40 years after the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, punishment is law and treatment is lacking

When the Boston Celtics drafted Len Bias second overall on June 17, 1986, he told reporters, “My dream has come true.” Two days later, he died after his cocaine use triggered a fatal cardiac event. He was 22.

In response to the national alarm following Bias’s death, on Oct. 27, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act and promised it was “not intended as a means of filling our jails with drug users.” The country’s job, he said, was to reach people who use drugs and help them quit.

In that instance, Congress acted with a purpose Americans across the political spectrum shared: reduce drug use and save lives. Despite that good intention, the reality 40 years later is that Congress made the drug penalties permanent law, while drug treatment was left to be determined during annual budget fights. That imbalance is the law’s most lasting legacy.

In 1986, Congress wrote the penalties quickly. Eric Sterling, the House Judiciary Committee counsel who worked on the bill, later recalled that the mandatory minimums were added in the final days before the August recess, as members headed home to campaign. The drug quantities that triggered them received no hearings.

Five grams of crack cocaine, about the weight of a nickel, drew the same five-year minimum as 500 grams of powder, which weighs more than a pound. Crack cocaine produces a faster, more intense high when smoked than powder does when snorted,........

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