On December 29, 2006, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quotes CJPF President Eric E. Sterling in an article titled, "County jail population nears capacity". Sterling addresses the fact that ineffective mandatory minimum sentences are filling jails with non-violent drug offenders.

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Eric E. Sterling was interviewed by Roy Ulrich on the "Morning Review" on KPFK-09.7 FM in Los Angeles on December 8, 2006 regarding the Justice Department's cocaine prosecution problems, the injustice of long mandatory sentences for low-level offenders, the November hearings of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and the prospects for reform in Congress. Listen to the interview here.

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On December 1, 2006, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling was interviewed on the Drug Truth Network. Sterling addressed the large increase in incarceration over the past two decades largely due to the war on drugs. Listen to Sterling's interview here.

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On November 30, 2006, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling spoke at the University of Maryland, Shady Grove campus to a class of criminology students about drugs and crime.

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CJPF President Eric Sterling attended the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in Hawai'i this summer. On November 28, 2006, West Hawaii Today published his letter to the editor on Hawai'i's high crime rate and the crime fighting role of a drug court he visited on that trip. The Judge of the Big Island Drug Court, Judge Ronald Ibarra, who Mr. Sterling observed, interviewed and wrote about, was named by the Hawai'i Supreme Court, "Jurist of the year," in October 2006.

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On November 19, 2006, the Sacramento Bee wrote an editorial supporting CJPF Eric E. Sterling's Los Angeles Times op-ed.

The editorial was also printed in the November 25, 2006 editions of the Dallas Morning News and the Austin American-Statesman.

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On November 18, 2006, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling spoke at the concluding plenary session of the Student for Sensible Drug Policy International Conference. The session, "Beyond Prohibition: What Does Sensible Drug Policy Look Like?", also featured Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine, Rachel Kurtz of the King County Bar Association, and Marsha Rosenbaum of the Drug Policy Alliance.

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The op-ed, Take Another Crack at that Cocaine Law, written by CJPF President Eric E. Sterling and published in the Los Angeles Times on November 13, 2006 has been reprinted in multiple newspapers around the country including the Christian Science Monitor on November 15, 2006, the Qatar Peninsula on November 16, 2006, The Wilmington News Journal on November 19, 2006, The Nashua Telegraph on November 19, 2006, and the Milwaukee Shepherd Express on November 23, 2006.

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The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation honors the life and accomplishments of Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman. Through his writings, Friedman, a long-time critic of drug prohibition, contributed extensively to the drug policy reform movement. Many of Friedman's writings are available at the Schaffer Drug Policy Library, including an open letter to Bill Bennett . We also recommend his books Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose: A Personal Statement.

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On November 16, 2006, the Mercury News published an editorial about crack cocaine sentencing guidelines and why they need to be changed. The editorial quotes CJPF President Eric E. Sterling.

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On November 16, 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle published a column about the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 entitled Fundamental Fairness Takes a Powder, written by columnist Debra Saunders. The column features commentary by CJPF President Eric E. Sterling.

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On November 13, 2006, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed written by CJPF President Eric E. Sterling. Sterling's article, Take Another Crack at that Cocaine Law, highlights several problems with the crack-cocaine sentencing disparity and calls for Congress to fix this unjust and ineffective law. The op-ed was also printed in the Christian Science Monitor.

For more details and analysis, see Eric E. Sterling's Getting Justice Off Its Junk Food Diet, a white paper on getting tough on cocaine traffickers and fixing the racial disparity of crack prosecutions.

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On November 6, 2006, Eric E. Sterling lectured at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire on "The Hidden Cost of American Drug Policy". The presentation was reported in The Exchange, the Franklin Pierce College newspaper.

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On November 1, 2006, NPR's News and Notes interviewed CJPF President Eric E. Sterling and the ACLU's Jesselyn McCurdy about how the mandatory minimum sentences passed in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 disproportionately affect African-Americans.

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On October 27, 2006, NPR's Morning Edition reported on the 20th anniversary of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. Libby Lewis's report included analysis by Eric E. Sterling.

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On October 27, 2006, marking the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, a letter from over 150 professors of criminology, sociology, public policy and law was delivered to the leadership of the Senate and House Committees on the Judiciary. Organized by CJPF's Eric E. Sterling (who is teaching sociology at George Washington University part-time next Spring), the letter is at www.cjpf.org/professorsletter. Additional signatures from professors are being gathered. The updated letter will be submitted to the U.S. Sentencing Commission at its all-day hearing on November 14, 2006 on the crack cocaine - powder cocaine sentencing disparity.

The letter was released at a briefing for congressional staff organized by the Justice Roundtable, "The 20-year Legacy of Crack and Powder Cocaine Sentencing," featuring Lisa Rich, U.S. Sentencing Commission; Bradley Hayes, Counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama); Jesselyn McCurdy, Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union; and Eric E. Sterling.

The CJPF white paper, Getting Justice Off Its Junk Food Diet, was also distributed.

The ACLU distributed its new paper, Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of the Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law, as well.

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On October 17, 2006, Eric E. Sterling spoke to the Annual Conference of the National Network of Grantmakers at Loyola University in Chicago on a panel discussing the question, "Is the drug war the new Jim Crow?"

