Opinion ID: 531018
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The development of the penalty provisions of section 841(b)

Text: 45 Section 841(b), both before and after the 1986 amendments, has prescribed penalties for violations of section 841(a). Prior to 1984, section 841(b)(1)(A) prescribed the penalty applicable to diverse offenses involving cocaine, authorized prison sentences of up to fifteen years, and required trial courts to impose a special parole term of not less than three years for any violation. Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Pub.L. 91-513, Sec. 401, 84 Stat. 1236, 1260. In 1984, Congress amended section 841(b) to increase the maximum prison term for section 841(a) violations involving, inter alia, a kilogram or more of cocaine, from fifteen to twenty years. Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, Pub.L. No. 98-473, Sec. 502, 98 Stat. 1837, 2068. This new penalty was established in a new section 841(b)(1)(A), and the prior penalty statute, which continued in effect for violations involving, inter alia, less than a kilogram of cocaine, was redesignated section 841(b)(1)(B). Id. Whether intentionally or inadvertently, Congress omitted the mandatory special parole term in the new section 841(b)(1)(A) created by the 1984 amendments. Id. Redesignated section 841(b)(1)(B), on the other hand, still included the old special parole requirement. Thus, the 1984 amendment created the anomaly that between 1984 and 1986 the penalty provision applicable to section 841(a) offenses involving less than a kilogram of cocaine included a mandatory special parole term requirement, while offenses involving a kilogram or more of cocaine apparently did not. See United States v. De Los Reyes, 842 F.2d 755, 758 n. 2 (5th Cir.1988); United States v. Phungphiphadhana, 640 F.Supp. 88, 89 (D.Nev.1986). 46 In the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, Congress again amended section 841(b), this time by completely striking both section 841(b)(1)(A) and section 841(b)(1)(B), and inserting new, entirely rewritten, sections 841(b)(1)(A) and 841(b)(1)(B) providing for even stricter penalties. The new section 841(b)(1)(A) authorized a penalty of up to life imprisonment for offenses involving, inter alia, five kilograms or more of cocaine, and new section 841(b)(1)(B) authorized imprisonment for up to forty years for offenses involving, inter alia, five hundred grams or more of cocaine. Both new sections also included mandatory terms of supervised release of not less than four years. Neither new section mentions special parole. See Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, Pub.L. No. 99-570, Sec. 1002(2), 100 Stat. 3207, 3207-2 to -4. 7 47 As discussed above, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 also enacted a substitution of supervised release for special parole terms throughout the federal narcotics laws, effective November 1, 1987. As we have also noted, this Court held in United States v. Byrd, supra, that the provisions requiring terms of supervised release in the new section 841(b) did not become effective until November 1, 1987, when the general changeover from special parole to supervised release became effective. But again, as discussed above, the rest of the changes to section 841(b) became effective immediately on October 17, 1986, when the Anti-Drug Abuse Act was signed by President Reagan. Robles' offense was committed in February 1987.