Illinois Laws and Programs

Increases in the severity of Illinois drug laws and the enforcement of those laws have been the driving forces behind the explosive growth of the state's criminal justice system over the past four decades. Changes in the state's drug laws first occurred in the 1970s and early 1980s. These laws are specified in the Illinois Controlled Substances Act, the Cannabis Control Act, the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act, and the Drug Paraphernalia Control Act. Drug violations are generally classified into possession offenses or manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver offenses. Punishments are determined by the weight of the drugs when seized, measured in grams. In the late 1980s the threshold weight for Class 1 felony possession for cocaine and heroin was reduced from 30 to 15 grams. In 2000 methamphetamine was differentiated from other amphetamines and the schedule of weights was adjusted for methamphetamine alone. The Illinois statute contains various “special circumstances” provisions that increase the penalties for drug-law violations, for example, selling drugs to youth or near schools or churches. Illinois institutionalized a systemic approach for dealing with drug-involved offenders in 1987 with the passage of the Alcoholism and Other Drug Abuse Dependency Act, which mandates for drug-involved offenders the availability of treatment alternatives under the supervision of a “designated program.”

As in many states, the framework for drug laws in Illinois was erected in the early 1970s in response to the increases in drug use and drug-related crime that emerged during the Vietnam era. During the past 40 years, the structure of Illinois drug laws has remained essentially unchanged, and many laws still appear as they were originally written. The statute contains four major types of drug laws: Illinois Controlled Substance Act (720 ILCS 570), the Cannabis Control Act (720 ILCS 550), the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act (720 ILCS 646), and the Drug Paraphernalia Control Act (720 ILCS 600). The provisions of these laws, particularly as they relate to criminal violations, closely mirror one another in structure. However, the ILCS 570 is much broader in its scope than the others and includes laws related to all types of narcotics and medications, both legal and illegal.

The bulk of Illinois Controlled Substance Act (ICSA) violations fall into two categories: possession offenses, more commonly known as “simple possession”; and the manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver offenses (MDPI). MDPI offenses are those commonly referred to as “drug manufacture” or “drug selling” offenses. All three classifications—manufacture, delivery, and possession with intent to deliver—are treated identically for sentencing purposes. Other types of drug offenses do not specifically fit into these two categories or represent enhancements to the severity of these categories.

For possession offenses, the felony classification of the crime and the resulting options for punishment are determined by the weight of the drugs when seized, measured in grams. One gram of drugs such as heroin or cocaine is roughly equivalent to one packet of artificial sweetener. The purity of the drug has no bearing on the determination of its [Page 371]weight. For example, one gram of a substance that is 60 percent pure contains more of the actual narcotic than one gram of a substance that is 20 percent pure, but both are treated as one gram for the purposes of prosecution and sentencing. From the earliest days of the passage of Illinois' drug laws, possession offenses have fallen into one of two felony classes, distinguished by the statutorily defined weight of the drugs. At or above this threshold weight, the crime is categorized as a Class 1 felony. Any amount below the threshold weight results in a Class 4 felony; however, there are no Class 2, 3, or X felony possession offenses.

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