Obama Addresses Crack/Powder Penalty Controversy
On President Obama’s 100th day in office, his administration announced that congress should bring an end to the crack cocaine/powder cocaine jail sentencing disparity, calling attention to a longstanding controversial issue in drug penalty laws. Right now, a person in possession only needs five grams of crack cocaine to receive a five-year minimum sentence mandatory; it takes 500 grams of powder cocaine to receive the same sentence.
Obama is addressing the 1986 and 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Acts that created the distinction in sentencing between the two forms of cocaine. The issue has received hot debate because scientific evidence has proven that powder and crack cocaine have similar physiological and psychoactive effects on the human body.
The groups advocating the change in penalty, including victims of the federal discrepancy, demonstrated to congress the difference between the quantities of cocaine that receive the same penalty by presenting their weights in the form of chocolate bars – fifty grams verses 5000 grams – signaling the extreme disparity.
Because the current law is so harsh towards low-level drug offenses, many oppositionists feel that defendants are unfairly prosecuted and are offered no just consideration for their life circumstances, criminal history and role in the crime. Obama’s call to end the disparity is a step forward in restoring fairness in the legal system.
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