The panel also included:
Deborah Peterson Small, Executive Director, Break the Chains-Communities of Color and the War on Drugs, Eddie Ellis, Chair, NuLeadership Policy Group, City University of New York; Producer-"On the Count," WBAI-FM and was moderated by Nkechi Taifa, Senior Policy Analyst, Open Society Policy Center, Washington, DC.
See Eric's article addressing this subject, "Drug Policy: A Challenge of Values".

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On Sunday, October 8, 2006, after a screening of the motion picture, A Scanner Darkly, at the University of Maryland in College Park, Eric Sterling spoke to the audience about the moral and political implications of the story. He was accompanied by Micah Daigle, Field Director, Students for Sensible Drug Policy national office. This event was sponsored by Student Entertainment Events and the Students for Sensible Drug Policy University of Maryland chapter. See Eric's comments and discussion of the movie at the blog, www.sterlingpoints.com.

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On October 7, 2006, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling was interviewed along with the Joe White, the Executive Director of Change the Climate, on the weekly radio show Criminal Justice Forum. Sterling and White discussed the problems with the war on drugs.Download the podcast here.

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Eric E. Sterling spoke to the Windsor Locks Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of Chesire on Thursday, September 24 in Connecticut.

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Eric E. Sterling spoke to the Oxford Lions Club on Wednesday, September 23 in Oxford, Connecticut.

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The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation has always advocated and facilitated discussions promoting alternatives to drug prohibition. In this recently unearthed online chat transcript from 1995 found on the American Civil Liberties Union website, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling takes questions from the internet community in one of the first online discussions of its kind.

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On August 31, the Hartford Advocate newspaper reported on the formation of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc) and the speaking tour it is organizing in Connecticut. Eric E. Sterling, who serves on LEAP's national advisory board, is quoted at length in the story.

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On July 26, 2006, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling was quoted in a Tuscaloosa News article about U.S. Senator Sessions' (R-AL) bill to adjust sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenses.

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On July 20, 2006, The Los Angeles Times printed a letter to the editor entitled Governor's Veto Suggests Hypocrisy by CJPF Research Associate Zach Dietert. Dietert commented on changes to California's Proposition 36.

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On July 17, 2006, CJPF released a white paper by CJPF President Eric E. Sterling. The paper, Getting Justice Off Its Junk Food Diet, explains the adverse affect of the low mandatory minimum quantity triggers for federal cocaine prosecutions.

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On July 7, 2006, The Houston Chronicle printed an op-ed by CJPF Research Associate Zach Dietert. Dietert's article, The Burden a Bill Like Culberson's Bill Puts on Police, focuses on how legislation proposed by Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, would not only cast undue suspicion on a large segment of the population, but also waste valuable police resources that could be better spent fighting violent crime and terrorism.

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CJPF President Eric E. Sterling was quoted on July 5, 2006, in an Asheville Citizen-Times article about two women who were prosecuted for homicide for delivering fentanyl patches that led to overdose deaths.

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CJPF President Eric E. Sterling had a letter to the editor entitled, West Hollywood Adopts a Sane Policy on Pot, published in the June 25, 2006 edition of the Los Angeles Times. Sterling applauded West Hollywood City Council's vote to make marijuana possession a low law enforcement priority.

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On June 24, 2006, the Washington Post printed an article, Undo This Legacy of Len Bias's Death, by CJPF President Eric E. Sterling and Julie Stewart of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. In this piece, Sterling and Stewart call for the repeal of the mandatory minimums passed in response to Bias's death. This article was also printed in the Hartford Courant, Juneau Empire, Sacramento Bee, and The Spokesman Review.

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On June 22, 2006, the University of Maryland independent student newspaper DiamondBackOnline.com printed a story, Taught by Tragedy, about the 1986 death of University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias. In this article, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling explains how harsh mandatory minimum drug laws were passed without debate immediately after Bias's death.

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On June 16, 2006, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling was interviewed on the Drug Truth Network. As the 20 year anniversary of the death of college basketball star Len Bias approached, Sterling addressed how severe mandatory minimum laws were hastily enacted in response to his death and the growing concern about crack cocaine. Listen to Sterling's interview here.

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The Gazette, the local paper of Silver Spring, MD, printed a letter to the editor from CJPF President Eric E. Sterling on June 14, 2006. The letter, Better Policing Through Better Management, highlights the fact that the county police department is putting more resources into making drug arrests than combating violent crime.

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On May 28, 2006, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a letter to the editor, Sentencing law has led to the wasting of DEA resources, by CJPF President Eric E. Sterling. In his letter, Mr. Sterling comments on how the majority of federal crack cocaine cases involve relatively small amounts of the drug, preventing the DEA from focusing on international drug traffickers.

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In Dane County, WI, prosecutors have used a state law 21 times since 2002 that allows drug dealers to be charged with homicide when their products result in an overdose death. On April 10, 2006, the Wisconsin State Journal ran a story on the use-- and controversy-- of the law in "Dane County uses tough drug law". CJPF President Eric E. Sterling argues in the article that the law does nothing to deter drug dealers who already face potential imprisonment for their illegal activities, but still choose to sell to willing consumers.

