated
Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986
Great Seal of the United States (obverse).svg
Other short titles
  • Alcohol and Drug Abuse Amendments of 1986
  • Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act of 1986
  • Federal Analog Act
Long titleAn Act to strengthen Federal efforts to encourage foreign cooperation in eradicating illicit drug crops and in halting international drug traffic, to improve enforcement of Federal drug laws and enhance interdiction of illicit drug shipments, to provide strong Federal leadership in establishing effective drug abuse prevention and education programs, to expand Federal support for drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation efforts, and for other purposes.
Enacted bythe 99th United States Congress
EffectiveOctober 27, 1986
Citations
Public law 99-570
Statutes at Large 100  Stat.   3207
Codification
Acts amended Administrative Procedure Act
Freedom of Information Act
Titles amended 21 U.S.C.: Food and Drugs
U.S.C. sections amended
Legislative history
Major amendments
Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 was a law pertaining to the War on Drugs passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Among other things, it changed the system of federal supervised release from a rehabilitative system into a punitive system.[ citation needed ] The 1986 Act also prohibited controlled substance analogs. The bill enacted new mandatory minimum sentences for drugs, including marijuana. [1] [2]

Contents

History

President Ronald Reagan signs the Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1986 in the East Room. Charlie Rangel (far left) and Nancy Reagan look on. President Ronald Reagan signing the Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1986.jpg
President Ronald Reagan signs the Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1986 in the East Room. Charlie Rangel (far left) and Nancy Reagan look on.

The appearance of crack cocaine, the June 19, 1986, death of Len Bias (University of Maryland basketball star), the morning after he signed with the NBA champion Boston Celtics, and the June 27, 1986, death of Don Rogers (Cleveland Browns, 1985 Defensive Rookie of the Year) -- both from cocaine use, [3] encouraged U.S. Rep. Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill Jr. (D-MA), the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to mobilize the House Democratic leadership to assemble an omnibus anti-drug bill that became the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. [4] The congressional interest and intense news coverage created a moral panic surrounding cocaine use, which had earlier been viewed in a more benign or even positive way, [5] that made enacting this legislation so important. [6] In September and October 1986, the House (with a Democratic majority) and the Senate (with a Republican majority) competed over which could propose the most severe laws in advance of the pivotal midterm election. [7]

Contents

Money Laundering Control Act

The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 was enacted as Title I of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. [8] [9] This title criminalized money laundering for the first time in the United States. [9] It also amended the Bank Secrecy Act, the Change in Bank Control Act, and the Right to Financial Privacy Act [9]

Drug crimes

Along with the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the act substantially increased the number of drug offenses with mandatory minimum sentences. [10]

This act mandated a minimum sentence of 5 years without parole for possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine while it mandated the same for possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine. This 100:1 disparity was reduced to 18:1, when crack was increased to 28 grams (1 ounce) by the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.[ citation needed ]

The law also banned the operation of venues intended for use of illegal drugs, a provision known as the "Crackhouse Law". It was amended in the RAVE Act of 2003. [11]

Spending

The act authorized billions of dollars of spending, although substantially less was actually appropriated. Some of this was used to increase the substance abuse treatment federal block grant program, [12] although treatment providers were disappointed at the reduced appropriations following politicians' earlier promises and authorization. [7]

Other programs funded by the act included drug counseling and education programs, [9] AIDS research, [12] and international cooperation to limit drug production. [9]

The Act also included the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act, which required colleges to establish drug abuse education and prevention programs. [13]

Impact

The law led to an increase in average time imprisoned for drug crimes from 22 months to 33 months. [14]

Racial effect

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act created a significant disparity in the sentences imposed for crimes involving powder cocaine versus crack cocaine, with the ratio of 100 to 1. For example, a drug crime involving 5 grams of crack cocaine resulted in a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in federal prison, while crimes involving 500 grams of powder cocaine received the same sentence. [15] After the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the number of black people sent to federal prison skyrocketed from approximately 50 in 100,000 adults to approximately 250 in 100,000 adults. [16] During that same period of mass increase in black prison rates, there was almost no change in the number of white people incarcerated in federal prison.

