A Democrat-led bill aimed at softening the criminal possession thresholds for crack cocaine was advanced by the Maine Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee after a work session on Thursday.
State Rep. Nina Milliken (D-Blue Hill) sponsored LD 1366, “An Act to Amend Certain Provisions of the Drug Laws Related to Cocaine Base,” to address what she believes to be longstanding injustice in Maine’s drug laws.
The bill, cosponsored by Portland Democratic Rep. Grayson Looker, proposes eliminating the stricter criminal possession limits for cocaine base — more commonly referred to as crack cocaine — and to bring them in line with the criminal possession thresholds for powder cocaine.
Under current state law, possession of more than four grams of crack cocaine is a Class B crime of unlawful possession of scheduled drugs. The threshold for powder cocaine under the same statute is 14 grams.
The bill would also remove language specific to crack cocaine from the criminal code for the Class A crime of aggravated illegal importation of cocaine that establishes a threshold of 32 grams for crack cocaine, to bring it in line with the higher threshold of 112 grams for powder cocaine.
“This is not just a matter of policy – it’s a matter of justice,” said Rep. Milliken when introducing her bill to the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee during an April 14 public hearing.
“Crack has long been associated with lower-income communities, while powder cocaine is more often linked with wealthier, white individuals,” Milliken said. “The disparity in the law, in effect, punishes people more harshly not based on the drug itself, but based on who they are and where they come from.”
Milliken claimed that state law as it stands leads to low-income Mainers being more likely to be arrested for possession of crack and to face more serious charges, while “someone in a more affluent neighborhood” would face lesser charges for “essentially the same conduct.”
“That is not justice–it is a clear reflection of systemic inequality,” she said.
Milliken urged the committee to advance her bill, stating, “By passing this legislation, we will be saying that our laws should be based on facts, not outdated fears or stereotypes. We will be saying that Mainers deserve equal justice, regardless of their income, their zip code, or the form a drug happens to take.”
LD 1366 expands upon similar changes to bring possession thresholds for the crimes of trafficking and furnishing of cocaine and cocaine base in line with each other that were passed and enacted by the 130th Legislature in LD 1675.
Also heard before the committee on Thursday for a work session was LD 1288, sponsored by Republican Sen. David Haggan of Penobscot, a bill that would essentially reverse the changes to the state’s drug laws made by LD 1675.
Brewer Police Chief Christopher Martin was present for the work session on Sen. Haggan’s bill, and said that the changes made by LD 1675 have led to lower drug prices and a higher supply of drugs being brought into Maine by traffickers.
“Our people used to have to travel to Massachusetts to procure their drugs, now the drugs are coming to us,” Chief Martin said. “The greater Bangor hub has become a wholesale supply center for points north, east and west.”
“We have presence of organized gangs here — we’ve had the Bloods up from the Manhattan and Bronx area, we’ve had Dominican-based trafficking groups, we’ve had street gangs from Connecticut, Hartford area, the greater Boston area.”
“The problem is about the worst we’ve ever seen it as far as availability and as far as use on the street,” Martin said.
The Brewer police chief said that the more lenient possession thresholds established by LD 1675 “opened the flood gates” for illegal drugs in Maine.
Rep. Milliken attempted to rebut Martin, asking, “I’m just wondering what the efficacy is of arresting people for these — of continuing to make these crimes illegal, or more criminal in this statute than they already are, if you know full well that another person might just come up behind them.”
Martin explained that local police departments in Maine are limited when it comes to interdicting drugs coming in from out of state, but that increased demand on the local level would require increased federal resources and investigations. He also pointed to the homeless encampments in Bangor and Portland as examples of the negative consequences that come from decreased enforcement.
Milliken and Martin then got into a dispute over the issue of traffickers coming into Maine from out of state.
“The folks who you’re citing that are coming up from out of state, are they bringing less than two grams, or more than two grams when they’re coming up from out of state for trafficking?” Milliken asked Martin.
“They’re bringing a lot more than that, but when–” Martin began, before being cut off by Milliken.
“And you can already arrest those people for very high felony level offenses, correct? Especially if they’re coming from out of state, cause they then also cross state lines for the purposes of selling narcotics, right?” Milliken asked.
Martin called Milliken’s follow-up a “gotcha question,” explaining that the “trafficking doesn’t end with the source supplies.”
“The people that are supplying wholesale quantity aren’t your street dealers, your street dealers are the ones selling grams, half grams,” Martin said.
“The dealing doesn’t end there [with wholesalers], that’s not where the major problem is and where the connection with the drug-related crimes come in that impact our safety in the community,” he added.
Later in the work session on LD 1288, Milliken voiced her strong opposition to the bill, claiming that, if passed, “this bill locks up people — would lock up people who are dealing with their own substance use disorder.”
“The amounts we’re talking about are going to harm people who are in the throws of addiction who are sick and who need help,” she said.
Rep. Haggan’s LD 1288 was reported out of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee as “ought not to pass” in a 6-3 party-line vote, with all Democratic committee members present voting against supporting the bill’s passage.
Milliken’s LD 1366 was reported out “ought to pass” in a 7-4 vote, with all Democrats in favor, and all Republicans against.
