NCJ Number
96375
Date Published
1984
Length
79 pages
Annotation
Hearing testimony focuses on the relationship between drug trafficking/abuse and other crimes, as well as legislation to counter drug trafficking.
Abstract
In a prepared statement, Senator Alfonse D'Amato reports that annual drug-related deaths are more than twice the previous estimate of 4,000. Further, he states that drug kingpins should be given the death penalty and advises that the tough bail and sentencing reforms passed by the Senate but delayed by the House are desperately needed. Stanley Marcus, U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida, explains that Miami has become the point of entry for about 75 percent of all the cocaine, marijuana, and possibly methaqualone smuggled into the United States. He notes that in Dade County, 25 percent of all homicides and 50 to 60 percent of all property crimes are drug-related. Rudolph W. Giuliani U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, suggests that successful large-scale drug operations cannot be conducted without murdering someone within the business; he recommends that statute 18 U.S.C. 48 be amended so that drug kingpins can be tried for mass murder. Richard Lane, Executive Director of Man Alive Research, Inc., reports that 63.8 percent of those in Maryland State prisons are substance abusers. He states that imprisoning these individuals costs $12,045 per year, while treating their drug problem would cost only $2,000. Finally, he emphasizes the need for a concerted approach -- including drug treatment -- to resolve the drug problem. Three tables and 31 references are included.