DA just wants to be fair

This story on a local bust in the Berkshires wouldn't be worth remarking about except that it serves as an illustration of just how out of control this war on some drugs has become. What we have here is 18 young people, mostly under the age of 25 who got caught up in a drug task force sting.

To put it into context, the court is in Pittsfield, an aging and ailing mill town comprised of mostly blue collar residents. The bust occurred in Great Barrington, a fancy "South County" community of white collar execs that also houses a very expensive prep school.

We're talking about young adults selling drugs to each other here. This is no major cartel and outside of about four defendants the amounts were laughably tiny in light of the ensuing indictments. The DA has charged every single one of them in Superior court under school zone violations, where conviction carries penalties of at least two years in state prison. Let's look at this alleged 'major haul' the DA cites.

Police have said that there was no organized conspiracy behind the drug sales, which generally involved $20, $40 or $50 in a number of street sales. [Translation for non-consumers: this is cost for a few grams of pot at most or enough of the other drugs for one or two doses].

Nine defendants face marijuana charges only, and about a half-dozen have no prior records.

...an 18-year-old is charged with marijuana distribution, conspiracy and a school-zone violation because he allegedly put an undercover police officer in touch with a seller. The "middleman" never handled the drugs, his lawyer said. (He is now facing a minimum two years in jail.)

..."In a number of cases, these are first-time offenders, it's their first time in the system.

DA David F. Capeless says he is not about to drop any cases. Here's where the culture war aspect comes in. Capeless goes on to say,

"I'm curious as to why it is that a bunch of young adults from Great Barrington should not have school-zone charges brought against them, and no one says the same thing about young adults in Pittsfield. Why do they not complain about that?

"What we're doing is trying to be fair by treating people the same."

In other words, he wants to be fair by treating the rich kids just as unfairly as the poor ones. [insert heavy sarcasm]What a guy.