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San Diego UnionTribune
Wednesday, March 26, 1997

Some revealing statistics on drug prosecutions

Every so often, you print letters complaining about the "clogging of our
prison system" with people who merely possess drugs instead of using
that space for "serious" offenders. These letters are usually in support
of the right to possess and use drugs. It might be worthwhile to dispel
the notion that the nation's lawenforcement agencies spend all their
time catching and prosecuting poor pot users. The following are some
statistics from the Bureau of Justice publication, "Drugs and Crime
Facts, 1994":

=A0In federal courts in 1991, drugpossession convictions were only 7
percent (81 people) of all drug convictions, while drug trafficking
accounted for the other 93 percent, or 1,082 people. (The statistics
don't indicate how many of that 7 percent actually went to prison and
how many received probation.)

=A0At a state level, only 8 percent of prisoners were sentenced for drug
possession, while 13 percent were sentenced for drug trafficking.
Possessors served an average of 13 months, least of any category of
state prisoners.

=A0Among the young, only 10 percent of juveniles held in facilities in
1991 were there for drug offenses, both possession and trafficking.
Ninety percent were there for nondrug offenses.

=A0In a 1992 survey, only 9 percent of state prosecutors said they
prosecuted cases for drug possession.

=A0Of 27,000 drug offenders sentenced to probation in 17 states in 1986,
49 percent nearly half were rearrested within for felony offenses
within three years, with onethird of them being rearrested for drug
offenses. A large number of those cited in the first two categories
above are not firsttime offenders.

The folks who write those "poor pot user" letters may sincerely believe
the notion that our prisons are full of otherwise innocent grandmothers
with glaucoma, or homeless people with an unfortunately illegal
pastime. The facts indicate otherwise.

GORDON A. HOFER=20
Santee