This also led to an increased disparity in prison sentencing lengths between races: prior to the enactment of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, black people received sentences for drug-related crimes which were 11% longer than sentences received by whites who committed the same offense; this increased to 49% in the following years. This disparity led to major racial and class imbalances, where minorities faced far harsher punishments for the use and sale of virtually the same drug as their affluent, white counterparts. [17]

See also

Citations

  1. Snitch: Drug Laws and Snitching – a Primer Archived 2015-10-23 at the Wayback Machine . Frontline (U.S. TV series). Public Broadcasting Service. The article also has a chart of mandatory minimum sentences for first time drug offenders.
  2. Thirty Years of America's Drug War Archived 2011-02-24 at the Wayback Machine . Frontline (U.S. TV series).
  3. Easley 2011.
  4. "Pro/Con - Eric e. Sterling | Snitch | FRONTLINE | PBS". PBS . Archived from the original on 2021-06-02. Retrieved 2022-09-14.
  5. Musto 2005, p. 11.
  6. Reinarman and Levine, "Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice", Univ. of Cal. Press, 1997
  7. 1 2 Musto 2005, p. 12.
  8. Richards 1998, p. 136.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Pollard & Daly 2014, p. 16.19.
  10. Reamer 2005, p. 134.
  11. Erin Treacy, The Rave Act: A Specious Solution to the Serious Problem of Increased Ecstasy Distribution: Is It Unconstitutionally Overbroad, 28 Hastings COMM. & ENT. L.J. 229 (2005).
  12. 1 2 Landsberg 2004, p. 213.
  13. Dowdall 2013, p. 128.
  14. Shewan 2013, p. 89f.
  15. "Oct. 27, 1986: Anti-Drug Abuse Act Creates Racially Biased 100 to 1 Crack/Powder Disparity". Equal Justice Incentive. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  16. "Oct. 27, 1986: Anti-Drug Abuse Act Creates Racially Biased 100 to 1 Crack/Powder Disparity". Equal Justice Incentive. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  17. "Reagan's National Drug Strategy". Omeka Beta Service. Archived from the original on 31 January 2022. Retrieved 21 April 2022.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Sentencing Project</span>

The Sentencing Project is a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy center working for decarceration in the United States and seeking to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The organization produces nonpartisan reports and research for use by state and federal policymakers, administrators, and journalists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Len Bias</span> American basketball player (1963–1986)

Leonard Kevin Bias was an American college basketball player for the Maryland Terrapins. In the last of his four years playing for Maryland, he was named a consensus first-team All-American. Two days after being selected by the Boston Celtics with the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft, Bias died from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose. In 2021, Bias was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War on drugs</span> Global anti-drug campaign led by the United States

The war on drugs is the policy of a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States. The initiative includes a set of drug policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs that the participating governments, through United Nations treaties, have made illegal.

Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term of imprisonment for certain crimes, commonly serious or violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are instituted to expedite the sentencing process and limit the possibility of irregularity of outcomes due to judicial discretion. Mandatory sentences are typically given to people who are convicted of certain serious and/or violent crimes, and require a prison sentence. Mandatory sentencing laws vary across nations; they are more prevalent in common law jurisdictions because civil law jurisdictions usually prescribe minimum and maximum sentences for every type of crime in explicit laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willie Aikens</span> American baseball player

Willie Mays Aikens is an American professional baseball first baseman who played in Major League Baseball for the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, and Toronto Blue Jays between 1977 and 1985. He had established himself as one of the top sluggers in the game before drugs derailed his career. In 1994, Aikens was sentenced to 20 years in prison on four counts of crack cocaine distribution and one count of use of a firearm during drug trafficking. He was released on June 4, 2008, after changes in federal drug laws, and is sometimes cited as an example of the results of mandatory maximum sentencing in drug-related crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crack epidemic in the United States</span> Drug epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s

The crack epidemic was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in a number of social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in American inner city neighborhoods, a resulting backlash in the form of tough on crime policies, a massive spike in incarceration rates, and a sharp escalation of the war on drugs.

The Kemba Smith Foundation is an American charitable organization which aims to raise awareness of certain social issues, including drug abuse, violence, AIDS, teenage pregnancy, and abuse. It was founded by Kemba Smith Pradia, who was convicted of a federal crime related to crack cocaine possession and had her sentence commuted by President Bill Clinton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal drug policy of the United States</span> Nationwide framework regarding the abuse of drugs in the United States

The drug policy in the United States is the activity of the federal government relating to the regulation of drugs. Starting in the early 1900s, the United States government began enforcing drug policies. These policies criminalized drugs such as opium, morphine, heroin, and cocaine outside of medical use. The drug policies put into place are enforced by the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Classification of Drugs are defined and enforced using the Controlled Substance Act, which lists different drugs into their respective substances based on its potential of abuse and potential for medical use. Four different categories of drugs are Alcohol, Cannabis, Opioids, and Stimulants.

