Since the sass, many states enacted mandatory long-term sentences for drug offenses, these laws resulted in a 12-fold increase in prison population (Maze, 2004). In New York, a conviction for either selling or possessing four ounces of narcotic drugs nets the offender a 1 5-year mandatory sentence, the same as those convicted of murder. Both Senator Webb (2009) and Dry. Maze (2004) agree that neither are these laws effective in lowering the use and sale Of illegal drugs, nor have the laws ended the power Of the multi- lion dollar drug trade.