NEWSBRIEFS

Up to 950 Americans imprisoned for marijuana offenses will serve less time in federal prison than expected, thanks to a recent amendment to federal sentencing guidelines. Future marijuana offenders will also face a more rational calculation of sentences for cultivating the illegal plant.

The new sentencing policy became law on November 1, the same day that changes in crack cocaine sentences would have gone into effect if Congress had not blocked those changes. Like the defeated crack sentencing proposals, the marijuana-related sentencing change — labeled Amendment 8—was proposed by the U.S. Sentencing Commission last May.

Amendment 8 is an attempt to bring some rationality to the sentencing guidelines for marijuana cultivators. Previously, cases involving 50 or more cannabis plants were treated much more harshly than cases involving 49 or fewer plants. In cases involving 49 or fewer plants, sentences are calculated based on a marijuana weight of 100 grams (alittle over three ounces) per plant — an estimate of how much marketable pot a plant could produce.

If a person was caught with 50 plants or more, however, under the old policy each plant counted for 1,000 grams. The guidelines federal judges use to calculate sentences depend heavily on the weight of an illegal drug. So the net effectwas that higher-level cultivators would have their sentences artificially multiplied.

The resulting disparity was called a "sentencing cliff' by reformers, who noted that one plant could make one to three years' difference in a person's prison term. For 49 or fewer plants, the baseline sentence is 10 to 16 months; for 50 or more, 33 to 41 months in prison was the minimum.

Two reform groups brought this disparity to the Sentencing Commission's attention in the spring of 1995. Amendment 8 was originally proposed by Families Against Mandatory Minimums and the Marijuana Policy Project, and was passed by the commission with a 7-0 vote last April. With the enactment ofAmendment 8, all plants will now be weighed as 100 grams, regardless of the number of plants found.

In September, the commission agreed to apply Amendment 8 retroactively to the sentences of persons already in prison. The commission estimated that 950 federal prisoners would be eligible for sentence recalculation. Those who were caught with 100 or more plants will probably serve a five-year mandatory sentence, unless they qualify for the 1994 mandatory minimum "safety valve."