John Horner, a 46-year-old fast-food restaurant worker, lost his eye in a 2000 accident and was prescribed painkillers.
Years later, he met and befriended a guy who seemed to be in pain himself.
His new friend asked if he could buy some of Horner's pain pills. Naturally, the friend was a police informant.
Prosecutors in Central Florida say Horner was ultimately paid $1,800 for pills. "My public defender told me, 'They got you dead to rights,'" he said. "So I thought, 'OK, I guess there's no need taking this to trial.'"
His story is recounted in a BBC News Service story about the problematic use of informants by U.S. law-enforcement agencies.
It's an important subject and the article tackles it well.
But let's focus here on the anecdote about Horner, because it gets at the utter madness of the War on Drugs.
For the sake of argument, let's presume he's guilty of selling $1,800 of pain pills prescribed to him for an injury. Forget that he was arguably entrapped. Just look at the crime in isolation.
What sort of punishment should it carry?
You've got a 46-year-old employed father, with no criminal record, caught selling four bottles of prescription pain pills. "Under Florida law Horner now faced a minimum sentence of 25 years, if found guilty," the BBC reports.
Twenty-five years minimum!
It costs Florida roughly $19,000 to incarcerate an inmate for a year. So I ask you, dear reader, is keeping non-violent first-time drug offender John Horner locked behind bars in a jumpsuit really the best use of $475,000?
For the same price, you could pay a year's tuition for 75 students at Florida State University. You could pay the salaries of seven West Palm Beach police officers for a year. Is it accurate to call a system that demands the 25-year prison term "mad"?
Well. Prosecutors offered to shave years off his sentence if he became an informant himself and successfully helped send five others to prison on 25 year terms. He tried. But "Horner failed to make cases against drug traffickers," says the BBC. "As a result, he was sentenced to the full 25 years in October last year and is now serving his sentence in Liberty Correctional Institution."
Naturally.
"He will be 72 by the time he is released."
Meet his kids:
SEE ALSO: Harvard Professor Details His Radical Vision Of Legalizing All Drugs
Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
