BRIEF: Disparity in United States Sentencing Laws for Crack and Powder Cocaine Beginning to Change

Recently, criminologists, doctors and other experts have criticized the disparity between crack-cocaine and powder cocaine in United States law.  These experts say that the difference between the two forms of cocaine has been exaggerated.  Furthermore, the experts feel that laws punishing crack offenses one hundred times harder than powder cocaine offenses are completely unjustified. 

To address this disparity in the law, the United States Sentencing Commission enacted reduced federal sentencing guidelines for crack offenses.  Early in December 2007, the Commission voted to make the reductions retroactive.  This vote will allow more than 19,000 inmates to pursue sentence reductions on crack offenses.  A majority of these 19,000 are African-American. 

Crack is smoked as opposed to powder cocaine that is snorted.  Crack enters the bloodstream faster than powder cocaine and produces an intense, extremely addictive high.  Many defense lawyers and civil rights leaders feel that the disparity in United States sentencing laws is based in racism; four out of five crack defendants are black, while a majority of powder-cocaine defendants are white. 

For more information, please see:

Yahoo! News – Crack-vs.-powder disparity is questioned – 24 December 2007