No more needless tragedies -- tell Florida Gov. Crist and state legislators to stop mindless escalation of drug penalties that put young people at risk

Rachel Hoffman, a recent graduate of Florida State University who once dreamed of attending culinary school and opening her own restaurant, had her entire life ahead of her until she was pressured by police officers into acting as a confidential informant. Shortly after being instructed by the police to buy extremely large quantities of narcotics and a handgun from two hardened drug dealers, she was found dead.

In a day and age where Florida police are willing to use vulnerable small-time drug offenders to catch the same dangerous criminals that they must use SWAT teams to approach, enacting ill-advised trafficking laws like the one Gov. Crist recently allowed to become law — HB 173/SB 390 — will undoubtedly result in more of Florida's citizens being put in harm's way.

The new law lowers the trafficking standard to 25 plants, makes no meaningful distinction between ordinary users and true drug dealers, and will undoubtedly send many small-time offenders, like Rachel, to jail for up to 5 years.

So, how did Rachel find herself in a situation that lead to her death? The answer: 25 grams of marijuana — less than an ounce.

That's right: 25 paltry grams of marijuana found in Rachel's car in 2007 eventually led to a situation that allowed police officers to risk her life in order to catch "bigger fish." And it was Rachel, not the police officers, who paid the ultimate price for this gross error in judgment.

Being a confidential informant is risky business, and people like Rachel Hoffman should not be used as pawns in this dangerous game of cat and mouse being played by police and drug dealers — they are simply out of their element.

Please send an e-mail to Gov. Crist today letting him know that the new trafficking law will only put more nonviolent drug offenders in harm's way and will likely lead to more needless deaths.

After you have e-mailed Gov. Crist, please send an e-mail to your legislators as well. Let them know that they are responsible for a new law that carelessly lumps real drug dealers and small time offenders into the same category by creating the ridiculous judicial presumption that as few as 25 marijuana plants — one-fourth the amount the federal government considers a trafficking threshold — makes one a "drug trafficker."

Because this sloppy legislation makes no distinctions regarding plant size, maturity, or gender (male plants are essentially useless for purposes of producing usable marijuana), it is far more likely to ensnare unwary young people experimenting with growing marijuana for their own personal use than it is any real drug dealers.

Allowing law enforcement to force even more nonviolent offenders into violent situations is a bad idea, and when young people are threatened with prison terms normally reserved for experienced drug dealers, many of them will agree to engage in the same hazardous undercover work that police officers must go through years of training before doing themselves.

Rachel's death is indeed one of the most tragic casualties of this country's failed war on drugs, and it all started with a failure to recognize the distinction between true dealers and ordinary users. Throwing more young, inexperienced individuals into the same class as true drug dealers will only make matters worse in Florida.

What went wrong in the handling of Rachel Hoffman as a confidential informant may never be known, but one thing is certain: Whatever illegal activity Rachel engaged in didn't warrant her paying for it with her life, and our hearts go out to her family and friends.

Ordinary users should not be placed in the most dangerous situations in the drug war. Trafficking laws should only apply to true traffickers, instead of filling Florida's already crowded jails with frightened young people who are not really drug dealers at all. Sadly, this new law is sure to cast more young people like Rachel into a world that they know little about and cannot survive in.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project. Please pass this alert on to friends and family who want to see Florida protect its citizens, not use them as cannon fodder in a failing and futile war.