gave prominence to reports of violent street crime associated with the use of crack cocaine and related gang wars over control of trafficking in crack in major American cities. Prompted by public concerns over these developments, Congress passed two tough anti-drug laws, the Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988. The net effect of these federal laws, and companion legislation adopted in many states has been to criminalize the mere possession of many drugs, including marijuana, and to impose minimum mandatory sentences, ranging from five years for first offenses to much higher sentences for repeated offenses. According to Witofsky, approximately 62 million persons were arrested per year for drug-related offenses during the decade 1982-1992, and accounted for half of the total prison population in the United States which has had since then the highest rate of incarceration of any industrialized nation (3).
The first drug czar, William Bennett, and other Bush administration officials conducted a media blitz in 1989 which stressed the dangers of illegal
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