Alabama's sentences for minor drug offenders are among the harshest in the nation, and some researchers say the stiff punishments create racial disparities among offenders and continue to fill state prisons beyond capacity. A study by the Equal Justice Initiative points out that more than half of prisoners locked up for first-degree marijuana possession are black men, while nearly three-fourths of felony DUI offenders are white men. But driving while drunk doesn't even become a felony until the driver has been convicted on DUI four times, and the average sentence is nearly half that for first-degree marijuana possession - creating a racial disparity, the study says. "Even though penalties for drunk driving have become more severe, they are still very modest compared to the punishments for drug offenses,'' said Mark Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based consulting firm for criminal justice research. "And you think about the people who are affected by this: Drunk drivers are predominantly white and the majority of drug offenders are African-American. There's two forms of substance abuse and two very different approaches, but both of them can be harmful in a different way.'' A first-degree marijuana possession can result if a person has a prior misdemeanor conviction or if it's a first offense with 2.2 pounds of marijuana or more. The average sentence for first-degree marijuana possession is 8.4 years, while the average felony DUI sentence is 4.8 years, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. [more]