294
Opinion of the Court
number of doses of PCP," "harmonize offense levels for LSD offenses with those for other controlled substances," and "avoid an undue influence of varied carrier weight on the applicable offense level." Ibid. This would be obscure language to choose if the Commission were attempting an interpretation of the statute as well as a revision of the Guidelines, for offense levels are not relevant to the mandatory-minimum calculation.
Furthermore, after a catalog of reasons for adopting the dose-based method, the Commission ends with the observation that "[n]onetheless, this approach does not override the applicability of 'mixture or substance' for the purpose of applying any mandatory minimum sentence (see Chapman; § 5G1.1(b))." Ibid. The citation of Chapman in tandem with § 5G1.1(b), which advises that "[w]here a statutorily required minimum sentence is greater than the maximum of the applicable guideline range, the statutorily required minimum sentence shall be the guideline sentence," suggests that the Guidelines calculation is independent of the statutory calculation, and that the statute controls if they conflict. The Commission seems to do no more than acknowledge that, whether or not its method would be preferable for the statute and Guideline alike, it has no authority to override the statute as we have construed it.
Were we, for argument's sake, to adopt petitioner's view that the Commission intended the commentary as an interpretation of § 841(b)(1), and that the last sentence of the commentary states the Commission's view that the dose-based method is consistent with the term "mixture or substance" in the statute, he still would not prevail. The Commission's dose-based method cannot be squared with Chapman. The Guideline does take into account some of the weight of the carrier medium (because the average weight of an LSD dose is 0.05 milligrams, 0.35 of the Commission's constructive weight per dose of 0.4 milligrams is attributable to the medium, see 1995 USSG § 2D1.1, comment., backg'd), but we
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