June 25, 2006 11:07AM 

# A Legacy of Bias 

By [Radley Balko](https://www.cato.org/people/radley-balko) 

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[Last week on my personal weblog](http://www.theagitator.com/archives/026710.php#026710), I ran an excerpt from Dan Baum’s essential book *[Smoke and Mirrors](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316084468/qid=1151244828/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-0489127-2785447?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)* about how the [1986 overdose death](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/memories/bias/launch/bias1.htm) of Maryland University basketball star [Len Bias](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Bias) led to the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act. The act is arguably the most militant, draconian crime-fighting bill ever passed by Congress.

Much of Baum’s book is told from the point of view of Eric Sterling, a congressional staffer who helped write most of the 1980s drug laws, but who has since become a vocal opponent of those laws, and of the drug war in general.

Yesterday, Sterling and Julie Stewart of Families Against Mandatory Minimums [had an op-ed in the *Washington Post*](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062301261.html) arguing that, sadly, the legacy of Bias’s death isn’t an end to the use of illicit drugs, but an exploding prison population, violence, and *increased* drug use — all caused not by Bias’s death, but by Congress’s overreation to it.

*Chicago Tribune* columnist Clarence Page [covered similar ground](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0606210195jun21,1,5040461.column?coll=chi-news-col) this week.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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