Congress addressed a historic wrong on Wednesday afternoon, replacing it instead with a slightly lesser wrong, when the House voted to reduce the disparity in the sentencing of people caught with crack cocaine versus powder cocaine.
To be charged with a felony, crack users needed to possess only 5 grams of the drug. To be hit with the same charge, powder cocaine users needed to be caught with 500 grams. That 100-to-1 disparity has frequently been cited by drug war opponents as exhibit A to buttress their claim that drug laws are racist.
The moment on the House floor came and went fairly quickly, but the ease with which the bill passed belied a lot of behind-the-scenes activity.
In March, the Senate approved the legislation to reduce the disparity to 18 to one, also on a voice vote. The threshold for crack cocaine in the new law will be 28 grams; the powder level remains the same.
President Obama is expected to sign the legislation, having expressed opposition to disparity in the past.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/28/c...
Posted By: Jen Fad
Wednesday, July 28th 2010 at 10:41PM
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