As seizure rates and heroin-related deaths spike in Ohio, some lawmakers want stricter punishments for drug dealers. But others argue that focusing on dealers simply perpetuates a failed 40-year-long War on Drugs policy, and it's time to focus on recovery for addicts.

As seizure rates and heroin-related deaths spike in Ohio, some lawmakers want stricter punishments for drug dealers.

But others argue that focusing on dealers simply perpetuates a failed 40-year-long War on Drugs policy, and it's time to focus on recovery for addicts.

House Bill 171 would allow an individual to be labeled a "major drug offender" for carrying 100 grams of heroin � down from the current 250 grams. The bill passed the House last year 82-16 and is now in Senate committee hearings.

The Office of the Ohio Public Defender and the ACLU of Ohio are against the measure, claiming it takes the focus off from preventive measures that might be more effective.

"What it shows is that the priority is the criminalization," said Kari Bloom, legislative liaison for the public defenders' office. "The first step that we�re taking is putting more people in prison. ... We don�t have any other bills making movements toward addiction services. There isn�t a counterpart being offered or considered."

Gary Daniels, the ACLU of Ohio's chief lobbyist, said that, in addition to ignoring prevention efforts, the measure exacerbates the problem of prison overcrowding.

He said it also fails to deter people from trafficking in herion. Currently, the penalty for 50 to 249 grams of heroin is a first-degree felony, meriting between three and 11 years in prison. Possession of 250 grams or more carries a mandatory 11-year sentence. Making the harsher penalty more common, he argued, won't stop dealers from harboring large quantities of the drug.

"There seems to be this fantasy out there that if we lock up 'x' number of drug dealers that we�v e taken care of the problem," Daniels said. "At what point do we say, 'we've given this 40 years and it's not working'?"

Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, said concerns about prison overcrowding are unfounded. According the the House's financial analysis of the bill, the change would lead to about three more "major drug offender" sentences per year who otherwise would have received a lesser sentence. Each of those offenders would cost the state $3,600 per year per offender.

But Bloom said those figures are based on current incarceration figures. It is hard to predict how many people will deal heroin in the future.

"And if there's only going to be three (a year), why does there need to be a bill in the first place?" she said.

Seitz, who was originally opposed to the measure, said a crucial effect of the bill will be to bring heroin punishments in line with cocaine. He said it's unreasonable that cocaine dealers currently face stricter sentences than heroin dealers.

"I don�t think anyone could sensibly argue that heroin is safer than cocaine," he said.

And he said this bill doesn't prevent treatment options.

"We are putting money behind treatment and we should continue to do so," he said. "It doesn't have to be an either/or proposition."

William T. Perkins is a fellow in the E.W. Scripps Statehouse News Bureau Fellowship

wperkins@dispatch.com

@wtperkins