Crack Cocaine Vs. Powder Cocaine Essay

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Henderson notes that "minimal violence is involved with crack cocaine cases -- far less than half of the crack cocaine cases involved a weapon, while most actual violence is associated with the drug trade and not the drug itself." With this knowledge that there is no scientific difference in the dangerousness of the two drugs and that violence is not necessarily associated more with crack cocaine, it becomes clear that the sentencing disparities are unfounded, at best, racially motivated, at worst.

Current drug laws punish small-time users and dealers the same as or more harshly than drug kingpins. This legislation unfairly targets minorities, like African-American males, and is compounded by federal law enforcement tactics which focus on inner city communities that are demographically rich with African-Americans, as opposed to suburban or rural areas. Boders et. al (2008) found that when "compared to Whites, African-Americans were much more likely to use crack cocaine, (and) equally likely to use powder cocaine." Therefore the focus on crack cocaine vs. powder cocaine exacerbates the effects for African-Americans. Henderson (2009) gives some disturbing statistics to illustrate the effects of these disparities on sentencing, for African-Americans:

Although African-Americans comprise only 13% of the United State's population, they represent 37% of those arrested for drug offenses.

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African-American drug defendants are 20% more likely to do prison time than White drug defendants.

African-Americans account for nearly 80% of crack cocaine-related convictions.

Efforts Being Made to Reform these Policies:

Today there is a bipartisan effort being made to change the discrepancies currently found in the crack cocaine vs. powder cocaine policies. The Congress created United States Sentencing Commission has recommended four separate times that the drug statutes and sentencing guidelines that are the source of the discrepancies between crack and powder cocaine thresholds for mandatory sentencing be eliminated. In an effort to correct some of this disparity, notes that the Commission lowered the offense level of crack cocaine offenses and it was applied retroactively, allowing 20,000 prisoners to apply for reduced sentences (Henderson, 2009; Papa, 2007). In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kimborough v. United States recognized the racial disparities in current mandatory minimums, giving federal judges some discretion when sentencing outside the federal sentencing guidelines. However, it will take an act of Congress to truly fix the policy disparities that still currently exist......

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