Current Georgia law provides extremely severe sanctions for the manufacture, delivery, distribution, dispensing, administration, selling, or possessing with intent to distribute controlled substances. This offense is punishable by the following:
- For drugs that are schedule I or II, a total sentence between five and 30 years for a first offense;
- For drugs that are schedule I or II, a life sentence or a total sentence between 10 and 40 years for a second or subsequent offense;
- For counterfeit substances, a total sentence between one and 10 years; and
- For marijuana, a total sentence of between one and 10 years.
This bill provides a new mandatory minimum sentence for the above offenses when a person is 21 years of age or older and manufactures, delivers, distributes, dispenses, administers, sells or possesses with the intent to distribute such controlled substances to a person 14 years of age or under. Instead of the sentencing scheme above, such persons, irrespective of which of the three substances listed above, must be punished by a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years, and a total sentence of up to 30 years. This sentence must run consecutive to any other sentence. The mandatory minimum sentence can be deviated from in the court’s discretion if and only if the prosecutor and defense have agreed to a sentence below the mandatory minimum. There is no other judicial means of deviating from the sentence, as provided in other parts of the Code.
It is important to note that there is an existing enhanced sentencing statute for drug distribution or sales in drug-free zones that was adopted in 2015, and this bill could simply adopt that sentencing structure without having to impose a new mandatory minimum.
The ACLU opposes this bill. This bill creates new mandatory minimums in a time when Georgia has a human crisis regarding jail and prison population and unconstitutionally unsafe conditions in its facilities. Mandatory minimums have always been a failed policy and the human cost is simply to high for any justification for their continued use.