Reading & 'riting & 'rithmetic

Federal practitioners need no longer be befuddled by the Commission’s persistent misspelling of marijuana. The Commission amended USSG § 2D1.1 and the relevant commentary, and replaced the term “marihuana equivalent” with “converted drug weight.”

We updated and renamed our spreadsheet as the Converted Drug Weight Calculator to conform to amendments to the United States Sentencing Guidelines effective November 1, 2018.

When a drug case involves multiple controlled substances, the base offense level is calculated using U.S.S.G. 2D1.1, Application Note 8(B). This guideline sets a converted drug weight for each gram of the commonly encountered controlled substances. The sum of the converted drug weight is then used to determine the base offense level under the drug quantity table found at 2D1.1(c).

The Converted Drug Weight Calculator does not account for the reduction in offense level when the accused receives a mitigating role as provided in U.S.S.G. 2D1.1(a)(5), or any applicable reduction for acceptance of responsibility under U.S.S.G. 3E1.1. The spreadsheets also do not factor enhancements for specific offense characteristics found at 2D1.1(b), or enhancements from Chapter 3 or Chapter 4, Part B of the Guidelines. Finally, our spreadsheets do not apply to offenses covered by U.S.S.G. 2D1.11, Unlawfully Distributing, Importing, Exporting or Possessing a Listed Chemical; Attempt or Conspiracy.

A summary of other revisions to USSG § 2D.1.1 effective November 1, 2018, can be found here.

Thank you, David Freund, for both the spreadsheet and this post.