<i>Kimbrough v. United States</i> 2007 United States Supreme Court case

Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85 (2007), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court confirmed that federal district judges utilize, in an advisory fashion, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, in cases involving conduct related to possession, distribution, and manufacture of crack cocaine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crack cocaine</span> Form of the drug cocaine

Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment calls it the most addictive form of cocaine.

Raymond Alvin Jackson is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Demico Boothe is an African-American bestselling author of several books on the plight of African-American men in the American prison system. Boothe's book Why Are So Many Black Men in Jail? addresses the issue of racism in the Crack versus Cocaine Laws and was published in 2007, three years before Michelle Alexander's better-known book that also addresses the subject, The New Jim Crow (2010). Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison? is on the Black Lives Matter recommended reading list.

The War on Drugs is a term for the actions taken and legislation enacted by the US federal government, intended to reduce or eliminate the production, distribution, and use of illicit drugs. The War on Drugs began during the Nixon administration with the goal of reducing the supply of and demand for illegal drugs, but an ulterior racial motivation has been proposed. The War on Drugs has led to controversial legislation and policies, including mandatory minimum penalties and stop-and-frisk searches, which have been suggested to be carried out disproportionately against minorities. The effects of the War on Drugs are contentious, with some suggesting that it has created racial disparities in arrests, prosecutions, imprisonment, and rehabilitation. Others have criticized the methodology and the conclusions of such studies. In addition to disparities in enforcement, some claim that the collateral effects of the War on Drugs have established forms of structural violence, especially for minority communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Sentencing Act</span> A federal law in USA

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 was an Act of Congress that was signed into federal law by United States President Barack Obama on August 3, 2010, that reduces the disparity between the amount of crack cocaine and powder cocaine needed to trigger certain federal criminal penalties from a 100:1 weight ratio to an 18:1 weight ratio and eliminated the five-year mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine, among other provisions. Similar bills were introduced in several U.S. Congresses before its passage in 2010, and courts had also acted to reduce the sentencing disparity prior to the bill's passage.

<i>The New Jim Crow</i> Nonfiction book about mass incarceration in the United States by Michelle Alexander

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States, but Alexander noted that the discrimination faced by African-American males is prevalent among other minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged populations. Alexander's central premise, from which the book derives its title, is that "mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988</span> US law

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 is a major law of the War on Drugs passed by the U.S. Congress which did several significant things:

  1. Created the policy goal of a drug-free America;
  2. Established the Office of National Drug Control Policy; and
  3. Restored the use of the death penalty by the federal government.

In the United States, women represent roughly a quarter of all arrests. Women and men are both more likely to be arrested for less serious property crimes, but men are more likely than women to be involved in violent crime. Since 1960, while arrests in total have decreased, women have become a higher percentage of those arrests, partly due to an increase in drug-related arrests. Steffensmeier and Schwartz (2008) claim that this increase is not because more women are committing substance-abuse offenses, but because law enforcement officials have begun using broader, more expansive definitions of crimes, arresting more people for minor crimes. Because women are more likely to commit these minor crimes, females have been disproportionately added to the number of arrests.

Discrimination against drug addicts is a form of discrimination against people who suffer from a drug addiction.

The cannabis policy of the Reagan administration involved affirmation of the War on Drugs, government funded anti-cannabis media campaigns, expanded funding for law enforcement, involvement of the U.S. military in interdiction and eradication, reduction in emphasis in drug treatment, and creation of new Federal powers to test employees and seize cannabis-related assets.

Terry v. United States, 593 U.S. ___ (2021), was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with retroactive changes to prison sentences for drug-possession crimes related to the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, its retroactive nature established by the First Step Act of 2018. In a unanimous judgement, the Court ruled that while the First Step Act does allow for retroactive considerations of sentence reductions for drug-possession crimes prior to 2010, this only covers those that were sentenced under minimum sentencing requirements.

References

Further reading