The Most Fascinating Events, News, and Occurences of 2010

Crack Becomes A Little Less Wack, Legally

In July 2010, a historic piece of legislation was passed; historic, that is, for African-Americans and those unfairly targeted by the criminal justice system. The Fair Sentencing Act reduces the discrepancy between the penalizations of those caught with cocaine v. those caught with crack. For the past 30 years, those who were arrested with crack possession (mostly Black men) were sentenced more harshly than those who were caught with cocaine (mostly Whites and Latinos).

A person found holding 500 grams of powder cocaine would face a five-year mandatory minimum sentence although crack offenders would only need to be in possession of 5 grams to face the same obligatory sentence. Although the Fair Sentencing Act doesn’t make it a 1:1 case, it reduces the disparity to 18 to 1.

According to the Washington Post: “Some critics of the crack sentences have pushed for complete elimination of the disparities. But this ignores some data that crack has a slightly more powerful and immediate addictive effect and more quickly devastates the user physically than does powder cocaine. It also fails to acknowledge the higher levels of violent crime associated with crack. The 18:1 compromise fairly reflects this reality.”