How Do Drug Laws Become Too Harsh

With the large amount of inmates, the laws that were approved by Congress in 1986 and 1988 were seen as too harsh. For example, Dorothy Gaines, who was a nurse and PTA mom, had her home in Alabama raided by the police looking for drugs in 1993. She was charged by federal prosecutors with drug conspiracy since her boyfriend was a courier in a drug deal. Gaines had to serve a 19-year sentence and leave behind three children even though she claims that she didn’t even know that her boyfriend was involved in any drug deals (Ungrady, 2011, p. 152). This is an example of how the drug laws were sometimes cruel and unfair. In other cases, a prisoner went on to describe his 20-year sentence for selling crack as “over-kill” and claims that it didn’t take him all those years to learn from what he did (Ungrady, 2011, p. 155). With such strict laws, it led to sentences and punishment that were not necessary. The government agreed that the laws were too harsh. Chuck Modiano of New York Daily News wrote, “By 2010, President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, which eliminated a mandatory minimum for simple possession of crack, and reduced the mandatory-minimum-sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine

She believes that her son’s death was “unavoidable” (Weinreb, 2008). By saying this, she meant that her son died for a larger purpose. To ensure that larger purpose, she goes to schools around the country and speaks against drugs to educate the youth so what happened to her son, will not happen to anybody else (Ungrady, 2011, p. 18). This is how she works to ensure that her son’s legacy can be remembered as somebody who helped stop drug abuse. Lonise Bias said, “He was a precious seed that went down into the ground to bring life. I believe that with my heart” (Farrell, 2015). She sees that Len died to save the lives that would be taken from drug