Crack Down On Cocaine
Cocaine Sentencing Disparity
Analysis
In 1986, Congress passed the “Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986.” This act created mandatory minimum sentences for possession of different classes of drugs. As it pertained to Cocaine, if a person was found guilty of possession of 500g of Cocaine, they would receive a 5-year minimum prison sentence. However, if a person was found guilty of possession of 5g of Crack Cocaine, that person would also receive a 5-year minimum sentence. That is a 100-to-1 ratio. There is no chemical difference between crack cocaine and cocaine extracted from the coca leaf, yet the drastic sentencing ratio was still passed into law. To that point, Representative Dan Lungren (a congressman who helped draft the Anti-Drug Abuse Act) stated the following with regard to the 100-to-1 sentencing ratio: “We didn’t really have an evidentiary basis for it.” (156 Cong. Rec. H6202 July 28, 2010).
The minimum sentence attached to 5 grams of crack was directly attributable to the ensuing mass incarceration of black people. Crack is much cheaper than cocaine, so it is much more likely to be found and used in lower-income neighborhoods. As such, black drug users, the majority of whom lived in lower-income neighborhoods, were often targeted by law enforcement. Even with the egregious economic discrimination in sentencing, the affront to the black community was exacerbated by discrimination from law enforcement and prosecutors. The National Institute on Drug Abuse found that, in 1991, Caucasians were the majority of crack users. However, in 2002, black people represented over 80 percent of those charged with crack offenses. So not only were black people unfairly penalized due to the pernicious mandatory sentencing of 5 grams of crack (a VERSION of cocaine which is more likely to be found in the black community), but black people were also sentenced more than Caucasian users for possession of the same version of cocaine. This unfair treatment was not addressed until 2010.
In 2010, President Obama signed into law the “Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.” The 5 grams of crack required to trigger a 5-year minimum prison sentence was increased to 28 grams of crack, while the 500g of Cocaine to trigger the same minimum sentence remained the same. The act should have been called the “Fairer Sentencing Act of 2010,” simply because the 18-1 ratio is still overwhelmingly unfair. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would likely corroborate with this name. After the enactment of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, the ACLU published the folloing commentary on the legislation: “Because crack and powder cocaine are two forms of the same drug, there should not be any disparity in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine offenses – the only truly fair ratio is 1:1.”
In 2018, Congress passed the “First Step Act of 2018.” This act allows offenses covered by the “Fair Sentencing Act of 2010,” that took place and were sentenced BEFORE 2010, to be brought back to court and tried as if the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 were in effect at the time the covered offense was committed. Basically, folks already incarcerated can potentially have their sentences reduced with the combined enactment of the “Fair Sentencing Act of 2010” and the “First Step Act of 2018.” This, of course, still does not address the issue of inequality in drug sentencing. This inequality must be obliterated altogether. The United States Sentencing Commission has also stated that powder cocaine and crack cocaine are not distinctly different, and their observable differences do not justify the current 18-to-1 sentencing ratio.
In 2015, the White House published the “National Drug Control Strategy Data Supplement, 2015.” On page 88, in Table 74, the publication shows the cost of 1 pure gram of cocaine to be $185 per gram in BY12 dollars. This means, someone walking around with 499g of Cocaine is walking around with $92,315 of drugs. To the normal person, any individual having $92,000 of drugs in their possession would signify them as a drug dealer. Legislation must be passed that directly attacks drug dealers, but not drug users. Drug users need help, whereas drug dealers need prison.
On December 12, 2018, the CDC (Center of Disease Control and Prevention) published the “National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 67, Number 9.” In that report, the amount of Cocaine overdoses has increased 123% between 2011 and 2016. he National Study on Drug Use and Health made a declaration in 2009 that there were 1.9 million cocaine users in America, and only about 360,000 of them were using crack. Legislation must be passed that addresses this burgeoning annual death toll from Cocaine.
Here is my proposed Legislation:
Timeline
In 1970, Congress passed the “Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970”
Public Law 91-513 (21 U.S.C. Chapter 13)
Cocaine is defined as a schedule 2 drug
The schedule 2 drug section mentions cocaine in the following: “Coca leaves and any salt, compound, derivative, or preparation of coca leaves, and any salt, compound, derivative, or preparation thereof which is chemically equivalent or identical with any of these substances, except that the substances shall not include decocainized coca leaves or extraction of coca leaves, which extractions do not contain cocaine or ecgonine.”
Penalties for possession do not include mandatory minimum sentences (has maximum sentences), and are found in section 401(b) of Public Law 91-513 (21 U.S.C. 841(b))
In 1986, Congress passed the “Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986”
Public Law 99-570
Title I of Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 is called “Anti-Drug Enforcement,” and has a subtitle known and cited as “Narcotics Penalties and Enforcement Act of 1986.”
This act amended Section 401(b)(1) of the Public Law 91-513 (21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1)).
The amendments instituted by this act include penalties for possession of different drugs
The penalty for having 5 grams of crack (defined as “a mixture or substance described in clause (ii) which contains cocaine base”) is a MINIMUM of 5 years in prison.
The penalty for having 500 grams of pure cocaine is the lowest amount of cocaine a person is required to have in order to get a federal minimum sentence of 5 years.
In 2010, Congress passed the “Fair Sentencing Act of 2010”
Public Law 111-220
This act further amended Section 401(b)(1) of the Public Law 91-513 (21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1)).
The amendments instituted by this act include penalties for possession of different drugs
The 5 grams of crack required to trigger a 5-year minimum prison sentence was increased to 28 grams of crack.
The 50 grams of crack required to trigger a 10-year minimum prison sentence was increased to 280 grams of crack.
The penalty for having 500 grams of pure cocaine remained the lowest amount of cocaine a person is required to have in order to get a federal minimum sentence of 5 years.
In 2018, Congress passed the “First Step Act of 2018”
Public Law TBD (NARA –National Archives and Records Administration- is shutdown as of January 4, so no Public Law made from bill passage).
Sec. 404 “Application of Fair Sentencing Act”
This act allows offenses covered by the “Fair Sentencing Act of 2010” that took place and were sentenced BEFORE 2010 to be brought back to court, and tried as if the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 were in effect at the time the covered offense was committed.
