Congress Passes Historic Legislation to Reduce Crack/Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity

[laughingliberal]

Today, the House passed legislation reducing the two-decades-old sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The Senate passed an identical bill in March and the legislation is now heading to President Obama, who supports the reform effort.

This is a historic day, with House Republicans and Democrats in agreement that U.S. drug laws are too harsh and must be reformed. The tide is clearly turning against the failed war on drugs.

Before the changes, a person with just five grams of crack received a mandatory sentence of five years in prison. That same person would have to possess 500 grams of powder cocaine to earn the same punishment. This discrepancy, known as the 100-to-1 ratio, was enacted in the late 1980s and was based on myths about crack cocaine being more dangerous than powder. Scientific evidence, including a major study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has proven that crack and powder cocaine have identical physiological and psychoactive effects on the human body.

The 100-1 ratio has caused myriad problems, including perpetuating racial disparities, wasting taxpayer money, and targeting low-level offenders instead of dangerous criminals. African Americans comprise 82 percent of those convicted for federal crack cocaine offenses but only 30 percent of crack users, and 62 percent of people convicted for crack offenses were low-level sellers or lookouts.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jasmine-tyler/congress-passes-historic_b_662625.html

This is excellent news!

[babylonsister]

1. This has been a long struggle; glad to see this! Rec'd! nt

[pitohui]

2. crackhead? a low level offender?

i'm not saying put them in jail but if you could see what crack addicts have done to new orleans, you would not be talking about crack users as "low level offenders"

crack is extremely destructive and the fact that it doesn't kill but instead just makes the person impossible to deal with, because of their nasty temper and their focus only on getting crack, and the brain damage that sometimes results...using crack is not a "low level" problem, it's a serious one, crackheads are violent, they can't control themselves, this drug eats yr brain

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. I'd say the powdered cocaine users have done far much damage to the country

Case in point......

[laughingliberal]

5. Excellent illustration! nt

[laughingliberal]

4. Why should it carry a harsher penalty than powder cocaine?

That is the point of this. Why do crack users face a 100 X greater penalty than cocaine users?

[MadMaddie]

6. Excellent news but the bill still has to pass the Senate!

There are 300 bills sitting there waiting....if the bill does make it the Repugs will say "No"!!

[laughingliberal]

7. Au contraire. From the first paragraph in the story:

The Senate passed an identical bill in March and the legislation is now heading to President Obama, who supports the reform effort. :)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jasmine-tyler/congress-passes-historic_b_662625.html

[EFerrari]

8. Finally! Good news.

[cordelia]

9. Good! K&R

[Bryn]

10. That's something!

K&R

[laughingliberal]

11. It is something. And I did not even realize they were working on it. A win for the small people. nt

[Spheric]

12. K&R for something that more closely approximates justice. /nt

[Brewman_Jax]

13. Finally

this is way overdue. The sentencing disparity was far too big to ignore for long.

[Greyhound]

14. Excellent, indeed.

Sorry for those that have been in the system for 18 years, but this is better than nothing.
:kick: & R