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On March 3, 2006, the Inter American Commission on Human Rights heard a presentation on racial discrimination in the United States as a consequence of the application of the mandatory minimum sentencing laws, especially with respect to crack cocaine.

American law generally limits claims of governmental racial discrimination to cases involving proof of intent to discriminate racially. American courts have therefore rejected challenges to the application of the crack cocaine law, finding that Congress did not intend to hurt or stigmatize African Americans when it passed the law in 1986, and the Justice Department does not have such intent when it prosecutes these cases. However international law can find racial discrimination violates a nation’s obligation to its people not to engage in racially discriminatory practices when the effects and impact of government policies establish such a practice (i.e. the American Declaration Of The Rights And Duties Of Man and  International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination).

The Honorable Patricia Wald testified on behalf of the American Bar Association.
Professor Charles Ogletree, Founder and Executive Director of Harvard Law School’s Institute on Race and Justice, testified on behalf of the Justice Roundtable (in which the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation is a participant).

Ms. Kemba Smith testified about her prosecution at age 24 for the cocaine trafficking offenses of her boyfriend, and the racially discriminatory collateral consequences of drug convictions. Seven months pregnant, she was sentenced to 24 ½ years. Fortunately in 2000, President Bill Clinton commuted her sentence. She has since graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University and has entered Howard University Law School.

Ms. Gay McDougall, Executive Director of Global Rights, was the first United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues.  Ms. McDougall addressed the provisions of international human rights law that are relevant to the impact of mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

Marc Mauer, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project and Eric E. Sterling accompanied the panelists. Sterling answered questions from the Commission regarding the abolition of federal parole in the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the infrequent use of the Article II presidential power of reprieve and pardon, and the exhaustion of challenges in the federal courts to the racial discriminatory impact of the application of the crack cocaine mandatory minimum sentencing law. Several Members of Congress also submitted statements to the Commission, including Maxine Waters, Charles Rangel, and Robert C. "Bobby" Scott. Wade Henderson, the Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, also submitted a statement.

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On February 16, 2006, as part of a panel presented by the Justice Roundtable, Eric E. Sterling spoke to congressional staff and the public at the Rayburn House Office Building at the U.S. House of Representatives, joined by U.S. Representatives Charles Rangel (D-NY), Robert Scott (D-VA), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX). It has been almost twenty years since Congress enacted the cocaine mandatory minimum sentences he helped write as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. He discussed the ineffectiveness of  enforcement of the cocaine and crack cocaine laws by the U.S. Department of Justice in the context of the injustice of the prosecutions. Cocaine prices have fallen fairly steadily since 1986, and the average purity has risen. In 2002 and 2003 the number of crack users substantially exceeded the number in 1988, but declined somewhat in 2004.

 In 2000, the average sentence for crack offenders was 104 months, involved in cases with an average quantity of 52 grams.  The average sentence for powder cocaine offenders was 101 months, involved in cases with an average quantity of 16,000 grams of cocaine. This is a ratio of more than 300 to 1. Only 7% of all federal cocaine cases were brought against high level traffickers, but 70% were brought against low level offenders. Over 80% of the crack cocaine cases were brought against African Americans.

Currently crack use is predominantly a white phenomenon. The federal data for 2004 report there were 278,000 white crack users (current users) and only 141,000 black crack users (current users).

The panel presentation was covered in the Washington Afro American. The Justice Roundtable also released a letter that was submitted to all members of Congress, asking them to equalize penalties for crack and powder cocaine.

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The February 12, 2006, edition of the Phoenix East Valley Tribune featured the story, "Drugstore logs to go unchecked". The article discussed the latest tactic to attempt to curb methamphetamine production in Arizona: pharmacy logs of anyone who buys an over-the-counter medication containing pseudoephedrine. In a discussion of the "unintended consequences" of such a law, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling was quoted that, "It's very easy to pass a law. It's very hard to solve a complex problem."

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On January 27, 2006, CJPF President Eric E. Sterling was interviewed on the Drug Truth Network. Sterling spoke on the comparisons between the "War on Drugs" and the "War on Terror", domestic surveillance, and the recent allegations of corruption in our political system. Listen to Sterling's interview here.

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CJPF President Eric E. Sterling was quoted in Kelly Hearn's AlterNet article, "Changing the Drug War Debate" on January 26, 2006. Hearn's article discussed newly elected Bolivian President Evo Morales' efforts to protect traditional cultivation and use of the coca plant. Sterling suggests that with America's "faltering image abroad" and European sympathies to harm reduction programs, Morales may be able to lead a force to amend the 1961 international treaty that prohibits coca cultivation.

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On Sunday, January 15, 2006, The Washington Post Outlook section published commentary by Eric E. Sterling on "Our Dead-End Approach to Homicide". Sterling explores the factors that have led to a growing murder rate in the DC region, such as untreated mental illness, the breakdown of the family, and an inadequate juvenile justice system. Sterling suggests that more effective policing and police management could help to lower the murder rate and increase the number of solved homicide cases.

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