4B1.1 is the Career Offender provision of the Sentencing Guidelines (U.S.S.G.). The current section requires a large upward adjustment to a qualifying defendant's sentence if they have two prior convictions for controlled substances or violence or one of each.
Because of the increased sentences the section requires, legal experts have long advocated to lessen the section's draconian impact. The proposal would have changed the definition of a controlled substance offense which, in its present form, includes both state and federal convictions and limit the definition to two federal prior convictions only.
It is anticipated that this change will be brought up again next year and eventually be adopted and made retroactive. This would make the Guidelines much more fair and just for every defendant in a federal narcotics criminal case. Experienced federal criminal defense attorneys are closely monitoring this issue.
