Court Opinion

ID: 9488761
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:55:15.815206+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:05.711345
License: Public Domain

MANION, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I accept the court’s decision to remand for resentencing so that the district court can clarify how Anderson’s drug conviction is similar to his prior crimes, or perhaps why his prior crimes are dissimilar yet reflective of a more serious criminal history that may deserve a higher sentence.
I write separately to emphasize that “simple” drug dealing in transactions that have no outward sign of violence is not just a “business activity that happens to be illegal” (ante at 3). Illegal drugs such as cocaine, the product Anderson chose to sell,.are dangerous, addictive, and destructive to the user. Sellers viciously fight over customers and selling territory. We have consistently held that guns are typical tools of this dangerous trade. In short, while “not all drug offenses are violent,” the drug trade and culture are inherently violent. Users will rob and maim to obtain money for their next purchase. Street sellers and large quantity distributors alike inflict wanton violence upon competitors and traitors. See United States v. Boyd, 55 F.3d 239, 241 (7th Cir.1995); United States v. Bates, 843 F.Supp. 437, 440 (N.D.Ill.1994). That is why Congress has insisted upon substantial sentences even for illegal drug transactions that have “no hint of violence.”
As with this case, courts must take care to sentence in accordance with the directives of the Guidelines. But courts also cannot diminish the serious damage the drug trade continues to inflict on our society.